Eero Raikkonen, Printsport proprietor.
A young Esapekka Lappi at the wheel of a Printsport Ford Fiesta S2000 in Finland in 2012. Photo: Martin Holmes
“He developed a very good relationship with the mechanics. He could immediately tell what was wrong in the car and sometimes fix the problems himself.”Printsport’s basic work is for regular rally driver customers, especially in the Finnish championship and particularly major events like the Arctic and Neste Rallies. “We manage their service, providing the logistics, spare parts, the tools and everything. Basically the drivers just buy the car and we supply them everything around it. “We never had a marketing project outside Finland, but our drivers and their teams started asking us to do foreign events. Remember, the cost of Finnish work is expensive, but for us the cost of travelling is not high. “Work expanded when Even Management, the Norwegian company run by Erik Veiby, proposed a project with the 21-year old Esapekka Lappi for us to run a Fiesta S2000 in the 2012 Finnish championship. He won every rally on it.
Skoda Fabia R5s galore in the Printsport factory in Finland.
“The company providing the engineering and the mechanical support expanded. We don't have so many cars by our own. We might have seven Skoda R5s in our workshop, but only one of those would be our own property.”The latest project is a WRC2 programme with the Polish driver Lukasz Pieniazek. “We have a three year project with him and I think he has made good progress. I was a little bit worried after Sweden, but he had good rallies in Portugal and Corsica, though in Sardinia he was trying a little bit too much, but he showed that he can drive the car and do the speed. “Lukasz is still not so experienced, needs more kilometres and training with the pacenotes. We have had drivers from Finland, Norway and had Estonian drivers. When I am looking at their onboards and evaluating their style I have to say that I don't understand Polish pacenotes at all!” Thinking about the common factors facing Eero and Tommi Makinen, life must be full of challenges running teams on international rallies. “I would say that the only thing are the distances. In our case what we do for European rallies is drop our truck and the rally car somewhere convenient between each rally location. Then the crew and our mechanics can then carry out the rebuilding in the support workshops without coming back to Finland.
Printsport Rally Team cars at Rally Finland in 2014. Photo: Martin Holmes
“I rate Juha as the greatest Finnish driver of all because he has been driving such a variety of cars. He has been driving all the old ones, the difficult ones, and those events and, also, he has been driving the modern cars and he has always been fast.”Esapekka Lappi has to be considered the driver who put Printsport on the map. Do any others stand out? “I have been lucky to work with all our drivers, for example Ole Christian Veiby and Karl Kruuda, but then every driver with whom we have an ongoing project, they have been very close to the team. “When the driver has a big support behind him, he feels that he is a big part of our team who is supported by us, even if he makes a mistake or not, it’s like pushing him forward. “It’s the part of the job which I think we are good at.”
Related stories:
https://rallysportmag.com/introducing-veibys-army/ https://rallysportmag.com/interview-tommi-makinen-outlines-changes-toyota-gazoo-racing/VIP Exclusive Content
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