Asunmaa wins the FRC summer season opener

Teemu Asunmaa, 35 along with his co-driver Ville Mannisenmäki, 26, have won the SM Mad-Croc Länsirannikon Rally. Asunmaa was engaged in a rally-long battle for the lead and won by 5,9 seconds in the end. The victory was Asunmaa’s second of the 2022 FRC season.

The opening day of the FRC summer season consisted of two special stages, driven exceptionally for FRC fully on tarmac, and 16,99 special stage kilometres. Asunmaa started the day with a second fastest time on the opening stage and a third fastest time on the SS2. By the night break Asunmaa was third, running only 3,2 seconds behind the leader.

-The first stage was good; we drove cleanly yet bravely. The second stage was good until we clipped our front right tyre on a concrete pole about three kilometres before the stage end and suffered a puncture as a result. We’ll focus on our own rally tomorrow and see how far it takes us.

Saturday consisted of 7 stages run on more traditional Finnish gravel. On the Saturday’s morning loop Asunmaa was awake right at the start and got the gap down to just two seconds by the time of the mid-day service.

-The road was still a bit cold in some places and the grip was varying a bit. I think the road surface will improve on the second run. We’ve made few small errors. Once we get them ironed out, we’ll win valuable seconds.

On the second leg Asunmaa continued his attack with fastest times for stages 5 and 6 gaining the rally lead. Fourth fastest time on the SS7 dropped Asunmaa back to second with a 1,6 second gap to leader before the last two stages.

-The margins are really small here. We gave a bit of time away with another puncture, as I clipped another cut prevention pole. But it’s a small gap and we have two stages to run.

Asunmaa started the evening’s leg with a fourth-fastest time. However, on the last stage of the rally, Asunmaa was the fastest man on the stage. With the fellow competitor and leader making a mistake, Asunmaa won the rally with a 5,9 second margin.

-It’s been a really tight rally and winning it feels great. The last stage was great, the second to last could have been better. Hard to say how far the last stage would have gotten us on pure pace, but today we had the advantage.
The victory in the SM Mad-Croc Länsirannikon Rally was Asunmaa’s second win this season. In the finish Asunmaa reflected the difficulties on the last year’s tarmac section and the importance of the proper preparation.

-We succeeded on the tarmac stages better than last year. We were running at the pace of the top, thanks to more throughout preparations. A big thank you to our service and cooperation partners, we made a few mistakes during the weekend but luckily, they weren’t too costly. We’ll improve for the next time. However, this is a nice way to head to Ostrobothnia for the next round.

The Finnish Rally Championship continues in Seinäjoki in 17^th to 18^th of June.

Overall results of SM Mad-Croc Länsirannikon Rally:

1.	Teemu Asunmaa	50:09,6		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Emil Lindholm	50:15,5	+5,9	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Mikko Heikkilä	50:22,0	+12,4	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	50:30,4	+20,8	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Juha Salo	50:32,9	+23,3	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo

Special stage results:

Friday

SS1 – Halisoja – 7,50 km

1.	Mikko Heikkilä	3:20,1		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Teemu Asunmaa	3:21,0	+0,9	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Emil Lindholm	3:21,8	+1,7	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	3:21,9	+1,8	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	3:24,9	+4,8	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

SS2 – Ohensaari – 9,49 km

1.	Mikko Heikkilä	4:40,1		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Emil Lindholm	4:40,4	+0,3	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Teemu Asunmaa	4:42,4	+2,3	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	4:42,9	+2,8	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	4:48,8	+8,7	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

Saturday

SS3 – Suni 1 – 18,64 km

1.	Juha Salo	8:32,5		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Teemu Asunmaa	8:32,9	+0,4	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Mikko Heikkilä	8:34,0	+1,5	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	8:34,1	+1,6	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Emil Lindholm	8:35,6	+3,1	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo

SS4 – Lavamäki 1 – 11,48 km

1.	Egon Kaur	5:25,9		Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2.	Emil Lindholm	5:26,8	+0,9	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Teemu Asunmaa	5:27,2	+1,3	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Mikko Heikkilä	5:27,3	+1,4	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
5.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	5:30,2	+4,3	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

SS5 – Paistanoja – 8,08 km

1.	Teemu Asunmaa	4:20,3		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Mikko Heikkilä	4:20,6	+0,3	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Emil Lindholm	4:20,8	+0,5	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	4:21,0	+0,7	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	4:23,6	+3,3	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

SS6 – Suni 2 – 18,64 km

1.	Teemu Asunmaa	8:26,6		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Mikko Heikkilä	8:29,4	+2,8	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Juha Salo	8:29,8	+3,2	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Egon Kaur	8:30,7	+4,1	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Emil Lindholm	8:32,2	+5,6	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo

SS7 – Lavamäki 2 – 11,48 km

1.	Mikko Heikkilä	5:23,9		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Juha Salo	5:24,0	+0,1	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Emil Lindholm	5:25,3	+1,4	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Teemu Asunmaa	5:26,6	+2,7	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
5.	Egon Kaur	5:26,8	+2,9	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

SS8 – Laukkaniittu – 6,12 km

1.	Egon Kaur	2:39,1		Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
2.	Emil Lindholm	2:39,3	+0,2	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Mikko Heikkilä	2:39,7	+0,6	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Teemu Asunmaa	2:40,2	+1,1	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
5.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	2:44,1	+5,0	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

SS9 – Saukonoja – 14,21 km

1.	Teemu Asunmaa	7:12,4		Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
2.	Emil Lindholm	7:13,3	+0,9	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
3.	Juha Salo	7:13,4	+1,0	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
4.	Aleksi Röyhkiö	7:21,0	+8,6	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
5.	Mikko Heikkilä	7:26,9	+14,5	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo

FRC points standing after 4/7 rounds:

79	Emil Lindholm	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
69	Teemu Asunmaa	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
65	Egon Kaur	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5
53	Mikko Heikkilä	Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo
44	Aleksi Röyhkiö	Volkswagen Polo GTI R5

Uutiset

Teemu ja Ville

Teemu
Asunmaa

36

Ikä

Alavus

Kotipaikka

Yrittäjä

Ammatti

Ville
Mannisenmäki

28

Ikä

Rauma

Kotipaikka

Kumppanit

Uutiset

Teemu ja Ville

TeemuAsunmaa

36

Ikä

Alavus

Kotipaikka

Yrittäjä

Ammatti

VilleMannisenmäki

28

Ikä

Rauma

Kotipaikka

Kumppanit

Teemu
Asunmaa

Ville
Mannisenmäki