The dangerous situation was startling.
Juha Kankkunen has seen many things. PDO
In the Portuguese World Rally, an extremely rare situation was seen on Friday, when the top man in the World Series Elfyn Evans encountered a tow truck on a special test.
For some reason, the tow truck had stalled, even though it was already running. Evans first noticed the cloud of dust until suddenly a tow truck pulled up ahead. Toyota’s Welsh truck luckily avoided hitting the car, and soon the pick-up truck veered off the road to the side.
Evans later received a time credit for his situation, but overall the incident was very embarrassing for the organizers of the World Rally Championship in Portugal. Getting a tow truck onto the route is an unforgivable mistake and the race organizers will probably be punished for it by the jury.
Deputy team manager of the Toyota WRC team, four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen has seen a lot in his career. Even so, encountering extra cars at special tests is also a rare situation for the legend from Laukää.
– I did see the situation. It was pretty awesome. It could have been a bit worse if Elfyn hadn’t seen it and stopped. There was still a stage up there, so if you had come across one, it would have been bad, Kankkunen sighed to Iltalehte.
– These have not happened very often. There used to be some in the old days, but not so much anymore. In the 1980s and 1990s there were sometimes cars across the road and you know what.
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Buns well in the oven
Toyota, led by Kankunen, has a good situation in the Portugal rally after Friday, even though the starting positions were not favorable. Sebastien Ogier leads the race narrowly ahead of Hyundai Thierry Neuville. Sami Pajari is in turn third, Oliver Solberg in fourth place and Elfyn Evans fifth.
– It went better in my opinion, which I originally thought we could lose today. The situation is quite interesting. There are good couples still fighting, Kankkunen said.
– Very good driving from Sami again, can’t be faulted. In my opinion, Elfyn also drove really well as the number one car, and didn’t lose much. Smooth work from everyone. Tomorrow it would certainly be best to drive on the bow if it rains, but how do you know about these weather conditions.
