Tupla. If you’re wondering about world champion Kalle Rovanperä’s chocolate of choice, it’s Tupla.
A few years ago, gifting the 22-year-old Finn his favorite bar would have been no bother. There were two choices of Tupla. The nougat was covered in white or milk chocolate. Now there’s a mint-oriented version, there’s a caramel job and even one with licorice in.
He’s partial to them all. Tupla, for info, means double. You always get two of them in a pack.
Sadly, DirtFish rocked up armed only with mini Daim bars.
“That’s the only chocolate I don’t like,” he told us.
Takamoto Katsuta interrupted our chocolate chat, taking the happy stick option to turn his GR Yaris Rally1 through 180 degrees in spectacular fashion.
“Hello DirtFish,” he grinned, “Japanese… always drifting!”
The next 10 minutes were the very reason why we no longer live in the media center. Early for the second run of Myhinpää, Kalle, Jonne, Taka and Aaron were utterly relaxed as they went about their tasks of fiddling with the suspension and scraping mud out of the arches.
It’s in such moments that you see the genuine camaraderie and friendship. As drivers, team-mates and buddies, Kalle and Taka have a great bond and genuine rapport. In Finland, it couldn’t have been more obvious that that extends across the whole team.
This was their backyard, but they were relaxed and on the finest of form.
All of which made DirtFish editor Luke Barry’s urgent group-wide message all the more startling.
“KALLE CRASHED.”
Momentarily, there was that state of near-confusion. How can that be? He was just here. Literally 10 minutes ago we were discussing Taka’s exceptional grasp of the English language. And whether the Tupla was like the Mars bar or vice-versa.
Safe in the knowledge Kalle and Jonne were all good, I asked Katsuta for his thoughts on the massive mood swing one corner has caused.
Did he feel it as well?
“Yeah, of course,” he said. “But I suppose this is rally, so after a few minutes everything can be going totally the wrong way.
“This is sport, same as life: everything went well for Kalle – he did a really, really good job for sure, but one corner, really one corner made everything end. But we all know, and Kalle knows, this is the sport.
“That feeling was not so nice starting the stage because of this but, you know, it’s part of the game. I have been also in this kind of situation…”
It takes more than a bit of bent metal to break this bond.
