Eerik Pietarinen will fight for the WRC2 glory in Secto Rally Finland, starting on Thursday.
Pietarinen and co-driver Antti Linnaketo will participate in their fourth outing of the season. Season so far has not been a success the 28 year old Finn hoped for but on the home soil he wishes things will go more his way. Previously they competed in Rally Sardegna in June.
On the weekend before the rally Pietarinen drove a good preparation test, focusing on the details he felt he needed to improve. Volkswagen Polo R5 will be run by Printsport Racing as before.
After the test session Pietarinen felt relieved and confident.
“I am feeling great. We tried every detail we wanted to and what we had planned before the test. Feeling is the priority as it enables us to drive fast with the notes also”.
Every stage of the rally route, consisting of 22 stages will be driven twice. That makes it sometimes hard for the late runners as the small road sections will deteriorate rapidly. That is also the case with Pietarinen (#28).
However, it is a double-headed sword as the rally will be won on smaller roads.
“We need to have a good pace there too. In order to do that, we need to get the bad places written down in the notes to not break the car. On wider main roads it is significantly harder to make any differences”.
Result wise Pietarinen will remain silent. WRC2 is well-known for its unforgiving toughness. In the world´s fastest gravel rally the challenge is hard enough.
After variable issues in the events driven prior to Jyväskylä, Pietarinen scored twice a sixth place in the class.
“Good result comes when you loosen up a bit. If you start to feel that you have to deliver, it can end very badly. I have sometimes noticed it that it won´t get any better if you try too much”.
Photo: Hannu Rainamo
