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Thousand lakes and ŠKODA cars everywhere
ŠKODA not only featured in the starting line-up at the Secto Finland Rally but also supplied the official cars
n early August, driver Emil Lindholm dominated the gravel roads around the Finnish city of Jyväskylä, winning the WRC2 category of the World Championship series with his co-driver, Reeta Hämäläinen. They were in the FABIA Rally2 evo of the Toksport WRT customer team. However, ŠKODA dominated the event formerly known as the Rally of a Thousand Lakes even more. The Mladá Boleslav–based carmaker became the supplier of the official race cars and provided several models to the organisers. For example, the organisers’ KAROQ drove the track ahead of the competitors, and a driver in an ENYAQ COUPÉ RS iV took to the track in the legendary Harju city stage as a lead-out driver. ŠKODA cars were also the most popular among the participants, with 14 crews competing in them.
The heart of the Secto Finland Rally is the Jyväskylä Pavilion, a popular venue for exhibitions and other events. It housed the service area and the race headquarters, as well as the accompanying programme for visitors. They were able to see the electric ENYAQ COUPÉ RS iV and the OCTAVIA RS iV plug-in hybrid. For the first time in Finland, the successor to the competition special – the FABIA RS Rally2 – was also on display. And children did not miss out either and could take part in their own rally circuit on the FABIA Rally2-style push-bikes.
Of course, none of this would have been possible without the commitment of the staff of the Finnish importer, Helkama-Auto Oy. They also organised a competition for all the ŠKODA mechanics in Finland, who sent in their presentations recorded on the service camera. The top three, Hanna Skantz, Kimmo Korpi and Janne Mäenpää, complemented the mechanics at the TGS Worldwide team’s races. “It was great to be part of the Secto Finnish Rally and feel like a real member of the race team. Each of us worked on the car in a dedicated sector. The World Rally Championship is a fantastic and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we will definitely never forget,” the trio said, praising the event. ED
More results
The successes of the crews with the FABIA Rally2 evo in the Secto Finland Rally were followed up by the drivers in the Belgian Ypres Rally in the second half of August. The Norwegian duo, Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Erikssen of the Toksport WRT team, which relies on support from ŠKODA Motorsport, finished second in the WRC2 category and is leading the World Championship in this category after nine of the 13 rallies. The overall winner is already clear in the Czech Championship series. At the end of August, Jan Kopecký and Jan Hloušek of the Agrotec ŠKODA Rally Team coped best with the challenging conditions of the Barum Czech Rally Zlín. Kopecký secured his ninth domestic championship title two events before the end of the season.