Flying Finn Max Vatanen is currently leading the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy by 10 points, but now he has to defend his championship lead as the series heads to Poland for round two.
Luckily, this is a task that he is looking forward to – having won his category on the first three rallies he contested this year: Monte Carlo, Serras de Fafe and Portugal.
Vatanen’s most recent event was the Rally Warminski last weekend that he used as a warm-up for Rally Poland, recording another podium finish in the competitive two-wheel drive category. The event used similar soft gravel stages to the ones on Rally Poland, making it useful practice for the challenge that awaits him in three days time.
“I had a good pace and it was great to be back into the rhythm of competition again,” said Vatanen. “It means that we can push straight away as soon as Rally Poland gets going – and I can’t wait to start!”
Poland marks a return to slightly more familiar territory for the 24-year-old, who is backed by MAXRALLY.com. The fast and flowing roads of Poland are not entirely dissimilar to the stages found back at home in Finland, where Max grew up and watched his famous father Ari practice the art of high-speed sliding.
The route for Rally Poland has changed drastically this year, with about 90% of the itinerary altered compared to 2014, which was Max’s first experience of competing in the country. On that occasion, he finished fourth and won two stages – one of them by the incredible margin of 30 seconds.
This weekend, his aim is to try and repeat the performance he showed in Portugal, when he won more than half the stages en route to a dominant win, co-driven by Jean-Jacques Renucci.
“It was fantastic to win in Portugal but we have to stay very realistic: one victory doesn’t make a career or a championship,” says Max. “So we’ve kept our feet firmly on the ground. In fact, we’ve been analysing very carefully our strengths and weaknesses in Portugal to see how we can improve. It’s just a question of working hard on every detail in order to put ourselves in the best possible situation for Poland. I’ve got nice memories of this rally, so I think we can have another good weekend.”
Max will once more be taking the wheel of his state-of-the-art turbocharged one-litre Ford Fiesta, which all the Drive DMACK Fiesta Trophy competitors use this year, ensuring that only driving talent makes the difference. On offer for the championship winner is a prize drive in an R5 car on the WRC2 championship next year, so the stakes are high.
Rally Poland gets underway on Thursday night with a short 2.5-kilometre superspecial stage around the streets of Mikolajki, where the rally is based. On Friday, the crews face a baptism of fire with 150 kilometres of stages and no service, including the longest stage of the rally at 39 kilometres. The rally concludes back in Mikolajki on Sunday, after 19 stages and 313.53 competitive kilometres.
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