Ernie Graham banked his first win of the 2024 FIA European Rally Historic Championship in a dramatic conclusion to Lahti Historic Rally today (Saturday).
Tibor Érdi Jr (below) was on course for a hat-trick of FIA EHRC victories following his heroic comeback from last place. But gearbox failure on the final stage of the high-speed gravel even left Graham to triumph alongside co-driving daughter Anna.
It was a fourth outright FIA EHRC win for Ernie Graham, last year’s Category 1 champion, and a first for Anna Graham. The Flexifly Rally Team pair had switched from their regular BMW M3 to a Ford Escort RS 1800 Mk2, homologated in Group B specification, for the 22nd Lahti Historic Rally. They are the fifth different crew to win an FIA EHRC round in 2024.
Érdi Jr arrived in Finland for the first gravel event of the FIA EHRC season aiming to add to his victories on the Mecsek Rallye and Rallye Weiz but his hopes of a third successive win suffered an early setback when he lost almost six minutes stopping on SS1 with a loose ignition wire on his Ford Sierra RS Cosworth 4x4.
Although a repair was quickly made, there was further delay when the car initially wouldn’t restart, leaving the Hungarian 5m53.7s adrift of early leader Jari-Matti Latvala.
However, once Érdi Jr did get going he was unstoppable with the fastest time on Friday’s five remaining stages to the extent he reached the overnight halt in sixth place, 1m50.3s behind Graham.
While Latvala , the 18-time FIA World Rally Championship event winner who restarted on leg two after a timing belt issue halted his Toyota Celica ST165 on Friday’s third stage, was unbeatable in terms of Saturday stage wins, Érdi Jr was up to third by the end of SS8 before he completed SS10 3.1s behind Graham.
After outpacing Graham on SS11, Érdi Jr took a lead of 32.0s into the deciding 14.82 kilometres of Miehola only to stop with a broken gearbox.
Graham’s Ford Escort RS 1800 Mk2 proved faultless, however, leaving the Northern Irishman to triumph outright and in Category 4 ahead of runner-up and Category 3 winner Christophe Jacob .
Behind Belgian Jacob, Finn Jukka Jalonen took the final podium place in his Audi Quattro A2 followed by Austria’s Lukas Schindelegger (Ford RS 2000 Mk2).
Italian “Zippo” continued his pursuit of the overall FIA EHRC title in fifth in his Category 3 Escort with Category 1 winner James Potter rounding out the top six at the wheel of his Flexifly Rally Team Ford Escort Twin Cam. Potter, the provisional FIA EHRC Category 1 champion for 2024, also claimed the FIA EHRC 1600cc Trophy honours.
Having led until driveshaft failure downed his Opel Kadett GSI 16V Friday’s final stage, Norwegian Petter Fausko returned to the action on leg two and finished seventh. He also ended Piotr Gadomski’s run of victories in FIA EHRC Front Wheel Drive Trophy after the Pole had won for three successive events.
Jesus Díez Villarroel placed ninth in his Volvo Amazon 122 S with Latvala classified in 10th place.
The FIA EHRC is back on asphalt for round seven of the nine-event 2024 season with Rally Elba Storico taking place from September 26-28.
Photo: Marko Kyöstilä
