VW winner in EM-rally! + VW-serie finished

[Jussifin]

The 1302 S beetles were in  EM-historic rally Lahti ( Finland).  Juhani Laaksonen showed the European guys, how the IDA:s sing...
He won the class and finished as 6th of total 85 started!!!  He was also at total 4th place before last stage, but loose some time and dropped onto 6th.  On a one specialstage he started 1minute after Porsche 911 and passed it before the finish-line. He catched the 911 and then tried to pass, but there came so much stones from 911 wheels  that he broke both frontlams etc, but he had "Finnish SISU" so he pushed hard and just passed it and left the poor 911 behind...

The other 1302 S, the ex WRC-driver Marcus Grönholms fathers (Ulf Grönholm) old beetle was driven by Juha Liukkonen. Juha has long experience on internaional historic-circuitraces with Ford Falcon etc cars. He drove summerrally for the first time ever and got better all the time. Same stages, where Juhani took 3-5th places, Juha got round 14th comparing total 85cars.  On the last stage Juha drove out of the road, but luckily got back and continued with strongly moved steeringparts + moved compensator + broken intakemanifold. And managed to drive 165 km after specialstage to Finnishline also.

So both 1302 S beetles finished the race and Juhani were asked to specialchecking after the race, but there was nothing against the rules so he got his award as classes 1st and total 6th!!!

Only cars, which could beat Juhanis VW-times were Lancia with compressor 340hp (ex markku Alen) driven now by Norwegian, Opel Ascona 400 240hp, Porsche 911 270hp, To#¤ta Corolla GT twincam 220hp.


This shows again how good and reliable and competetive aircooled VW:s are. There were many 911, Ford etc which had technical problems. The distances between the specialstages were long, friday and saturdays first driving were 160km only to catch the first specialstage with racecars. Weather was good, shiny and +26-28C all the time!  

Sure there is picts and video somewhere in the internet from LAHTI EM-historicrally 2011 of Juhanis orange 1302 and Juhas Green 1302.  

Congratulations Juhani and Juha!!!


Team-Kuplapaja



Jussi

[Andy Sykes]

awesome 

[Nico86]

Cool 

[Jon]

Finnish SISU 

[Basti]

HI Jussi,

have you been there?

Unfortunatly I couldn´t see the old racecars drving because I was busy with work.... ;(

Basti

[Jussifin]

Yes, i was there with VW-team. Two 1302 were there, i serviced the green one and friends serviced the orange one.

There is photos and driving in youtube now.

Jussi

[Basti]

Hi Jussi,

for next year come to visit me in the VW-WRC servicepark
to have a chat and a coffe

Cheers,
Basti

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Whoohoo - Finnish SISU for the win! Congrats to Team-Kuplapaja.

Here are a few pics that I found:

[Nick]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/DHd1Z80PLAg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/DHd1Z80PLAg</a>

8:35min /12:16 

GREAT !!!

[83bore]

Yes, i was there with VW-team. Two 1302 were there, i serviced the green one and friends serviced the orange one.

There is photos and driving in youtube now.

Jussi
Hello! I know you have told us about the cars before but can you take it one more time? Can you give us the full spec. of the engines? If i am right the rally regulations says that the engines must have the standard size (1600) and after watching the video i must say that the cars sounds realy nice, especially the red one.

[Eric Ellis (57HotrodVW)]

Hello! I know you have told us about the cars before but can you take it one more time? Can you give us the full spec. of the engines? If i am right the rally regulations says that the engines must have the standard size (1600) and after watching the video i must say that the cars sounds realy nice, especially the red one.

I was lucky enough to get to ride in and drive Juhani's old rally VW in October of 2008 (awesome and super clean, just like his current red car appears to be!). I was amazed that the car had a 1600cc engine as it hauled ass.

Here are a few pics - more in this thread.

[TSAF]

Way to go guys. BRAVO

[Rick Meredith]

Must be challenging to change that oil filter w/o making a mess of the motor

[Jussifin]

Juhani is not changing the filters, he makes a new car for each season...

VW-rallyserie will continue this saturday, there will be all fine and fast aircooled rally VW:s on the startline of the finalrally of this serie.
My Ghia will be 4sale after that race, hope it stays on the wheels...

Jussi

[TSAF]

Jussi keep us updated

[Jussifin]

VW-rallyserie is now over for this season. The last race was full of interesting VW:s: 3xnotchback, 3x1302, 1x1303 and Ghia was there. The serie was tight and interesting, because the racewinner changed allmost everytime. We drove 2 rallies on winter and 2 on summertime. The result was that we finished at the top at same level 33points,  me with Ghia and Kimmo with 1302. Kimmo won the serie, because he was faster in the first race...
This last race showed that historic 1302 in right hands is at same level with F-class 1302(free 1.6 class). Juhani L. won the race, but Eki E. took the fastest specialstagetime with F-car, but difference was only 3s when Juhani had problem with shiftings. Juhani and Eki were at their own level, difference  was 30s for the next ones in 11km stage. Ekis race allmost stopped at the 2nd stage when he broke pushrods, but he repaired and came back. I drove all 4 stages in only 3s difference and first time ever drove one stage faster than 1303 mc-person VW!
All these fine beetledrivers are well experienced oldtimers, so it was very nice to catch that level in my 2nd ever summerrally with Ghia.
This serie was very much liked and showed again how competetive those rally-VW:s really are. You can really race hard with these easy and cheap. This race was supercheap, because one famous old rallydriver Hannu had 65-years birthday and he paid all drivers racecharges + offered food at the raceplace + food and sauna etc at the hotel after the race! Very fine from HANNU! THANK YOU!

We have planned to continue the VW-serie next season also. We have much more rally-VW:s in carages in Finland and the interest increases now to get them back on races. Nice cars, good feelings, good guys -man against man and women also! (Kimmos co-driver is his wife!)

This is one easy serie to keep VW:s alive and have an officiel race with them. Sure we will do some more cars for this serie also.  
Juhani and Juha will continue this season after 2 weeks by joining the Kerava-rally both with 1302 S beetles in open historic 1.6 class.
Let see what happens there, last time 911 and others were just too slow for beetles...

My Ghia needs now only washing and service after this raceserie and if i will continue rally with it (if nobody buys it?) i might add some power into it...-just for fun

Photos and report of the serie is at:  www.golf17rally.com  and there aircooled and photos in Hannu 65v. rally etc


Jussi

  
Second place is the first loser...

[Nico86]

Very good news!!

[vintagewagenwerks]

well done jussi!!!

[Jon]

Well done Jussi! And thanks for reporting 

[TSAF]

Well done Jussi. Any photos or videos from the last race?

[TSAF]

Jussi what about us the rally nuts? We need photos, videos, everything you have!!!!!

[Nico86]

Jussi what about us the rally nuts? We need photos, videos, everything you have!!!!!

There are a lot of pics here : https://picasaweb.google.com/110429612141714787201 

[TSAF]

Cheers