Jani Paasonen
Finland (FIN) |
CAREER
PROFILE1995: Started rallying with Opel Ascona
1996: Drives Opel 1997: Finished 21st in Rally Finland with Mitsubishi on his WRC debut 1998: Drives Mitsubishi 1999: Drives Mitsubishi 2000: Drives Mitsubishi, Group N Finnish Champion 2001: Drives Ford 2002: Contract with Mitsubishi 2003: Drives Mitsubishi 2004: Drives Mitsubishi and Skoda, 6th in Rally Finland, 3rd PCWRC for Drivers 2005: Contract with Skoda
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Birth: 11/4/1975 at Mäntyharju Marital status: Hobbies: World Drivers' Champion: |
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| Jani Paasonen
started his rallying career with Opel Ascona in 1995 and he placed second in the Finnish
Junior Rally Championship series in the following year. In Rally Finland 1998 he surprised and he was near to top ten, but promising run ended on the last day beacause of gearbox failure. After good competition some managers noticed his potential. It was also a start of co-operation with Malks Promotion. Starting from season 1999 Managing Director of Malks Promotion Mika Sohlberg has helped to co-ordinate his career. In 1999 he was driving with the Group N Mitsubishi and scored top three places in Sweden and also in Finland. He also achieved third place in Finnish Championships. Season 2000 proved that Jani has speed and skills enough to make good results also in international level. He won the Group N in Sweden and also in Finland and achieved the Finnish title in that category. In 2001 he made a big step from Group N
to World Rally Car. His first rally with the Ford Focus WRC was Swedish Rally, where he
retired. The second trip to Sweden was much more successful, when he became the first
foreigner to win South Swedish Rally. Second win of the season followed in Mänttä
Rally, the traditional warm up event for the classic stages of Rally Finland.
He was the first non-works driver to compete in a
2001-specication Focus, when he started the Rally Finland. He impressed many and scored good stage times. In the
beginning of the event he ran as high as third place overall. Accident ended his rally, but he had
showed that he is able to drive as fast as top drivers. In the Swedish Rally
2002 he was given a chance in Mitsubishi´s third works car. Again, there
was great promise in the beginning, but a puncture destroyed his chances.
Accident ended his rally in Cyprus and in July he did a one-off outing in
the Azores, in a European Championship event. He drove an old Subaru WRC and
led until encountering problems with a puncture. In Rally Finland his target
was to be the fastest Mitsubishi driver and he achieved that placing eight. Alister McRae was forced to withdraw from Rally New Zealand and as a
result Paasonen was offered a bonus rally. He scored good stage times and in the
beginning of the event he was lying third place overall. Accident ended his
rally, but he had made rallying history. Jani Mitsubishi decided to pull out of the 2003 World Rally Championship and it was clear that his program during the season would be very restricted. He contested only one WRC event in Germany and was waiting for Mitsubishi´s decisions about the next season believing that he will be one of the works drivers. The team decided not to sign Paasonen and it seemed that he has nothing left. His old rival Manfred Stohl was building his own team for the season 2004 and Paasonen was invited to drive one of the OMV World Rally Team´s Group N Mitsubishi in the 2004 FIA Production Car World Rally Championship series. He won the first round in Sweden dominating the event from start to finish, leading from the first stage and taking 13 out of 19 stage wins. In Rally Finland he got a one-off drive in a works Skoda Fabia WRC and he took the sixth place. This was the best WRC result ever for the Fabia WRC and also Paasonen´s personal best result at this level. Jani’s drive was rewarded with the Inmarsat Star of the Rally Award. Before the last Production Car World Rally Championship event in Australia, he was leading the series, but forced to retire and placed third in the PCWRC series. For the season 2005 he made a contract with Skoda sharing team´s second works car in gravel events with fellow Finn Janne Tuohino. |
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