Rally champion Jarkko Miettinen at Rally Centre Finland

Photo: Graham Simmons

When the legendary rally driver Ari Vatanen started his rally school in a remote corner of north-eastern Finland, everyone thought he was crazy.

“No-one will venture this far just to learn how to drive rally cars”, they said.

But Vatanen, World Rally Champion in 1981 and three-time winner of the Paris-Dakar race, proved them wrong.

Born in the little Karelian town of Tuupovaara, he found the challenging terrain around his hometown just right for building a rally training track. This completely enclosed track is the only place in the world where would-be speed demons can learn the fine arts of rally driving without needing a special licence.

Visitors to Ari Vatanen’s rally school get to sample a whole range of rally driving experiences, from the theory and techniques of rally driving to slippery surface handling, ice driving, and extended circuit driving with video feedback.