Kalle Rovanperä drove up the podium ramp in Mikołajki, climbed out and embraced Jonne Halttunen, celebrating an unexpected victory in Poland. Unexpected, at least, when compared to a week ago, when they weren’t even on the entry list.
This was supposed to be Rovanperä’s week off before his summer of motorsport kicked in. But he answered the call of Toyota sporting director Kaj Lindström and packed his bags instead.
A hefty 27 points in Toyota’s pockets for the manufacturers’ championship and with the victory champagne sipped, surely it would now be time for Rovanperä to kick back, enjoy a party atmosphere in the Toyota camp, and then saunter back to the lake where he’d been fixing his jet ski before Kaj rang.
No. It’s straight on a plane to Italy tonight. And back at the wheel of a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car first thing Monday morning.
“I’m going straight to the plane, flying to Imola today, and tomorrow 8am I’m starting my [Carrera Cup Benelux] test,” Rovanperä told DirtFish.
“Tomorrow morning is test day, so it’s going to be still a long night ahead.”
As for the jet ski he was changing the spark plugs on before the phone rang? That’ll have to wait: “The plan was for this week, so it’s a bit f***ed now.”
Rovanperä at least had enough time to give team boss Jari-Matti Latvala a quick champagne shower before heading off
His trip to Imola for his second round of sportscar racing this year was supposed to be the first trip of the busiest part of his season, culminating in his home round of the World Rally Championship in Finland. Instead, he’s already one event in.
“It will be Imola next week and then some promotional stuff the week after and testing, and then it will be rally,” he explained. “It will be five weeks of something, all the time.”
Four events in six weeks isn’t exactly a part-timer’s schedule. It seems there’s no rest for the wickedly fast.
