Finland aims to improve

Stung by the loss of his hard won European championship round, Finnish event organiser Pekka Mustakallio is determined that the 2012 ERC round at Kouvola will be of a standard that ensures the race remains in the championship.

Having resurrected the Finnish national championship, which he branded Super Rallicross, Mustakallio’s Aviator company was successful in returning the European championship round to Finland in 2010, the championship having been absent since 1999. The 2010 event at Kouvola, however, had some difficulties and when the 2011 calendar was published, Finland, along with Hungary and Germany, was dropped from the schedule.

“It was very disappointing to lose the race after 2010. In fact it was worse than that because the city of Kouvola is involved in the whole plan and we had expected to have the race for several years, so there was a lot of work to do explaining to the city authority what had happened,” said Mustakallio.

“I think that the race track itself is fine, certainly drivers liked it but now I understand that the paddock and areas around the track as well as some parts of the organisation were not good enough. We are working on those things now and we have to get it right because we want to keep the event. I ended my involvement with the Finnish championship so that I can focus on the European event, that’s the only thing I have now so all my effort is going into making the event successful,” he said.

When a Finnish event was a regular part of the ERC, the race was traditionally held early in the season, very often paired with Sweden in May. The 2010 reincarnation was also paired with Sweden, which brought a race date in July – and sweltering 35c temperatures in the summer holiday period. For 2012, Finland has been given a September date and the penultimate round of the championship, one week before the series finale in Germany.

“September is okay for us, ideally I would have liked to be one week earlier but I understand that was not practical. There were still leaves on the trees here at the end of September this year, obviously it won’t be hot like in 2010, but we should be okay with the weather. the most important thing is not the date, but having the event,” said Mustakallio.

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