For the 2023 season, more teams are being formed for the Finnish Rally Championship and now on Wednesday, a new team was announced that the Rally Finland title sponsor is forming a new team called Secto Automotive Labs Rally Team.
Secto has been the main sponsor of the Finnish round for some years, now they are expanding their involvement in the rally sport and have announced their first driver who is Heikki Kovalainen, the former Formula 1 driver who switched full focus to rallying.
After success in Rally Japan during the year, he chooses before 2023 to drive in Finland, he will drive a Skoda Fabia Rally2 Evo with Janni Hussi as co-driver. The 31-year-old Finn is an entrepreneur and is known in the media. Got the offer to go to the Lahti Historic Rally with Sami Pajari in a Ford Escort MK2 during the summer and was bitten by rally driving, later also went to a competition in Lithuania.
Now the competition in the Finnish Ralli SM series with Kovalainen is waiting, an R5 venture that will be expanded going forward. This year it’s about seeing and learning, and going forward both pace and ambitions will be turned up and maybe we’ll also see Kovalainen in some ERC and WRC starts.
Another driver in the team is Justus Räikkönen with a famous surname, he is also related to the Formula 1 icon Kimi Räikkönen. He is Kimi’s nephew, the 17-year-old Justus, who has already shown good pace will join the team with co-driver Mikael Korhonen and for this year it is a full commitment with the Peugeot 208 Rally4, a big step up from a tamer Ford Fiesta.
