Thereafter a change was made in the rules, and the winners of single competitions were rewarded with less points that previously. That was poisonous for Finnish rally drivers, who had always taken more risks than others to keep a superior speed, and since 2002 no one from Finland has won the world championship, but French drivers have dominated the rally trails.
One of the drivers of that period was Harri Rovanperä, who managed to win a single rally - in Sweden - but was at his best "only" fifth in the total competition. But he had a son, who was going to make history in motor sports.
Today this son - Kalle Rovanperä - has won his fifth rally out of seven competitions driven this year. Right now it looks that he is simply too good to be beaten, as he seems to win single rallies by "driving avoiding all risks", as he said yesterday after winning one of the special stages.
As the younger Rovanperä is only 21 years old, he could rule rallying for the next decade or so - thus challenging the achievement of the the nine time world champion Sébastien Loeb. But even without that, he will return the glory of Finnish motor sports and thus continue the tradition of the "Flying Finns" in rally trails.
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