Heikkinen improved consistently throughout the weekend and ended up fourth overall by the end: a remarkable performance for a rookie who had only tested his Ford Fiesta for about 50 kilometres prior to the start of the event.
”For me the most important thing was that I was improving all the time: in the final I was actually second, but of course you add everything up to get the final result so I ended up fourth,” said Topi. ”With more time in the car I’m sure we could have done better: the driving style for this championship is unique, so it takes a bit of getting used to. With every lap I was taking as much as half a second off my time; sometimes more.”

Although Topi’s rivals all said that he put in an astonishing drive for somebody new to the category, Topi first reaction was actually to feel slightly disappointed with himself. Typical for a man who is driven only by winning: this year he claimed a record-breaking five successive victories on the Global Rallycross Championship en route to the title.

”I have to admit that when I heard the end result after the last final at Isola 2000 I thought to myself at first: ’fourth…that’s not so great’,” added Topi. ”But then I had a bit of time to think about it and I talked to some other people as well and I realised it was not so bad. Particularly because this was at Isola 2000, which is well known for being a really tight and technical track even by the most experienced Andros Trophy drivers.”
For Heikkinen, the driving style required for the Andros Trophy was the most complex aspect to get used to. ”You basically have to be completely sideways all of the time and that was actually quite disorientating: sometimes you didn’t know exactly which direction you should be pointing in,” he concluded. ”The key thing is to have the car perfectly set up before each corner, so this is a championship where experience definitely helps a lot. But I had a really great time and hopefully I will be able to have another go. I’d like to thank the team and everyone who helped to make it possible.”

Topi drove a bespke Ford Fiesta run by the French Sainteloc team at Isola 2000, powered by a three-litre V6 engine that puts out around 340 horsepower. Sainteloc, which was equally delighted by Topi’s performance over the weekend, is currently leading the Andros Trophy standings and also finished third in last year’s European Rally Championship with Craig Breen.

Topi now flies home to Finland to put the finishing touches to his 2014 rallycross programme. Watch this space.