He’s just 15 years old and isn’t yet old enough to drive on the road. Yet Kalle Rovanpera will be the 2016 Latvian Rally Championship and has test driven Toyota’s 2017 WRC challenger.
Martin Holmes takes a closer look.
The name Rovanpera has long been well known and highly respected in rallying, on account of Harri, who was a works driver for Ford, SEAT, Peugeot, Mitsubishi and finally Skoda, and notably as the winner of the Swedish Rally in 2001.
Now the name is becoming famous again, for a remarkable reason. Harri’s son, Kalle, has taken up rallying and has now become unbeatable in the national Latvian rally championship. Kalle is now a champion – at the age of 15 years old.
Young star Kalle Rovanpera with rally legend Jean Pierre Nicolas.This was not just a Junior beginners’ series title, but the overall national rally title. This is the only country that allows drivers as young as Kalle to compete at this level on equal terms against the best of the drivers in that land.
Kalle was born on October 1st 2000, Harri’s only offspring. We asked Harri to tell us about Kalle’s story so far.
“I gave up professional rallying at the end of 2006. That was the year Kalle turned six, so Kalle has some firm memories of what his father used to do for his living!
“Kalle was always interested in mechanically moving things, starting with riding small quads and small mopeds. He was riding a motorcycle when he was three years old, and he has always played with toys with motors.”
Coming from a country like Finland and living in a city like Jyvaskyla, he must have known a lot about rallying?
“That is true. Apart from Marcus Gronholm, a lot of the top rally drivers were guys coming from the Jyvaskyla area.
“Kalle’s first proper car was a rear-wheel drive Toyota Starlet. He frequently practised in that on a frozen lake and elsewhere in the summer as well. We made some videos which I then showed to a TV guy in Belgium, and he put that on YouTube.”
It went viral and is worth a look!
“When he showed interest in going real rallying we bought the Citroen C2 R2 Max. At the moment Latvia is the only country where he can compete on rallies as a driver.
Kalle Rovanpera and veteran co-driver Risto Pietalainen. Photo: Kriss Karnitis“He is only allowed to drive on the special stages, so his co-driver Risto (Pietiläinen, my old co-driver) has to drive him on the road sections on public roads.
“Regarding the recce, we started off last year with me making his pacenotes. I made basic notes on a first loop of the stages and on the second loop Kalle changed what he wanted, but from the beginning of this year he makes his own pacenotes from scratch. It looks like he is good at it!
“Nowadays it is all his work, everything. He likes to do it all.”
It was obviously a big jump to go from the Toyota Starlet and then to the C2, and presumably an even bigger jump to go to the four-wheel-drive Fabias?
“Last year he won the two-wheel open championship category in Latvia, and for him the next step was four-wheel-drive. As he already knew the C2 quite well, Kalle asked if it was possible to try a 4x4 car, so we spoke with Toni Gardemeister, who at that time only had an S2000 available.
“That was a good car to start with, but during the summer time there was the possibility of an R5 for Kalle on some events, so we decide to go with R5.
“The R5 was a new model with many different things, but it was in the same class. For the remaining rounds in the Latvian championship it was possible for Kalle to change cars.
“In Latvia the stages are very fast so the S2000’s top speed is not enough on some events, even if it was a very good car. He has been able to test the new car and learn all about the differences in the car and engine. Everything was good.
“The R5 is not faster everywhere, on twisty and technical roads, but it is in other areas where the roads are wider and faster. It depends what area of Latvia we are in. In some areas there are many different types of road, but overall the R5 is really good.”
Watch Kalle driving his Skoda Fabia Super 2000 below:
The other big recent story for Kalle was driving a prototype Toyota Yaris World Rally Car. How did that happen?
“Tommi (Makinen) asked if Kalle was interested to come and test the Toyota! Yes please, it was very nice!
“He checked out everything like any other new car. Getting into the car, from turn-key onwards it was maximum boost and flat out! He enjoyed it, wasn’t frightened of it.
“It all went very well, even if not such a lot of kilometres, 20-30 km, something like that. Good first test with a World Rally Car. The first 15 year old man to go testing 2017 World Rally Car ...!”
And what do you think is the future for him in rallying?
“We stay very calm, never pushing. I’m listening to his ideas and think what we can do, how everything can go, step by step. Not to hurry.
“I do not want all his life to be only rally, because he likes doing many different things and that is normal. And then there is school and everything. Rallying is his hobby, but he enjoys and mentally he is very mature.
“He does not have a young boy mentality that you might imagine, not like you and me! He thinks a lot and is very clever.”
- Martin Holmes
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