Dmack´s Flying Finn Jari Ketomaa finished eighth overall on his home FIA World Rally Championship event as he rounded off a strong performance on Neste Oil Rally Finland. Ketomaa secured the top-eight place after a solid and consistent performance saw him set a string of 14 top-10 stage times over the weekend on one of the worlds most-daunting events.
He powered the Autotek-run Ford Fiesta RS WRC through the rallys opening 13.68 km stage on Thursday evening using DMACKs DMG+2 gravel tyre to secure 10th position. Along with the other Dmack runners, Ketomaa used the S1 compound of the new tyre which was introduced using the joker system earlier this year.
The result marks an impressive performance for Dmack on this hugely specialised event. The high-speed stages mean Finland is consistently one of the fastest rounds of the world series. But the challenge is heightened with the addition of huge stomach-churning crests and jumps which fire cars high into the air.
Ketomaa was happy with the grip and durability delivered by his tyres and his performance was helped by a two-day pre-event test where he tried various settings on a variety of road surfaces. This boost in confidence allowed the Finn to run as the top private driver for most of the event.
His only real problem was an engine misfire which slowed progress on Friday but he got back on track after setting sixth fastest time on the second pass through Lankamaa on Friday evening to move up to seventh overall.
He dropped back to eighth on Saturday but a strong run through the events final two stages, the classic ultra-fast Ouninpohja test, saw Ketomaa secure the position for Dmack.
Dick Cormack, Dmack motorsport director, said: Jari has delivered a great result here for us, on our first Rally Finland with a world rally car, and weve been extremely satisfied with the performance of our tyre. His stage times have been consistent and the result marks another significant step in the continued development of our products. We knew the compound would be strong here after last years results and we are moving ahead event by event.
Jari Ketomaa said: Weve ended up in a very good overall position and its definitely been my best event so far this season. The test we made before the rally was a big help as we got some good settings and that gave me the confidence to be fast from the very start of the rally. The Dmack tyres have been very good, especially on the stages with loose gravel and the tyre wear was very impressive.
Photo: Werner F. Schönberger
Rallisport.net
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