Secto Rally Finland 2022 offered a digital rally for the entire nation

Photos: Taneli Niinimäki

The Jyväskylä World Rally Championship race organized at the beginning of the month offered the public top-class simulator entertainment. From Thursday to Saturday, twenty Flying Finn DigiRigs were freely available for the public to drive in the C1 hall of Paviljonki, the center of digital motor sports. In addition to the public competition, on Saturday there was a race for the Finnish championship of Digital Rallicross, and the Digital Ralli Cup was announced by FiSRA!

WRC DRIVERS OPENED GAME ON THURSDAY

WRC 1, 2 & 3 class drivers competed against each other in the digital arena at the opening of the event. In the rally sprint organized with the WRC 10 game, the drivers drove the Pihlajakoski special test in small groups. The name of the game was raw and clear – without warm-up or practice, the drivers jumped to drive the special stage. 

The drivers arrived in groups of seven to clock their time for the special test. Starting from the WRC 3 class, one group after another banged out freezing times at a steady pace, creating a moment of tension until the times of the last hot group. When Kalle Rovanperä and the other stars of the WRC1 class were halfway through their special stage, Rovanperä led by a few seconds from the pole time set by Lauri Joona at the time, but the crowd lurking behind the jump stood in Rovanperä's way, dropping Kalle to third in the results list.

Lauri Joona stomped to victory, Henri Timonen was second, and Kalle Rovanperä took third after the unfortunate episode.

eWRC competition results:

1. Lauri Joona, 4:22.545
2. Henri Timonen, 4:23.956
3. Kalle Rovanperä, 4:26.184
4. Fabrizio Zaldivar, 4:26.750
5. Takamoto Katsuta, 4:30.655
6. Teemu Asunmaa, 4:32.590
7. Mikolaj Marczyk, 4:33.671
8. Tuukka Taponen, 4:33.704
9. Oliver Solberg, 4:39.322
10. Adrien Fourmaux, 4:40.239

OVER THREE THOUSAND DRIVERS FROM THE PUBLIC

After the WRC drivers, the simulators were opened to the public for free driving. During the weekend, more than three thousand drivers tried the simulators, and the OP Child DigiRigs, especially aimed at children, were in heavy use.

And the event would have been nothing without a little competition. AKK organized top-class prizes for the fastest entries of the event, the winner was offered a VIP ticket to the 2023 Jyväskylä World Rally Championship race, the second runner-up received two rally passes and the third runner-up received one rally pass.

A few drivers managed to break their time under four minutes with a phenomenal performance. The Czech duo Michal and Vojta went bang on Saturday to the top of the results list, followed by Janne, driving a few seconds under four minutes.

1. Michal Smidl, 3:54.050
2. Vojta Polesny, 3:56.021
3. Janne Lahtinen, 3:58.552

MOTORSPORTS CLUBS EVOLVING

The AKK member clubs that joined the Flying Finn DigiRigi project came to learn in the field of digital motorsport in addition to introducing the sport to wider audience. Our training goal was to give club representatives a good level of competence for events and club activities, on the basis of which it would be easy for clubs to implement knowledge skills at the local level.

The transport of equipment from the clubs' premises to the Jyväskylä Paviljonki was important for the acquisition of know-how. The clubs went through an easy transport process, the DigiRigs were prepared for the transport by removing the screen from the simulator and placing a transport support on the OP Gaming Platform Tray, after which the simulator was wheeled into the vehicle. On arrival, the process was of course the opposite, simulator in place, mount the screen, take off the transport support and off we go! In this way, in the future, clubs will be able to travel to partners' events easily and quickly for the purpose of growing the sport and developing youth work.

In addition to transporting the equipment, the representatives of the clubs introduced simulators for more than three thousand motorsports fans. A large number of repetitions not only tell about the quality and durability of the Flying Finn DigiRigs, but the representatives of the clubs acquired excellent event know-how.

Have you familiarized yourself with the selection of digital motorsports at your local motorsport club yet? Here is a list of the participating clubs:

Hämeenkyrön urheiluautoilijat, 1 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Ralli
Äänekosken Urheiluautoilijat, 2 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Ralli
Tampereen Urheiluautoilijat, 2 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Racer & 1 kpl Child
Nilsiän Urheiluautoilijat, 1 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Custom Ralli & 1 kpl Child
Lapuan Urheiluautoilijat, 1 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Ralli
Riihimäen Urheiluautoilijat, 1 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Ralli
Rovaniemen Urheiluautoilijat, 1 kpl Flying Finn DigiRigi Ralli & 1 kpl Child

DIGITAL RALLICROSS SM

The Digital Rallycross Finnish championship was organized on Saturday. SET Esports' Tommi Hallman and Jonne Ollikainen entered the competition as pre-favorites, who have been dominating the sport for years at the World Championship level.

Rallycross showed its beauty once again, when the race was by no means dominated and there were enough events from the start of the race to the checkered flag. Charlotte's starting grid was tight and the walls were hard, which meant high crash sensitivity during the first laps, especially in the heats. Toni Lähteenmäki took the hardest setbacks in the races, who, despite his fast pace, was forced out of the finals due to crashes.

Tommi Hallman, the pre-favorite, won the Finnish championship, second place went to Otto Taskinen, who made a nice climb, and third was the World Championship driver Jonne Ollikainen, who also suffered from crashes. Congratulations! You can watch the broadcast of the final here: Rallin MM, Jyväskylä, lauantai | Rallin MM | Yle Areena (Competition starts at 6:00:00 of the broadcast).

DIGITAL RALLY CUP

The Finnish Sim Racing Association has been honored to organize the first official rally series in the history of Finnish digital car racing on the Richard Burns Rally platform! During the coming autumn, the championship series with AKK's CUP title will be run from 9th of September with Rally 2/R5 cars. The series is not only an excellent opportunity to compete against Finland's best sim rally drivers, but also offers a great opportunity to learn competitive rally driving with simulators.

Series information can be found here: Digital Ralli Cup 2022 - Richard Burns Rally | simracing.fi

Series announcement video: AKK Digital Rally Cup - YouTube

The series organizer's presentation of the series and the release of the new Harju special test (made live at the Secto Rally Finland 2022 event): Digital Ralli Cup julkaisu