Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen will race each other in classic Toyotas at this weekend’s Jari-Pekka Ralli.
Pajari has built his own Toyota Corolla AE86, which he’ll debut at Saturday’s event in Finland’s Hartola region.
Salminen, meanwhile, will steer his own Toyota Starlet for his first event start as a driver since 2022.
“This is the main event of the year!” Pajari told DirtFish.
“It’s like the rallying Olympics. On top of the World Championship, there is Olympics, which is even bigger. So this is the thing. This is the real thing.
“We will drive our own real-wheel-drive classic Toyotas on some very usual beautiful Finnish roads. It’s not a big event but we have basically our own class which is just including some of our friends, so we will hopefully have a nice battle.
“It’s more about having fun actually and having a lot of sideways moments and enjoying what rally can be at its purest.”
Salminen suggested to DirtFish that a handicap system would be applied, so that Salminen’s times can be more competitive against the man he sits alongside for Toyota in the WRC.
Pajari grinned: “You can always start to hear this kind of whining. But OK we will see.”
Jari-Pekka Ralli comprises two stages repeated on Saturday October 10.
