Nortti Ralli

During the first years of his career Ari had been mostly competing in events close to his home in eastern Finland. He was considered as a bit of a local specialist, but eventually the results overwhelmed any reservations. Ari picks up the story:

"One week before Nortti Rally I'd been competing in a Finnish Championship event: Kalakukkoralli. That was based in Kuopio and I'd been fastest on the first stage beating Hannu Mikkola and Timo Mäkinen, among others. They were huge heros to me. Then I crashed on the second!

It was a big one and I was left totally devastated. Somehow the car was straightened in the few days available, but there was no time to even paint the Ascona's fenders - you can see in the photos that they are matt black.

It was quite a job, too, to pick myself up mentally for another rally. Nortti Rally was based in Mikkeli, where I'd been studying for two years, so knew the roads quite well. It comprised eight stages on a dark autumn night. I had drafted a friend, Vesa, to co-drive - he was a newspaper reporter, who had helped me a lot.

Hannu Mikkola was the favourite, but according to our calculations we led him by seven seconds before the last stage. Lining up for a brief ferry crossing on the road section, Hannu's co-driver came over to us to compare the times. He suggested we were actually lying even at that point. Not true, he was playing mind-games!

The last stage passed in youthful exuberance. At that age it was often easy just to let things flow - the car was dancing between the verges, touching the undergrowth on either side. We did the same time as Hannu and so won by those seven seconds! What a week!

The importance of this result to my confidence cannot be overestimated. I had already surprised Hannu by leading him on my home event, Itäralli, earlier in the summer, but to clinch a victory was something else!

The following Monday morning I did not go to the college anymore thinking that various team managers would start calling me...