The view upon entering the central Finnish garage is surprising. Inside, on the leather couch right next to the door, Kalle Rovanperä is lounging in his overalls, scrolling through his phone. This is apparently what it looks like when an athlete is in control, so to speak.
It’s the Toyota team’s test day for the Chile World Rally and the reigning world champion is having a little siesta after the lunch break. After a while, people come from the front door to shout to him that the car is ready to drive again after the adjustment procedures.
Since official testing for World Series long-distance races is prohibited, Rovanperä and kart driver Jonne Halttunen are trying to apply suitable race adjustments at Toyota’s own test area free of restrictions. The WC rally caravan has previously visited next weekend’s race scene in Chile only once. In the competition run in the 2019 season, Rovanperä won the WRC2 class.
– It’s already been four years since the last competition in Chile, and there have been new clips, so I approach it as if I were going to a new competition. After all, it brings its own challenge, that the tests of the long-distance race have to be run in their own test area. This is not the same as Chilean gravel, but it is probably the best alternative that could easily be found, Rovanperä says.
Read the whole thing here.