This season, Jari-Matti Latvala has been competing in the European Historic Rally Championship, and whenever his driving schedule has become too demanding, the rally legend from Laukaa, Juha Kankkunen, has stepped in for him at the WRC service park. This time, Latvala is competing in the Asturias Rally in northern Spain.
It is the penultimate round of the season. Latvala and his co-driver Janni Hussi suffered several consecutive retirements during the summer, so victories are now sorely needed. In the previous historic rally in Greece, Latvala took a dominant win, keeping his hopes of the European title alive.
“We were, so to speak, in a must-win situation. There are ten rounds in the series, and the six best results count. We’re currently third, but I think the championship leader already has points from seven rallies. There will also be extra points available from the final event of the season, the Fafe Rally in Portugal, so there are still chances,” Latvala told RallyJournal.com.
“But the truth is, if you want to be champion, you have to perform really well in both rallies. If we retire here, the chances become quite slim. However, everything has been done to ensure that the engine problems we faced during the summer are behind us. And I believe we’ve succeeded in that.”
Latvala and Hussi have brought a real boost to the European Historic Rally Championship. The pair have claimed wins in the Costa Brava Rally and the Vltava Rally in the Czech Republic, but after that, they suffered three retirements in a row. In each of those rallies, however, they had been leading comfortably before retiring.
The retirement in their home rally in Lahti in August was particularly bitter. A dominant lead was ruined by an engine failure. Latvala admits that he may have pushed his old warhorse, the Toyota Celica, a bit too hard.
“Maybe that’s what happened in Lahti — I got a bit too excited. I admit I started paying too much attention to the times compared to the Rally2 cars. My focus drifted in the wrong direction,” Latvala summarised.
“Now we’ve tried to keep in mind that these are historic cars, and you shouldn’t try to squeeze too much power out of them. On asphalt, though, the competition is tougher. Drivers like Bruno Thiry and Andrea ‘Zippo’ Zivian are taking part so the battle will certainly be fiercer than in Greece.”
The Asturias Rally is a new experience for Latvala, who has seen much of the world. The event consists of 11 special stages, covering just over 140 kilometres in total.
“I’ve never been there before, but compared to Rally Catalunya, the asphalt is a bit more slippery and not as coarse. The roads are also slightly narrower. That’s the impression I’ve got. The host city is Pravia, located right by the Atlantic coast,” Latvala described.
