Louise Cook returned to action in the FIA World Rally Championship as the Kent driver finished Rally Finland 2016 in fifty-third place.
After a four-year absence due to injury, Louise found the funding to compete at last weekend’s Rally Finland but she nearly did not compete despite competing at the 2016 Goodwood Festival of Speed a month ago. Cook’s Ford Fiesta ST developed an intermittent misfire, which turned out to be the crankshaft sensor being damaged.
Louise’s chances of competing in Finland were in jeopardy, so she called up Monutune Racing who had a brand new engine and fixed the crankshaft problem in a day, ensuring that her dream of competing at Rally Finland became a reality.
Louise said about the serious engine problem that almost hampered her from competing in Finland “It was important to find the problem and not just fix the engine. When the causes are unknown, you can soon end up back in the same place. The crankshaft bush was a simple oversight from the previous engine builder with disastrous consequences. If Mountune hadn’t spotted the cause, then it would have killed another engine.”
Her team arrived in Finland after a 2,500 kilometre drive. When Rally Finland had begun in the university town of Jyväskylä, Louise tackled the famous high-speed Finnish stages, including the famous ‘Ouninpohja’ stage, which she completed and had no signs of engine trouble throughout the rally.
The Kent driver had finished Neste Rally Finland 2016 in fifty-third place with co-driver Stefan Davis assisting her throughout the weekend in the pink-liveried Ford Fiesta ST.
Cook paid tribute to everyone who had supported her during a four-year absence from the sport, adding “Thank you to everyone who made this weekend happen, so many people were involved in this whole operation and I cannot shout enough how grateful I am to all of you. My patient sponsors who have been on a hell of a journey with me since 2012 but have kept the confidence and faith.”
