When Jari-Matti Latvala agreed to take on the role of team principal at Toyota Gazoo Racing, it was weeks like this that he feared losing the most.
The 18-time World Rally winner was confirmed as the leader of the Japanese marque’s World Rally Championship assault in mid-December 2020. Talking about the decision which brought to an end his dreams of winning a drivers’ title, he referenced weeks like this one. He wanted them ringfenced. Futureproofed.
They have been. That’s how he will step from behind his desk at Toyota’s Jyväskylä headquarters and head south to Lahti for the latest round of the Finnish Rally Championship, starting on Friday morning.
“Actually,” Latvala tells DirtFish, keen as ever to be precise on details, “it’s the European Historic [Championship] round we’re doing – we do more stages on Friday than the Finnish round.”
He’s wheeling out his Toyota Celica GT-4 (ST165) in the search for an eighth Lahti win.
Latvala and his Celica have been a formidable combination in Lahti before
“I have the ST185 ready,” he said, “but we’re just hoping for the European Championship to change the rules and let these cars from 1991 to 1996 in. For now, we take the 1990 car.”
And the we? Presumably, it’s Juho Hänninen who will be calling the notes, as he did at Secto Rally Finland?
“No,” laughed Latvala. “Juho told me he didn’t want to do all of the events anymore. He w ants to choose his events, which ones he is liking to do. He told me this, but he told me he had found a solution – he talked with Janni [Hussi] and asked if she would be interested. She said yes, so now it’s Janni not Juho.”
The Latvala-Hänninen show will be missed in Lahti. The ‘married couple’ were on fine form as they guided a Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 to a WRC2 podium earlier this month. Latvala admitted he took it steady in the first run at Ouninpohja to look after Hänninen’s back, while Juho described Jari-Matti’s spin on the second shot at the 20-miler as an amateur mistake he would never have made.
And when Latvala ruminated on further changes to their notes on a road section, Hänninen left his pacenote book in the bag and simply pulled the plug out of J-ML’s intercom.
“We are a little bit like the married couple,” grinned Latvala. “I have to be very thankful to Juho. We have a lot of fun. But he’s been a bit rude and decided he doesn’t want to sit next to me all the time now!
Janni Hussi has recently parted company with Lauri Joona (L) and will sit with Latvala this weekend
“It’s great to have Janni coming from a non-rallying background and bringing fans who might not already know the sport. We have seen over the last couple of years, she has a lot of passion and excitement for the sport and, like I said, it’s so important that she can appeal to a different audience and bring more women to the sport.”
Hussi’s co-driving career has come a long way from the moment Sami Pajari called into her radio station and offered her the chance to co-drive him on the Lahti Historic Rally two years ago. She and Pajari will have the opportunity to compare notes and career paths across the last two years, with Sami competing in a Toyota Corolla (AE86) this week.
The Finnish Rally Championship round starts with three stages on Friday evening, with Rautio Motorsport driver Roope Korhonen leading his title rival Teemu Asunmaa away. Both events finish on Saturday evening.
