Tommi Mäkinen Racing builds rally cars, polishes drivers' skills and offers experiential events services. The business is being developed with the skills and knowledge only a four-time world rally champion can provide.
Tommi Mäkinen demonstrated his ability as a rally driver during a long and illustrious career. Four world championships at the end of the 1990s tell all about the man's car-handling skills.
The rally experience and knowledge Mäkinen built up over the years are now being put to good use in a company he owns, and which carries his name: Tommi Mäkinen Racing. The company, which was launched in 2004, is a high technology rally car factory, which develops Subaru Group N rally cars and equips them for use in competitions. Engineer support as well as a parts and maintenance service are also on offer.
Mäkinen's experience is also much in demand at the company's rally school, where both Finnish and foreign drivers get the chance to polish their rally driving skills. In the early part of 2010 Tommi Mäkinen Events was added to the company's palette of products and services. For the bold, Tommi Mäkinen Events can offer a chance to occupy the co-driver's seat in a real rally car or take part in an ATV safari, as well more traditional congress services tailored for groups.
"My own experiences have helped tremendously in developing the business. I reckon I know pretty well what drivers are thinking, having seen the rally world from the other side. The main focus of our business is still under consideration, in tight cooperation with the Subaru factory in Japan," Mäkinen reveals.
The premises occupied by Tommi Mäkinen Racing at least provide an excellent opportunity for expanding operations. The modern, 2 500 square metre facility was opened in Puuppola, roughly ten kilometres north of Jyväskylä, in the summer of 2009.
Tommi Mäkinen Racing's dealings with the Subaru factory are exceptionally close indeed. Small Subaru teams can be found in many places, but in Europe there are only a handful of players engaged in cooperation direct with the factory on such a scale. Another thing that sets the company apart is the extensive parts service.
"We are able to offer our customers a fast service within Europe," says Mäkinen. Tommi Mäkinen Racing's market area covers the entire world. Over ninety per cent of the firm's turnover comes from beyond Finland's shores.
"We're constantly visiting customers around the world. Naturally I still follow the world rally championship, but I haven't managed to watch a single rally on the spot." There is, however, one rally event where Mäkinen is always present. The Finnish round of the WRC calendar in Jyväskylä became familiar to him as a spectator while still a boy. Mäkinen, who competed in his first rally in 1985, has subsequently celebrated WRC victory in Jyväskylä on no less than five occasions.
"That Frenchman (Sébastien Loeb) seems to have such a firm hold on the world rally championship, but here in our own back yard my money is on the Finnish drivers," Mäkinen says of the current rally season.
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Jyväskylä has witnessed an unbroken series of rallies since 1951. Between the hero of the first event, Arvo Karlsson, and the winner in 2009, Mikko Hirvonen, 24 different drivers have enjoyed the sweet taste of victory. Pride of place on the list is taken by Marcus Grönholm with seven wins to his name.
The very first rally featured 26 cars, of which 23 made it to the finish. The competition was 1 666 kilometres in length and the route took competitors as far north as the Arctic Circle. The rally had two special tests in the literal sense: a hill climb up Kuopio's Puijo and an acceleration and braking test on Harjukatu, a street in Jyväskylä.
At Neste Oil Rally Finland 2010 the 60th jubilee can be seen both in the way the occasion is presented and in the line-up of events, reveals Event Manager Tiina Lehmonen of AKK Sports Ltd. In honour of its anniversary the Finnish round of the World Rally Championship will offer rally visitors a wide range of supporting events such as the Historic Car Parade which is certain to be big on nostalgia with vehicles from both Finland and abroad.
"The parade will pass through certain special stages ahead of the competitors. Rally fans will have other opportunities to take a look at the cars during the rally", Lehmonen explains. At rally HQ, Jyväskylä Paviljonki, visitors can enjoy the jubilee exhibition in which the history of this legendary event is recounted with the help of historic cars, press cuttings and photographs.
The 60th jubilee celebrations as such will take place on Saturday evening, 31.7. Topping the bill at the event will be Leningrad Cowboys. The evening will culminate in the biggest firework display ever organised in Finland.
Neste Oil Rally Finland 2010 will be staged 29.31.7.
- FIA, the governing body of motorsport, is introducing measures that will lead to a reduction in emissions from rally vehicles. The international rule trend in motorsport seeks to minimize the load on the environment in a number of ways, including the development of new technology that will cut environmental loading.
- At Neste Oil Rally Finland the focus is on reducing the amount of waste generated by the event and seeing to it that waste is recycled.
- Spectators will increasingly be taken to the special stages by bus, in order to cut down the amount of private motoring.
- The vehicles used by the event organisers will run on biofuels.
- The rally's media centre has cut the number of print-outs.
- The organiser of the rally, AKK Sports Ltd, is committed to the use of environmentally friendly solutions and also requires these of all its subcontractors.
words by tommi salo, photos by petteri kivimäki