This year’s Rally Finland has been “heavily-revised” with a new start and finish location, two brand-new special stages and a tire fitting zone ahead of the powerstage.
The Rally Finland route reveal is always the most eagerly anticipated of the World Rally Championship season, and this year the event organizer has shaken up the route significantly with 27% of the mileage brand-new for 2023.
Based as always in Jyväskylä, the August 3-6 event will traverse a broader area than in recent years and will also incorporate a ceremonial start on Wednesday evening at Jyväskylä’s harborside.
Thursday’s leg is identical to 2022 with the Rannankylä shakedown stage in the morning before the rally officially gets underway on the streets of Harju in the evening.
Friday’s leg has the most stages with nine. Laukaa kicks off the loop and is a Rally Finland classic, but this year features a new beginning and, according to the organizer’s press release, “some epic jumps”.
Lankamaa has been shortened compared to 2022 while the Myhinpää test returns to the rally route for the first time in eight years before the brand-new Halttula test.
That loop of four stages is then repeated in the afternoon with another run through Harju concluding Friday’s action.
Saturday is an eight-stage day but the longest in terms of competitive distance, which begins with the event’s second all-new stage, Västilä.
Päijälä, Rapsula and Vekkula all ran last year and are unchanged for 2023.
Sunday’s leg has also been shaken up as the famous Ruuhimäki stage – with that massive man-made jump at the finish – has been dropped from the itinerary.
Instead, all of the final day’s action will begin with Moksi-Sahloinen (which ran on Friday last year and in the opposite direction) before an all-new finish concept with the powerstage and the podium ceremony contained within the Himos-Jämsä area.
A tire fitting zone has also been incorporated ahead of the final points-paying stage, meaning there shouldn’t be any drivers cruising through the first few stages of Sunday in a bid to save rubber for the powerstage.
In total the rally offers 199.2 miles of competitive stage action – just one mile less than what was planned in 2022.
Rally Finland clerk of the course Kai Tarkiainen said: “With an expanded route we’re able to make it easier to attract yet more spectators and volunteers to the rally, while keeping the traditional character of the roads that drivers love.
“As well as some new stages there are familiar names on the itinerary, but even these have often been extensively revised, so they will be new to many of the drivers.
“This is a significant event as it’s the first time in many years that we are reaching out to new territories and covering such a wide geographical spread, underlining the enduring popularity of rallying in our country.”
Rally Finland is round nine of this year’s WRC season.
