Q&A: Jari Ketomaa - Winner of the Latvia stop

Jari Ketomaa celebrated a maiden victory in the FIA European Rally Championship when he triumphed on last weekend’s Rally Liepāja-Ventspils. Here’s what he had to say.

How pleased were you following your victory?

“It was really a great weekend and I need to say the last two years were quite a lot bad luck and not so good results. Either the car would fail or there would be a mistake on the driving. But you need to just keep believing and keep doing the work you believe in.”

This was your first event with your new co-driver Kaj Lindström. How do you think it went?

“We were good with Kaj inside the car but I have to say there was no complaining about my co-driver before, Mika Stenberg. Kaj was able to say some things I haven’t thought before and I managed to get a very good rhythm.”

When Craig Breen won five stages in a row did you think it would be impossible to win or were you always confident?

“Craig did a great work and was driving unbelievably fast. On Friday evening I was not completely confident in the car. It was our first stages with Kaj as a co-driver in a real race and I wasn’t completely used to the pacenotes and how he is reading them. But then we get the rhythm with the pacenotes and it started to come easier and easier and I could push more. I’m sure Craig didn’t have a lot of limit because I didn’t either. It was a great fight and you need to do your best. If someone else is faster then he’s faster but I was just pushing as hard as I can.”

A lot was made about the performance of the turbocharged cars against the normally aspirated machines here. How much of a factor was this in the outcome of the rally?

“I don’t think the cars would be in the same class if the performance was not the same. All the car manufacturers know the amount of horsepower the turbocharged cars have with the smaller restrictor, it’s a little bit less compared to the normally aspirated S2000 car. It gets a little higher top-end speed but in the other end there are some other advantages, which good drivers can use on S2000 cars like Craig, who is a great driver with S2000 cars. I would say they are more or less similar. On some stages I might have some benefit and on other stages S2000 cars might have some benefit so I don’t think there is a big difference.”

What’s next for you?

“This week is Rally Sweden and the world championship, a completely different story. I just want to do each stage as well as I can and continue the same things what we are doing here. But I have to say this victory is good for the self confidence.”