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NEWS:

2.8.2009
Jouni Arolainen's goal fulfilled in Jyväskylä World Championship Rally

60 competitors out of the 90 who started were able to drive to the finish podium in Jyväskylä World Championship Rally. Jouni Arolainen achieved the 17th position after brake problems.



Arolainen driving Ford Focus WRC05 ended his 3 days rally according to target he had set. He drove 15 th on the last special stage in Ruuhimäki.
- Ruuhimäki was my favourite of this years special stages. I planned to drive
this stage on the limit as fast as we can and finish within 15 th position. We just made up to this goal Arolainen said.

In the overall our placement could have been 3 places better. We lost a lot of time during friday and saturday morning because of brake problems.

Arolainen and his co-driver Risto Pietiläinen had to drive on some parts of special stages even totally without brakes. Brake problems were repaired in service on saturday afternoosn. - Fortunately on sunday we were able to drive without problems and enjoy of the great special stages. Feeling was very good when we celebrated as the 8th best finnish drivers.


10.6.2009
Arolainen took part in APRC rally in New Zealand

Jouni Arolainen came back from New Zealand with slightly devided thoughts. He took part in Rally New Zealand driving Mitubishi Evo IX, Jouni was invited by his local friend Brian Green. Partly the rally and the trip itself was amazing experience, on the other hand the technical failure in the rally was disapointing.

Arolainen took part in this APRC rally because of a nice exhange, Brian Green took part in Arctic Lapland Rally in January with Jouni's Mitsubishi EVO IX and for exhange Jouni took part in this rally. It has been nearly two years since Jounis previous rally with N group car.



The whole experience of the country, rally and local gravel roads was very nice. Many drivers have told of demanding New Zealand rally roads with difficult cambers, they truly were demanding said Jouni. - I could have driven lot faster to corners but should have had much more experience for not to go over the camber and way down after that. there are quite big hight differences also.

The result of the rally was not good because of technical failure.

- We were waiting, with co-driver Tapio Suominen, in the start of SS 3 when I stopped the car. When trying to start again, it didn't start at all. The battery of the car had died without a warning. We got help by people pushing us to go, the given 20 seconds starting time had gone over and we were excluded. The  Reece Jones team who provided the car was also disapointed. They have provided cars previously for a number of drivers, for example Jari-Matti Latvala and Patrik Sandel. - We started on day two due the super rally regulations. Our placement after day two was 11th but due the elimination we were not in the overall results.

- The stages went fine exept one where we had to stop due to other competitors problems. On every other stages we won our friend Brian Green. To compaire our times,we lost for Cody Crocker, many times APRC winner, 1,5-2 seconds per kilometer.

Many thanks to Brian Green and Reece Jones for all the arragements well done. And specially thanks for Greens co-driver Fleur Pedersen, who was Jounis travel guide and fishingpal on the previous week in the lovely New Zealand.

Next in Jouni Arolainens rally calender is the international Rally of Thailand, where he has his win for last year to protect.


17.02.2009
Arolainen retired twice in the Rally Norway 2009

There were three Finninsh drivers with WRC cars in the World Rally of
Norway.



Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti Latvala were ofcourse competiting of the
top positions, behind them Jouni Arolainen started in this rally with Ford
Focus WRC.

Arolainen who won the International rally of Thailand end of the last year,
was planning to drive as competitive stage times as possible.

Opening super special stage in Oslo brought the 20th  position to
Arolainen, with time difference to leader 8,3 seconds.

Arolainen and co-driver Jouko Puhakka were forced to retire already on
second special stage. - During SS2 waste gate clamp had failed and a high temperature build up under the bonnet caused damage to various sensors resulting the car to stop. Our service team got help from M-Sport and were alble to repair the car and made it possible to continue on the second day according super rally rule, said Arolainen.

- On the first special stage on the second day of the rally oil bump
belt failed causing loss in oil pressure, resulting in engine failure. This failure had nothing to do with the problems on first day. All problems just came up in the same rally. - Service team had cheked the oil  bump belt in service, this could not be prevented. Possible falilures in the engine will be cheked within next few days. It is obvious that it is impossible to take part in Finnish championship rallysprint next weekend.

-We started this rally with high expectations, ready to drive such stage times that would give us P2 seeding and better starting position in the next
World Rally. Now I feel sorry that we didn't get any full special stages in the rally, exept super special stage in Oslo where turbo had already failed causing loss of power says Arolainen.


14.01.2009
Arolainen takes part in World Rallies and Finnish rally sprint series

Last season Jouni Arolainen drove 12 rallies both in Finland and abroad. For
this season 2009 he has made significant change to his calendar.



The driver of Ford Focus WRC will not take part in Finnish rally
championship series. His 2009 calendar consists of all 6 rallys prints and
three World Rallyes, Norway, Spain and Finland.

- The tought of these rallies came when I wanted to drive in different kind
of conditions. Rally Norway in February will be driven on snow,  Rally
Finland on fast and hard gravel roads, Spain will be
on fabulous tarmac roads.
- For the rally sprint series I had two different reasons. First of all I
wanted to drive a full series somewhere, I thought of taking part in full
series abroad but this rallysprint series was the most reasonable.
The Finnish Rally Championships that I took part last year was not a
reasonable choice this year anymore. The new tyre regulations of Finnish Cup
was part of that, I also was not ready to drive with WRC car with big start
number after two classes of N group cars Arolainen said.

There could come some other separate rallies to Arolainen and CLO Racing
teams calendar this year. The first will be next weekend on 17th of January
in Oulunjärvi.

- I will drive that rally as mostly a test with Mitsubishi Evo IX. I will
get good experience on snow before Rally Norway. At the same time I test the
car which will be rented for Arctic Lapland Rally by Brian Green from New
Zeland whom I got to know end of last Year in the Rally Thailand that I won,
Arolainen says.

01.12.2008
Jouni Arolainen and Jouko Puhakka won the 20 th International Rally of Thailand
 
The 20th International Rally of Thailand ended on Sunday 30.11.2008 with Finnish celebration when Jouni Arolainen and co-driver Jouko Puhakka celebrated their win, they managed to keep their lead troughout the two days rally.


 
It is the third time with Finnish drivers winning this Rally, earlier Tommi Mäkinen (1995) and Jussi Välimäki (2005) have won it. List of winners is consisting of 10 different nationalities. Formal winners are also Colin McRae and Kenneth Eriksson.
 
-This was the most fantastic experience in my rallyhistory, listening the Finnish national anthem on the podium after a very demanding weekend. This season I started in January by winning the overall competition in Riihimäki Rally,  today this victory is celebrated in very different enviroment, Arolainen said happily.
 
Sunday consisted of six special stages. Arolainen grew his lead on these stages for 15 more seconds with his Ford Focus WRC car.
 
The lead of Arolainen and Puhakka towards the second Brian Green from New Zeland was totally 1min25sec. On third place finished Thai Wittaya Ruegchan.


 
-Stages on Sunday were fast and in good condition. Our lead was big enough to even secure and not to take any risks, said Arolainen.
 
Jouko Puhakka, who has ended his own succesful carreer as driver himself joined the very few who has won an international rally on both as driver and co-driver.
 
-I drove this rally once myself, 1998. Then my rally ended from the lead because of technical failure. This time we fortunately did not have any major problems said Puhakka.

28.11.2008
Arolainen takes part in Rally Thailand

Jouni Arolainen started driving rally three years ago, since that he has risen fast forward.
He has mostly driven in Finland participating the well known Finnish championships.

For now the most exotic rally he has taken part has been Safari Rally in Kenya, year 2007.

Within two previous years Arolainen has competed with group N Mitsubishi Lancer, taken part in the Neste Oil Rally, World Championship Rally of Finland.

For this season Arolainen bought Ford Focus WRC car. With this new car he won the overall competition in traditional Riihimäki Rally. This rally was driven on snow.

Arolainen participated also the international Rally Latvia in October. He started great, being on the second position. After different problems he finished eighth in the overall competition and second in Group A.

Rally series in Finland are over for this year, however Arolainen still wanted to have more great experiences before the end of year. He decided to take part in the International Rally Thailand.
"Thailand has made a wonderful impact to me, with gorgeous nature and kind and warm Thai people. I am looking  forward to compete in Thailand", says Arolainen.
As co-drivers Arolainen has had well experienced and well known professionals, as with over 100 World rallies participated Risto Pietiläinen, and for Thailand event Jouko Puhakka who has won Finnish Championships many times and driven himself the Rally Thailand in 1998.

Jussi Välimäki who won the Rally Thailand  2005 brings more experience to CLO Racing team in Thailand.

As goals in the Rally Thailand Arolainen says; "I believe the local drivers will go really fast, I am still aiming to drive for top positions."

6.10.2008
Arolainen crosses the Latvia Rally finish line with his bonnet up

Jouni Arolainen, who bought a Ford Focus WRC 05 car in England late last summer, recently participated in the Latvia Rally. The rally consisted of 12 stages over two days.

Arolainen, who represents Hyvinkää Racing Club, finished eighth in the overall competition and second in Group A.

The Rally was won by local favourite Aivis Egle in his Mitsubishi. With the win, Egle sealed the 2008 Latvian Rally Championship. After some technical problems, Arolainen finished 2 minutes and 9.8 seconds off the pace. A total of 47 cars finished the international race.

- The first six stages were on asphalt roads. I did very well on those and found myself in second place in the overall competition, 20.1 seconds behind the local Mitsubishi WRC driver, Jouni Arolainen explained.

- I was pleased with our performance on those asphalt stages on the first day, and even a little bit surprised, although my expectations were quite high after doing so well on the special asphalt stage in Uusikaupunki recently.

Being up there in the standings, me and my co-driver Jouko Puhakka were feeling fairly confident as the second car to tackle the gravel roads of Day 2. 

- We clocked some good times on some of the gravel stages as well, not far off the pace of the fastest drivers out there, but on certain stages the home court advantage of the local drivers had them beating us comfortably, Arolainen said.
 
Arolainen, who races for CLO Racing Team, then found himself in trouble on the penultimate stage.

- We noticed some kind of liquid coming out from under the bonnet and hitting the windshield, so after Stage 11 we stopped to check the engine. We didn’t find anything wrong with it, so we continued on to the last stage, Arolainen explained.

- On the fastest part of the stage I was just about to put the pedal to the metal and see how fast we can go, but just before reaching top speed the bonnet flew up, cracking the windshield and blocking our view almost completely.

- We had forgotten to secure the bonnet properly. It was all our own fault, and what’s even worse is that we made the same mistake in the Uusikaupunki Rally. I was rather upset with myself, so I decided to finish the stage with the bonnet up, trying to peek around it to see where I was going, Arolainen said.

Arolainen’s drive, evoking memories of Finnish rally legend Timo Mäkinen back in the 1960s, saw him giving up nearly 30 seconds to the fastest car on the short five-kilometre stage.

Once they had crossed the finish line, Arolainen and Puhakka found out that, together with Pasi Törmä/Linda Karlsson and Petri Reinikainen/Mikko Lukka, they were to receive the Nations Cup second place trophy for Finland.

- It was a great rally and a well organised event. The gravel stages were extremely fast, with average speeds of up to 128 kph and some big jumps. My goal was to finish in the top ten in the overall competition and in the top three in my class, so I am fairly satisfied, Arolainen summed up his weekend.


30.8.2008
Arolainen went off from good position in finnish championship rally

The 6th rally in finnish championships was driven in Uusikapunki on saturday 30.8.08. Rally consisted of 8 special stages. After 3 special stages top 5 drivers were all within 10 seconds.


Jouni Arolainen driving well his Ford Focus WRC-car made one of the positive suprises in this rally. On special stage 3 he drove third fastest time lifting him up to 7th place overall.

 
- My goal in this rally was to drive within top 10 in overall, said Arolainen
- One of the reasons to my fast times  is for sure driving the finnish world champion rally and getting  a lot of kilometers with the new car.


After the service Arolainen left for the second leg of rally to make more good stage times but this attack ended off road on SS 4.
- Beginning of SS went well. Then I drove too fast over a crest to a tightening turn, car started spinning and we drove off to a deep ditch.

- After lifting the car from the ditch, with help of spectators, we continued driving. On next crest with sixth gear on hood opened and broked the windshield. Fortunately in this situation we stayed on road. we had spent so much time after all this that I decided to retire.

Good start of the rally anyhow kept CLO Racing teams feeligs hig.
- Feeling sorry is not on my mind right now because my speed was so good. On two out of three stages I drove, I was faster than Jukka Hiltunen who won the whole rally said Arolainen.

- Part of the reasons to my good speed in this rally belongs to co-driver Jouko Puhakka. Besides reading the notes he also as a top driver can give good advice to my driving on the special stage.

- One thing I am disapointed of is that I was not able to drive the most well known special stage of this rally, Sannainen. Last year we changed driver on this stage, and Puhakka drove fastest time in group N.


15.6.2008
Arolainen sixth in his WRC Focus

Both of CLO Racing’s drivers reached their goal of scoring championship points this past Saturday in Kerava at the Keski-Uusimaa Rally, the fourth rally on this year’s calendar and the first of the summer season.

Jouni Arolainen, driving the Ford Focus WRC, was paired with Jouko Puhakka as his co-driver after a few rallies with other co-drivers. Their teamwork brought instant results, as the pair with the number 36 car finished sixth in Group A.

Representing Hyvinkää Racing Club, Arolainen was in a point-scoring position from the start. After two stages he was in ninth position in his group. By the break after the fourth stage the Ford driver had climbed up to seventh in the Group A standings.

Towards the latter stages of the rally Arolainen gained one more position to finish sixth, which meant he had reached his goal:
- I’m happy with the way the rally went. Towards the end I began to clock some decent times as well, once equalling and once beating Jussi Välimäki, the current leader of the Finnish Rally Championship.
 
Unusual tire strategy
 
Arolainen and Puhakka made an unexpected change to their choice of tires during the midway break in the rally.
 
- The roads were in good condition. As the road surface was hard enough and there was very little loose gravel, Puhakka suggested that we might get better traction by keeping the same tires on for the second round of stages over the same roads, explained Arolainen.
- It was a good decision by a highly experienced professional. The traction was good, so we could use the same set of tires on our WRC car through the entire rally.
- Based on this experience, it seems that the new rule limiting tire usage introduced in the Finnish Rally Championship for this year is a positive change, Arolainen went on to say.

Group A was won by Jarmo Mikkonen ahead of Jukka Hiltunen and Jussi Välimäki. Over the seven stages, Mikkonen clocked a total time that was two minutes and 11 seconds faster than Arolainen’s.
 
The next round in the Finnish Rally Championship takes place around Kouvola on July 12th.

News Archive:

2008:
10.3.2008