In rallying terms, Matias Henkola is our Thomas Edison. Our Tim Berners-Lee. He’s a trailblazing visionary. It’s quite possible you haven’t heard of him. You should have done and, if DirtFish has anything to do with it, we certainly will in the future.
OK, I’m sure there are a few of you out there questioning the whole Berners-Lee reference – he’s the chap who put the world wide web into WWW.
These people make the world a better place and Henkola certainly has his sights very much set on making the world of rallying a better place.
There’s part of me that questions the visionary aspect of my intro; you don’t need to be too much of a prophet to know the future’s fairly bleak for fossil-fueled motorsport. But you do have to be something of a trailblazer to seize the moment the way Henkola has. And there’s definitely something farsighted in him.
Some background. Matias Henkola is the man behind Secto Automotive Labs – a firm that tests and develops sustainable solutions for motorsport. He was rallying with P1 Racing Fuel’s blend of synthetic and bio-fuel components before the World Rally Championship was.
And he’s been 100% sustainable since. There’s more: his Finnish Rally Championship team is even running fossil-free lubricants. And his team’s not exactly low-profile… it’s Heikki Kovalainen in a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 and Kimi Räikkönen’s nephew Justus in a Peugeot 208 Rally4.
“I feel like I’m on a mission,” Henkola tells DirtFish. “I know a lot of people are aware of the problem, but they don’t feel it’s coming for them.
“With my background as an entrepreneur and a race driver, I know both worlds and I feel it’s my duty that we make the most effort we can to bring sustainability into motorsport in a positive and fun way – we don’t want to make it about judging people.
“From my point of view, this is the only reason for our sport to continue. That’s why this is so meaningful.”
And Henkola doesn’t hang about. He’s now pushing for the Finnish Championship to become entirely sustainably fueled.
The benefits to planet earth are there for all to see, but what Henkola can also see is the enormous plus to the promotion of rallying.
“For the last 10 years, we know that the excitement of rallying is what companies want – they want to get involved,” he says. “But they can’t, because of this sustainability question. What we have now is a huge opportunity to bring new companies to rallying.
“We know this because through part of our business, we couldn’t get involved in rallying until the WRC went hybrid and sustainable. When that happened, then we could talk to Rally Finland [and become title sponsor].”
Car leasing is a major part of the Secto business, which offers Henkola further insight into making four wheels turn without the bad news by-product.
“We are aiming to lease our last fossil fuel cars by the end of 2028. In the last quarter, 50% of the new cars brought into our fleet were electric vehicles. We’re offering customers a complete package for the transition to green motoring; we tell them what they pay now and how much they pay when they start to de-carbonize.
“We do everything for them, even calculating the ESG [Environmental, social and governance] score and the financial implications of that. This process has to be made simple and we do that, otherwise the attitude is: ‘I’ll do it next month, I’ll have more time next month.’”
That business insight is what drives Henkola harder to make a difference in the sport.
“Rallying,” he says, “was born in Finland. It could be really a cool story now to re-invent rallying in Finland by making it more socially acceptable and sustainable.”
And what better way to do that than by taking one of the world’s most recognizable and exceptional rally cars and modernizing it into something socially acceptable and sustainable?
Something like, for example, an Audi Quattro E2.
“This is a really nice way to tell the story,” he says. “We have taken the Audi and added some modern technology. The car runs on WRC fossil-free fuel and with fossil-free lubricants.
“This is a car which has no impact [on the environment], but it still has that amazing five-cylinder engine, still makes that fantastic noise and, with 3.3-bar of boost, can make 1000bhp.
“We will be using this car at the Harju stage of Secto Rally Finland next month and this is the perfect way to have fun and get across the message.”
We need more people like Henkola. He’s an evangelist in an Audi quattro.
