Mikko Eskelinen - Finnish Rally & Race driver

GTM Motorsport Racing Season Calendar & Results

13.8.2023 - Mikko Eskelinen and Arto Kapanen fastest in WRC-group at Future FRC-rally - 9th position in overall classifications was an excellent result after five year of pause from gravel rallying

Five summer has passed since previous gravel rally for Flying Finn Mikko Eskelinen, age of 50, and his co-driver Arto Kapanen, age of 59. In 10 special stages and 149,12 special stage kilometres they competed with Ford Fiesta RS WRC and were able to collect win in group of WRC and 9th position in overall classifications.

- Earlier in March at our home ever which was driven in region of Jyväskylä, we suffered a very heavy landing from the legendary jump of Palsankylä stage. Even we won the WRC-group in the event, we had lots of repair works for the car which were done during spring and summer. After excellent work Team Dynamo did with the car it was very nice to enter my first gravel rally since five years. Ofcourse I had hopes of beating another circuit racing driver Heikki Kovalainen and in half way of the rally we had excellent battle for seconds with him. However as we made wrong tyre choice for the final loop we lost the thrilling battle, Eskelinen tells.

- Even so 9th position in overall standings and second-in-a-row victory in WRC-group tasted very sweet. Team made brilliant job as we were able to drive for a troble-free event. Ofcouse we could have driven a bit harder but as it wouldn't have delivered any higher trophies we decided to let Kovalainen be faster. However we enjoyed a lot on competing these very tricky and demanding special stages, shared Ford Fiesta RS WRC driver Eskelinen.

Competition for the overall victory was thrilling to watch until the final moments of the final special stage. The rally was won by Lauri Joona, who has made international break-thru in current season. Eventually Joona was 5,1 seconds faster than ten-times Finnish Rally Champion Juha Salo. Leader of World Rally Championship group 3 series Roope Korhonen was also in battle for the victory until a spin dropped him 4th position. However in final stages he was able to gain back on podium and collect 3rd position.

Final results Future FRC Rally, Lahti (Finland), August 11th-12th 8.2023, Overall top-3:
1. Lauri Joona & Tuukka Shemeikka, Skoda Fabia RS, 58:44,3
2. Juha Salo & Kristian Temonen, Skoda Fabia R5 EVO, +5,1s
3. Roope Korhonen & Anssi Viinikka, Volkswagen Polo GTI R5, +16,5s
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9. Mikko Eskelinen & Arto Kapanen, Ford Fiesta RS WRC, +3:27,8s (1st in WRC-group)

Incar videos from the rally
- Mikko Eskelinen & Enola Hsieh - Ford Fiesta RS WRC Experience
- Future SM-Ralli 2023 - SS5: Toijala #1
- Future SM-Ralli 2023 - SS6: Porvola #1
- Future SM-Ralli 2023 - SS7: Avus #1
- Future SM-Ralli 2023 - SS8: Neroskulma #1

Pictures from the Rally

Pictures from tests

Mikko Eskelisen kotisivut on suunnitellut ja toteuttanut MediaGuru Jack Bacon - Digitaalisen median tuotantostudio - www.mediaguru.fi