Seppo Hirvelä

Vaala, Finland

**Seppo Henri Hirvelä** (born 6th May 1971) is a Finnish rally driver, who competed for Skoda, Toyota and Citroen in the World Rally Championship. Teamed with co-driver Matias Harmaajärvi, he won the British Rally Championship in 1995 for Nissan.

## Early Life

Seppo was born on 6th May 1971 to parents Henri Hirvelä and Juuti Kivimäki, in Vaala, a small Finnish muncipality which is almost 25% water, with a population density of 2.05 inhabitants per square kilometre. He lived in the town of the same name until 1990 when he moved to Jyväskylä to pursue his rally career.

Seppo worked in the family general store Vaalan Torimarket Oy, known as a "miracle store" by the locals, having a large variety of old and new items in stock. His father fell ill when he was just thirteen, and Seppo would commute to the store to buy food when his father could not manage it. This was how he learned to drive, driving the family's 1963 Toyota Corona.

## Career

### Early Career

Seppo ganied his interest in motorsport through a family friend, a keen *"Jokamiehenluokka"* or "Folkrace" driver, Jokamiehenluokka meaning "everyman's class". Folkrace is a popular, inexpensive, and entry-level form of Nordic rallycross originating in Finland. Seppo used his pay from working in the family store to buy his first car, an old Saab 96 that was unroadworthy. He got the car running and used it in Folkrace, debuting at age 17. After winning a few races, due to Folkrace rules, he was forced to sell the car at a fixed price, sans safety equipment.

Not wanting to continue buying and selling nonfunctional cars, Seppo used the money and further savings to purchase a 1985 Ford Sierra XR4X4, which doubled as the family car for a short time, before Seppo took it to his first official rally, Stop-pastilles Rally 1988, a round of the Finnish Rally Championship. He finished an impressive 22nd overall on debut, in the less-powerful Group N class for showroom models, but retired from the 1988 1000 Lakes Rally, the next round. He would make the trip to compete in the 1000 Lakes Rally in 1989, before moving to Jyväskylä in 1990 to pursue Rallying in a larger capacity.

The move to the home of the 1000 Lakes Rally proved invaluable, Seppo winning the 1992 Finnish Rally Championship in the Group N class, effectively the second tier. He was then signed by Nissan Team Europe to drive the Nissan Sunny GTi, a move seen as a gamble at the time by the UK-based team.

It took Seppo a year of teething troubles to adjust to the more powerful Group A machine and British rally roads, but the hard work paid off with a number of national victories in 1994 and the 1995 British Rally Championship. In 1996, Hirvela left Nissan, taking a semi-works Toyota Celica ST185 to a number of ERC rounds, winning the Arctic and South Swedish rallies on a part-time schedule.

### WRC Career

For 1997 it was announced that Seppo had taken the step up to the WRC. Initially there was some confusion, as Seppo had originally signed a deal with the British-based Prodrive Subaru team, but backed out of the deal after Sami Pekkanen struggled to get to grips with the car in 1996. Seppo signed part-time as one of the Toyota Castrol Team cars. He was joined in the team by young drivers Einion Bach and Petteri Kaartoranta, alongside the experienced Tono Del Rosario and Katsuhito Morikawa. For his first season, he would compete only on gravel and snow rallies.

#### 1997

Seppo had a disastrous debut, missing four stages of the 1997 Rally Sweden due to incidents. In SS5, Rojden I, Hirvelä became stuck in a snowbank after running wide, having rolled in the previous stage. He would miss that leg with suspension damage. In SS11, Svullrya II, Hirvelä's gearbox broke after a heavy landing, and he was forced to pull off. He bounced back in the Safari Rally, taking third on the high-attrition rally. He would repeat the feat next time out in the Acropolis rally, taking another podium place. He ended the season with a sixth place in the Rallye Sanremo and a retirement in Indonesia. After the final round's conclusion Seppo ended the season fifth overall.