The 1997 Rally Finland (also known as the 47th Neste Rally Finland) event was held from 29 to 31 August 1997. The rally took place in

Jyväskylä Jyväskylä () is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Central Finland. It is located in the Finnish Lakeland. The population of Jyväskylä is approximately , while the Jyväskylä sub-region, sub-region has a population of approximately ...

, Finland. The winner was Tommi Makinen, with

Seppo Harjanne Seppo Harjanne (born 20 February 1948) is a Finnish former rally co-driver. He is best known for co-driving for Timo Salonen from 1979 to 1988 and for Tommi Mäkinen from 1990 to 1997. With Salonen, Harjanne took ten World Rally Championship ...

as co-driver, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 4.

Overview

The total length of the race was 1171.79km, which included road sections. The total liaison distance was 790.24km and the total special stage distance was 381.55km over gravel. AKK Sports, the marketing company of the Finnish ASN, AKK-Motorsport, took over organizing the event, earning praise from WRC teams for safety. This change culminated in the changing of its name to Neste Rally Finland. The company's target was to develop a clearly defined brand for the rally. A new special stage was added at Hippos, along with a VIP area for 1,600 guests. The following year, teams voted it Rally of the Year. Mäkinen, on his way to a third consecutive title, set a record with his fifth straight Rally Finland win. Ice hockey star and auto racing enthusiast

Teemu Selänne Teemu Ilmari Selänne (; born July 3, 1970) is a Finnish former professional ice hockey winger. He began his professional career in 1989–90 with Jokerit of the SM-liiga and played 21 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Winn ...

, also competed, finishing 33rd in 1997 and 24th in 1998. Despite some environmental protests, a 1997 study by the

University of Jyväskylä A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". U ...

found the impact to be minimal, with noise pollution being the main concern. There were 105 participant entries.

Background

Itinerary

All dates and times are

EEST Eastern European Summer Time (EEST) is one of the names of the UTC+03:00 time zone, which is 3 hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. It is used as a summer daylight saving time in some European and Middle Eastern countries, which makes it ...

(

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

)

Results

Overall

Awards

The Finland Rally 1997 event won the Award of Excellence. It also won an Outstanding Safety Effort, which awarded to them by the FIA registered teams.

References

External links

Official website
*
1997 Rally Finland
at eWRC-results.com
1997 Rally Finland
at rally-maps.com {{Rally Finland

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

1997 World Rally Championship season Rally Finland

Rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...