Heikkinen’s many fans made the short journey from Joensuu to cheer on their boy, part of the Marklund Motorsport squad, which is supported by Volkswagen. The Kouvola circuit is full of ups, downs, twists and turns – all of which Heikkinen enjoyed immensely during the practice runs.
But when it came to the heats, the flying Finn was let down by two poor starts. ”It’s just one of those things that happens from time to time,” he philosophically observed on Saturday. ”The starts in rallycross are so important: if you slip up even the tiniest amount, then you leave yourself with a lot of work to do because you’re suddenly fighting in the middle of the pace and anything can happen. And that’s what happened to me over the weekend really.”
Topi still managed to salvage seventh place overall overnight, which left him confident of getting it back when it came to the all-important action on Sunday. However, he couldn’t have predicted the sudden arrival of rain, which soaked the Kuovola track – even though there’s been some fairly unexpected weather in Finland recently.
The mechanics had to change the set-up of the car, but heading into the fourth heat Topi suddenly found that the windscreen spray was not working, robbing him of visibility as the mud started flying. He still qualified for the semi-final, but that was when the trouble began.
”In the semi-final it was raining heavily,” added Topi. ”I couldn’t see anything when climbing up the hill after the first corner. I think somebody hit me, which sent me into a spin, and suddenly there was a pile of cars around me. So then I knew it was all over. A disappointing weekend from start to finish really, which was made even more disappointing by the fact that this was my home race.
”I expected so much more for myself, my fans and my sponsors: I came here to win and nothing else. It just goes to show how hard it is to get your weekend back on track once it starts going wrong, and also just how close the competition is in this championship. But that’s what I enjoy about it too, and the advantage is that we’re in the middle of a period now when we’ve got three events in three weeks. So I only have to wait until next weekend to put this experience behind me. Next up is Höljes, my Marklund team’s home race in Sweden. I’m going to be pushing hard again there. You know me…only victory will do.”
The Höljes round is located in the centre of Sweden and the event takes place from July 5/6.
Provisional World RX drivers’ standings (after round four of 12):
1 Reinis Nitiss 96 points
2 Andreas Bakkerud 82
3 Petter Solberg 80
4 Toomas Heikkinen 74
4 Anton Marklund 61
6 Timmy Hansen 48
