Q: You were second last year, first this year. For any Finn to win and be on the podium at Rally Finland is just perfect isn’t it?
JK: Yeah for sure it’s like a dream come true, a childhood dream. It’s an amazing feeling because it was such a competitive field of cars in WRC3, and of course winning your home rally it’s so special. I cannot imagine it yet. It’s an amazing feeling.
Q: To win this year with over 20 Rally3 cars on the entry and so many in Junior WRC is important. You beat them all, so it’s a proper, proper win
JK: Yeah for sure that was also important for me to be the fastest Rally3 car. A lot of cars but being the fastest of them it’s even more special it’s even more special than the victory itself. So I’m really happy with that.
Q: It wasn’t an easy rally for anybody with the changeable weather, just how difficult was it?
JK: Yeah for sure, especially the Friday for me was really, really hard. I didn’t find a rhythm in the wet and also the stages were in a really rough condition so I struggled a lot on Friday, but yeah on the Saturday I managed to get the feeling back and the stages were more suiting me, the faster ones and also the conditions were better, not too much rain and not too much ruts. So we managed to get a good feeling for the Saturday, so I think that was the key to the success.
Q: One of Saturday’s stages was Ouninpohja, had you done it before?
JK: Yeah it was my first time doing the full Ouninpohja. Of course last year we did part of it but doing the whole Ouninpohja was also like a childhood dream for me, especially the first part, it’s so crazy with the jumps and the corners all the time go over the crest. You are flying like in almost all the corners, so I cannot explain the feeling how crazy it is to go flat out on that stage. When you get to the finish of Ouninpohja it’s a big, big release of the stress and everything because you are so committed, and it’s also a long stage. It’s like a big relief when you finish, and also with a good time it’s a crazy, crazy feeling.
Q: What is next for you? When might we see you again in WRC?
JK: We’ll see. Maybe not this year but I think we need to start working on next year, because I think we need to be in the WRC in some of the class to show our potential. I think this result is a really good start to work for next year, so it was really important to get this result to show the people we can be in the top.
(Photo: Petro Piilo)
