Motorsport | In Jonne Halttunen’s work, one mistake can cost the lives of two people

Jonne Halttus has spent the last few weeks around the world like a world champion.

But it should be. Halttunen is the first Finnish rally car map reader world champion in 20 years. Timo Rautiainen achieved the corresponding title Marcus Grönholm as a map reader in 2002.

“The championship warms and confuses. I had never been able to dream that I would be at the top, let alone a world champion,” says Halttunen.

Halttunen drove to become world champion Kalle Rovanperän roll. In November, at the age of 22, Rovanperä became the youngest rally world champion of all time.

Before Independence Day, the two were chosen as Finland’s motorsport athletes of the year. At the castle’s party, Halttunen alone represented the champion couple, while Rovanperä was on Toyota’s duties in Japan.

Rovanperä was also able to participate in the award gala of the International Automobile Association in Bologna, as well as in the folk festival organized in his hometown Jyväskylä. The party program also included a little Christmas party at the Toyota garage and a dinner party for a group of friends.

Which has been heavier. six parties or a long season in the World Rally Championship?

“You enjoy the season more than the formalities. Of course, they are nice and part of the job description, but when there are a lot of them, it starts to feel like work. After the season, we feel like resting when we have a short holiday,” says 37-year-old Halttunen in an interview with HS.

The season ended in mid-November with the World Rally Championship in Japan. The new season starts in January with the World Rally Championship in Monte Carlo. There are thirteen World Cup competitions in the season, each of which must be noted. Tests are run between races.

Last season started and ended badly for Rovanperä and Halttunen. In Monte Carlo, due to incorrect car adjustments, the couple finished far behind the others, in fourth place. In Japan, Rovanperä was completely without World Championship points in the final race, which was marred by broken tires.

“At Monte, we were the slowest WRC cars at the beginning. We joked with Kalle that we’ll probably have to find another job after this. Between the bad start and the end came the championship,” says Halttunen.

WRC (World Rally Championship) is the main rally series. Its sub- and support series are WRC2 and WRC3. Junior WRC2 is a special series for drivers under the age of 30.

This year the Finns won all those series. Emil Lindholm won the WRC2 class and the junior class. Lauri Joona was number one in the WRC3 class.

Rovanperä’s first world championship surprised many, including Halttunen and Toyota’s team manager Jari-Matti Latvala. Latvala said a year ago to HS that Rovanperä will only compete for the championship in the 2023 season.

Read more: Jari-Matti Latvala is building a rally hybrid era in Jyskä – the giant company Toyota brought its entire rally team to Central Finland

“Kalle surprised me too. He was so mature already and an awfully quick learner. Kalle knows how to prepare and drive sensibly. Rally is a sport of speed but also a sport of experience. Kalle has both qualities”, praises Halttunen.

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“Kalle had a good road memory, but he had not driven World Cup rallies. That was one of the reasons I was hired.”

Rovanperä started rallying at the age of eight in a car with special pedals built for him. He inherited his enthusiasm from his father From Harri Rovanperawho won one World Rally Championship in his career (in Sweden in 2001) and was on the podium 15 times.

Halttunen started reading sheet music in a rally car at the age of 22, i.e. the same age when Rovanperä won the world championship. Halttusen became a professional in rallying in 2017, when he signed a contract with Rovanperä.

First, Halttunen read the driving notes Mikko Pajunen. Halttunen remembers that Pajusen’s Opel Kadett rally car in 2007 cost 1,700 euros. For a WRC-level rally car, you could get a pair of rims with it.

Halttunen drove in the World Rally Championship for the first time in Jyväskylä in the summer of 2011 Santeri Jokinen as a map reader. After that, he competed in, among other things Matias Kauppinen and Teemu Asunmaan with.

In the winter of 2017, Halttunen led the SM rally in Mikkeli with Asunmaa, when Rovanperä came hard from behind. Rovanperä suffered a flat tire but won Asunmaa by ten seconds.

“We talked with Teemu that it would be nice to take Rovanperä’s scalp, but Kalle passed us in the last two special tests,” says Halttunen.

In January of the same year, Rovanperä received an exemption to drive in SM rallies and national championships at the age of 16. He was a map reader Risto Pietiläinenwho was Harri Rovanperä’s credit cardholder.

But why exactly did Jonne Halttunen get to be the map reader of the young rally promise?

“Kalle had a good road memory, but he had not driven World Cup rallies. That was one of the reasons why I was hired,” says Halttunen.

The hire was based on Rovanperä’s manager Timo Jouhkiwho made a similar move back in the day Tommi Mäkinen for: experienced Seppo Harjanne changed to the future world champion’s map reader.

The acquaintance had already started earlier, when 16-year-old Rovanperä came to Halttunen’s place in Jyväskylä to watch rally videos.

“Kalle had a lowered moped with which he meant to get caught in our yard,” Haltunen remembers.

Halttunen is from Vesanga, west of Jyväskylä. Nowadays, he lives in the same village where Rovanperä comes from, i.e. Puuppola, about 12 kilometers north of Jyväskylä.

A funny coincidence is that also former rally stars Tommi Mäkinen, Mikko Hirvonen and Kalle’s father live in Puuppola. Kalle Rovanperä is enrolled in Monaco, where he moved from Tallinn.

Together With Rovanperä, Halttunen changed a lot of notes and preparations for the competition. The change took two years.

Initial was difficult. In the spring of 2018, Rovanperä drove the Ŝkoda WRC2 factory team car badly. The driving error that happened in the World Rally Championship in Argentina was rare for Rovanpera.

“We ran a technically difficult special test. We had made the notes in a new way. We determined the steepness of the curves in a different way than Kalle was used to before. We drove the rally for the win, when two kilometers before the finish we had an overly optimistic note. There was a big outing. Kalle learned that very quickly,” says Halttunen.

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“Kalle has such a processor in his head that he can absorb a lot of information.”

Back in the 1990s, you could practice the rally route freely. Since then, the driver and the map reader have been allowed to record the special tests only twice.

The route is driven through by a civilian car. The driver tells you what the curve looks like, and the karter notes it. On the second drive, the map reader reads the notes, which the driver checks.

In the evening, the same points are watched again on video, and there are many of these points. At race pace, driving from the notes is much more difficult.

“In just over two dozen years, the way of notating music has changed a lot.”

Halttunen has developed his own way of reading music.

“Kalle wants me to read the sheet music early. Kalle has such a processor in his head that he can absorb a lot of information. If Kalle makes a mistake, I express my opinion sensitively and the same goes the other way around. We try to focus on things objectively.”

How Rovanperä accepts feedback?

“75 percent. This is cooperation. At the beginning, I wondered if I would even dare to tell Kalle when I made an analysis of his notes after the fact. Kalle was a bit confused when no one had told him about them before. Kalle has developed as a person. You wouldn’t believe that he is in his twenties,” says Halttunen.

“Now our world of thought coincides very well. Kalle and I are like brothers and friends, not just professional colleagues. That is one key to success. The Toyota team is like a big family and Latvala is a great team manager.”

Halttunen uses simple words in his sheet music. For example, Halttus has 15 different words for the steepness of a curve, such as greedy or an arrow. Based on the words, Rovanperä knows how to come around corners at a suitable speed.

“The word may sound simple, but it contains a lot of information. If a new driver were to join the sport, it would be difficult for him to understand what I was explaining, even if I taught him everything I know about notation. The driver must first realize and experience himself before the secrets of notation can be understood.”

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“At the top, we are under a magnifying glass.”

At the rally the driver always has the last word, but the map reader has a huge responsibility in the game.

In ice hockey and football, another player can save a mistake made by a player of his own team, but not in a rally.

In a rally, a mistake can even cost another life in the worst case.

“It’s the intensity of the work. Errors are also pointed out, and an expert notices them on live TV broadcasts. Because of a mistake, the whole race and the team’s work can be ruined. At the top, we are under a magnifying glass. In the beginning, I took the mistakes hard and of course still do, but we have to remember that we are human.”

Current Rally cars are made to last, but it always hurts and happens. At the World Rally Championship in Jyväskylä in the fall of 2021, Rovanperä ran into a pile of sand at speed. That was the end of the race.

Rovanperä injured his back and Halttunen his neck.

In excessively long jumps, the car can fall directly onto its bottom armor. It feels like falling from a height of one meter. The blow comes directly to the body.

If the car has a technical fault or a flat tire, the driver must act quickly. Small faults are tried to be fixed on the road yourself, if there is a tool for that in the car. Changing tires is a daily routine.

Rovanperä and Halttunen can celebrate the world championship many more times. It depends a lot on what Rovanperä wants from his career.

“I think Kalle wants to try something else at some point. If Kalle stopped at the age of 30, he would have been rallying for 22 years. We have talked about how it would be nice to ride in an endurance rally, like the Dakar Rally in the Middle East. However, you never know what will happen,” says Halttunen.

In his own career, Halttunen was faced with a choice five and a half years ago: should he become a rally professional or continue running his own company?

Halttunen has founded a company called Hydromachin, which is a wholesale and installation shop for hydraulics and industrial supplies. With his rally career, Halttunen sold part of his company and remained chairman of the board.

“Building a company from scratch and running it was a tough job. On the other hand, it allowed me to be a map reader when it was still a hobby. Sometimes after a career, you could develop something new again”, Halttunen thinks.

In December 2021, he was selected as Muurami’s young entrepreneur of the year in Central Finland.

To the new one Rovanperä and Halttunen enter the rally season as favourites, no longer as underdogs. Toyota is constantly developing a better rally car so that the team can win more championships.

“Last year, six rallies were won. At least things shouldn’t get worse. Kalle and I are competitive. We are already thinking about next season. It may seem silly that we won’t be able to enjoy this success for a long time,” says Halttunen.

“You can be the best karter in the world, but if you don’t have a good driver, you’re nothing.”