Halttunen describes his experience when he became driver for one rally

Jonne Halttunen is talking about his experience as a driver, as he left his co-driving seat for a little bit last weekend, and admits that it was difficult for him to listen to the pacenotes while he was driving on stages.

The reigning WRC champion drove a course car on the third round of Finnish Championship [Jyväskylän Talviralli] last weekend and had Kalle Rovanpera as his rival. The last one drove a Toyota Starlet and had a different co-driver for this event, but unfortunately he did not manage to finish the rally as he retired due to a suspension arm damage. On the other hand, Halttunen made his second outing in rallying as a driver and got behind the wheel of a Toyota Corolla in Jyvaskyla last weekend. Finally, it must be mentioned that he made his driving debut at Maxell Ralli in 2015 with a Honda Civic Type-R.

"For sure I will stick in my current position – but for a hobby, I will do some more events and maybe I can take some practice maybe on the handling of the car in the slow speed", Halttunen said.

"It was in these kind of places that I was not so good.

"But, for sure, I will do some rallies as a driver in the future. For me it also helped me understand Kalle more and understand why he wants some information from the pacenotes and why he wants them in a certain time.

"Honestly, I think there is a benefit in the day job and this is the reason why I want to do it – it can make me do my job better. 

"Sometimes Tapio was telling me a note and I thought: ‘Maybe it could have been different to say it like this…’ 

"It was making me think more about what I am doing myself in the car.

"I was also really surprised at how hard it was to listen to the notes. 

"When I am sitting in the co-driver seat and calling the notes, I just think that Kalle is understanding everything. 

"But after last weekend, I could say maybe 30% of the time I couldn’t understand at all. 

"I was so focused on the driving, and then maybe there was a note and I couldn’t remember what it was, what he had told me. It really made me think.

"When we are having some tricky events with a lot of mud or some complicated conditions, then I can see now it’s maybe more complicated for the driver to be taking more information in from the co-driver and the notes.

"There was so much listening to do!".

Source: DirtFish.com

Photo Credits: Toyota