The challenge was issued by Nicky Grist, best known as Colin McRae’s co-driver.
Grist recently appeared as a guest on rally website Dirtfish’s podcast, where the subject of Latvala and Hussi’s partnership came up.
This season, Latvala and Hussi are competing in the European Historic Rally Championship, but they were also seen in action at the start of August in Rally Finland. The pair have already achieved good results together.
However, Grist admitted he would not dare to go up against them – unless one condition was met.
“I’ll tell you what would be fair. Taking up a fight with Jari-Matti if he let his co-driver drive and he navigates and read the notes,” Grist laughed on the podcast.
“Then I might have chance. But going head-to-head with against someone like Jari-Matti would be really tough for me,” Grist continued.
“Come on Jari-Matti, get in passenger seat and let Janni drive,” Grist encouraged.
Latvala has contested a record 212 starts in the World Rally Championship – a benchmark that still stands.
Hussi’s career as a co-driver, meanwhile, began as a joke on the radio. She wondered aloud how difficult the job could really be, and Sami Pajari decided to invite her to give it a try.
Since then, Hussi has improved enormously. In addition to co-driving for Pajari, she has also read pace notes for, among others, Heikki Kovalainen and Lauri Joona, before starting her collaboration with Latvala this year.
Grist, 63, also had a long career in rallying. In addition to McRae, he co-drove in the WRC for the likes of Juha Kankkunen, Malcolm Wilson and Armin Schwarz. Over the course of his career, Grist celebrated 21 WRC rally victories.
