Up in the ass of Timo! Rautiainen tells what really happened

– Ouch, ouch! Timo Rautiainen screams in pain during a special test at the Turkish Rally 2004.

– What happened, Marcus Grönholm asks his carter worriedly.

– Something came through the ass. Oh shit, Rautiainen wailed.

At the finish line of Pätkä, Grönholm gives a short but probably the most legendary interview in the rally world in English from the window of his car. He says that a stone or something came through Timo’s seat.

– Up in the ass of Timo“Bosse” says and describes the situation with an international hand gesture, so to speak.

The videos uploaded to YouTube about the situation have collected around two million views, and a music remix has also been made of it.

– There was no penetration, Rautiainen, who remembers the painful situation with humor, elaborates.

Like a hammer

What the hell happened on the Turkish gravel road? Rautiainen, who won the World Cup title with Grönholm in 2000 and 2002, tells Iltalehti the details of the strange accident.

– In the rally in Turkey, the side roads were lined by hitting the brush steels upright in the road and tape between them so that no one drives there. The previous car had knocked over one brush steel on the road. Or we didn’t see it, but let’s assume so. When you drove over it, the front wheel raised the brush steel and it wedged against the bottom and the ground.

At high speed, the ground did not give way, but the bottom of the car did.

– The brush steel came through the bottom of the car and the seat and into my right ass cheek. The blow was hard. It felt as if someone had hit the can with a hammer directly, Rautiainen describes.

The hand was also burnt

Fortunately for the man, the steel bar did not go through the skin or the overalls. However, it didn’t fall off right away, so the carter had to investigate what was the matter.

– After screaming there for a while, I loosened the belts and got my hand in there. I immediately burned my hand. The steel was so hot from penetrating the bottom.

– I tried to keep quiet with sweat on my forehead, and Bosse drove to the finish line. At some point, that brush steel dripped and I was able to sit a little better.

Rautiainen did not have to stop the race because of the incident.

– No no. It was examined that the skin is not broken. A little painkiller, and we finished the race.

However, the victory remained a dream because of the episode.

Casting impossible

– The following week we ran a tire test at Pihlajakoski. I couldn’t sit in any position, it hurt and hurt. I thought how could it still hurt when it was nothing but a bruise.

At the doctor’s office, it was found that the bone was broken in two places.

– The bone on which the gluteal muscles are located and on which you sit. That explained the pain.

The injury could not be treated like bone fractures in general, i.e. by casting.

– Yeah, you couldn’t put a cast on your ass, Rautiainen laughs.

The padding helped

The next race was the Argentina rally.

– There, our physiotherapist found a hospital supply store in a remote village and went to buy a seat ring. For example, women who have given birth may sit on it for a few weeks, or if there has been some lower head surgery, it relieves the pressure.

The aid was a simple fabric-covered foam ring, but it was a mess. Rautiainen used the seat tire until the end of his rally career, i.e. until the 2007 RAC rally.

– I now have it framed at home. Mechanics put it on frames and it has a sign that says “World’s Fastest Ass Tire”.

Back fractures

The brush razor that became legendary had the ingredients for even a fatal accident, but it was not the worst injury of Timo Rautiainen’s career.

He broke his spine twice – both times in the World Rally Championship in Jyväskylä.

– First -95 or -96 with a Celica in Ouninpohja at Keltainen talo jump. The landing was so violent that a vertebra broke in the thoracic spine. The ability to speak went for many kilometers, and I could only show with my hand a little where the road turns. Burana just to the final rally.

The pain continued, but Rautiainen didn’t go to the doctor until December, when the fracture was diagnosed.

– The second time it broke in Vellipohja in 2005. It was a Pöso 307 car, and it would have been EK 2 or 3. It wasn’t even a bad jump, but it came a bit against the pack. Bosse was able to hold onto the wheel, but my head went down again. Doctors call it the falling off the roof effect. If you fall from the roof, you end up with an upper body fold that breaks a vertebra.

Tajuk left

The competitor pair Grönholm–Rautiainen drove the karter to win the race despite the injury.

– I couldn’t speak at all during the final section, but Bosse drove without notes, and we won that section as well. He kept yelling to stop. I just showed with my hand to go ahead.

– Bosse asked before the next clip if we should go straight to the service park. I said they can’t do anything there, so let’s drive quietly through Mökkiperä. I was absolutely drenched in sweat from the pain, and my consciousness was shifting at times.

Rautiainen got before the start by Petter Solberg from karttur From Phil Mills a handful of pain pills.

– We agreed with Bosse not to jump at all in Mökkiperä now, but the first one turned out to be such a good jump.

Again Rautiainen couldn’t talk for many kilometers.

– Then we came for maintenance. I was taken out of the car, and the cops forced me into their butts and searched. They gave me painkillers and taping around the chest, and not just in the car, but with another round.

– I told the doctor that my spine is broken. They said it couldn’t be, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to walk.

A misunderstanding

Rautiainen trusted the doctor’s opinion, but in the evening the competition doctor ordered him to Jyväskylä hospital for tests. The X-ray showed a compression fracture of the seventh vertebra.

– I said it’s an old fracture. The doctor asked if both of these or. I said yes, both. There was a misunderstanding when the X-ray did not show whether the fractures were fresh or not.

Rautiainen fought to the end of the race with the help of pain medication and taping.

– Yes, it was a risk. But we were careful in the jumps and won that rally, Rautiainen grins.