Karl Kruuda is the new leader of the Finnish Rally Championship following a dramatic victory on Rally Turku on Saturday (August 30).
Estonian star Kruuda, who won the WRC2 category on Finland’s round of the world championship at the start of August, was embroiled in an intense battle for victory with Finnish star Juha Salo, which resulted in the pair tied on total time.
In the end, the winner was decided on times set on the first special stage of the rally – which effectively meant that 21-year-old Kruuda sealed victory by just half a second.
Third placed Ari Vihavainen was only 0.9 seconds behind Kruuda at the finish, making this year’s all-gravel Rally Turku one of the most closely-fought and exciting events in Finnish rallying history.
Karl was driving his distinctive multi-coloured liveried Ford Fiesta S2000, which has carried him to success on a number of high-profile events and has marked him out as a real champion of the future.
“What an event,” said Kruuda. “In this sport you always learn something new, but I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. It just goes to show how important it is to go flat-out from the beginning, as sometimes it’s those results that can decide the whole rally. Juha and Ari were incredibly strong, so it was a really tough and enjoyable fight. It’s incredibly rare to see the top three within a second: I think that says everything you need to know about the level of competition in this championship.”
Karl is no stranger to winning at the last gasp: proof of his pedal to the metal commitment from the start to the finish of each event. The Estonian also won the WRC2 section of Rally Sweden this year on the final stage.
He will take a 15.5-point lead into the next and final round of the Finnish championship, the Pirelli Rally in Tampere from September 26/27. Meanwhile Karl will return to WRC2 action on Rally de Espana from October 23-26.
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