WRC2 CHAMPION 2022

Emil Lindholm Emil Lindholm

WRC2 CHAMPION 2022

Emil Lindholm Emil Lindholm

WRC2 CHAMPION 2022

Emil Lindholm Emil Lindholm

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Lindholm is looking for a full performance from the Finnish Rally Championship opener

11 January 2022

Team GRX’s Emil Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen, driving TGS Worldwide’s Škoda Fabia R5 Evo, will start defending their SM1-class Finnish championship this weekend in Rovaniemi. The two-day opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship season will start on the Arctic Circle this Friday.

Emil Lindholm, 25, who is driving TGS Worldwide’s Škoda Fabia R5 Evo, is ready to fight for the victory of the opening rally of the Finnish Rally Championship season and the championship of the SM1-class. The reigning champion’s preparations for the new rally season have gone according to the plan. Preliminary tests are done and everything is ready for the future.

”The second half of last season went very well for us. We will try to continue in Rovaniemi where we left off in the World Rally Championship in Catalonia last October. We are moving forward with the same tactics”.

”The opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship season is an important competition for the overall series due to the increased Finnish Championship points. Of course, the Finnish Championship season is one round longer than in the previous year, but like last year it is important to drive it as a full, complete series”, Lindholm reminds.

Lindholm and Reeta Hämäläinen will start the new season with the same Škoda rally car, which they ended the last season with. The only significant change to this year’s package is that the car’s tire brand changed from MRF Tyres to Pirelli.

”We have only good experiences with the new tire. In the preliminary test, we were looking for a narrow and snowy road in which Pirelli felt like a good, logical and balanced rally tire, which is, exactly what we could have hoped for. We got back to a good speed and rhythm pretty fast even though the break from the previous rally was almost three months”, Lindholm says.

In the upcoming Arctic Lapland Rally, a fifth, or about 50 special stage kilometers, is new compared to last year's route, and it suits Lindholm well.

”It's always a good thing for us when we get to drive purely from the notes. Saturday morning's first special stage Ahmavaara is a completely new and also the longest special stage (44.61 km) in the rally. It is going to be one of the special stages that will resolve a lot in the competition”, Lindholm says.

”We have a victory in Rovaniemi from a couple of years ago, so we are aiming to the top once again. The weather forecast predicts moderate readings below freezing for the duration of the rally and that is nice. Thick snow dust that stays in the air is not expected, and that’s a good thing. Nice rally ahead of us. Let’s see on Friday do we have enough speed and momentum and then make decisions based on that”, Lindholm plans.

The total length of the two-day Arctic Lapland Rally, which opens the Finnish Rally Championship season, is 799.99 km. The route includes 10 special stages with a total length of 223.70 km. The rally will start on Friday, January 14th at 11:00 in Lord's Square in Rovaniemi. There are five special stages (88.48 km) in the program for the first day of the event. For the night break, the first communities will arrive at 20:05.

The rally will continue on Saturday at 7:00. During the day, another five special stages with a total length of 135.22 km will be driven. The rally ends at Lord's Square in Rovaniemi at 19:50.