Hello Jarmo, Mikko, Toni. Thanks for this interview. Who got the idea to create this association about Cross Kart and why? Toni has started to think about it and straight away he spoke to us. At the beginning, it was just for having fun and enjoy with friends but when we saw that everybody was liking it so much, we decided to take it further to make some shows and then races. The interest was bigger and bigger that’s why we have organized the championship

What are the rules of Finnish Cross Kart Challenge and how to participate in this challenge? Everybody needs to have a car exactly similar. In our races, everybody has to drive a lot to be able to show his abilities. Then, the drivers can collect points on every race. It’s important to say as well that we have different kind of races (hill races, rallycross races and rally sprint) during winter and summer.

The calendar of the Finnish Crosskart Challenge is working in 2 seasons. Winter and Spring and summer season, do you organize only sprint race or sometimes also race in pack too? We have both rally sprint and rally cross packs but everything is inside one championship. Everybody has to compete in the different races.

Riku Putkinen has made a very nice video of the first race of the FCC Saukkolan. It reminds some group B cars in Scandinavian forest. Did you expected that success on this video and of this nice concept (driving a cross kart on a snowy rally stage)? Yes, we thought that it could be exceptional because those cars are really amazing to drive. In the snow it’s crazy and everybody likes the noise of the engines. The sensations inside the car are really amazing.

Do you think that some drivers could come from other countries and test your concept and maybe then in the future you can export this challenge in other countries as well? Of course, why not? As long as the cars are used by people competing in the championship this can be exported everywhere I think if we respect the concept and apply the same rules. The positive point is that the regulations are really strict. Like that you can have a lower cost for the participation to the championship

Can you talk about the event organized by AKK and FCC in August? It’s a race like a nations challenge. We would like to offer something different to the spectators in Killeri before Rally Finland was starting on that stage. There are 3 nations: Finland / France and Spain. We have two famous drivers as team captains for each country plus 5 drivers from the countries’ championship. It will be a great race and a big challenge for the team in front of thousands of people. The 5 drivers of the French team will be Thomas Anacleto, Johnny Feuillade, Nicolas Langhendries, Michael Planche and Florent Tafani. The stars driver will be the funny Daniel Elena and we will know the second one soon.

Do you already have names for the other teams as well? We can tell you that Carlos Sainz and Mikka Kallio will be in the stars drivers! The other names will come soon.I hope that Heikki Kovalainen will be the second captain of Finland, he has lot of experience of this kind of cars from Race of The Champion.

Do you have any message for our French fans? Do you think we will have the chance to see you this year or next year in a Autocross Race in France? Like you know cross karts are really amazing cars. Hopefully in the future, we will have the opportunity to share all that sensations together. Of course, if I can come in France, it will be a pleasure to be in a autocross race!

Interviewer: Linda Martins CITROËN TOTAL ABU DHABI WORLD RALLY TEAM