Jari-Pekka Ralli 2026

Samsonas Motorsport returned to Finland to attend a very special event – Jari-Pekka Ralli. It was held near the small city of Hartola, with two special stages to be driven twice in west of city. There are dozens of similar rallies in Finland, but this one was special because the Samsonas Motorsport dealer in Finland, Jukka Hara | Dogbox Oy, appeared here with many members of its rally family. They included Sami Pajari with his newly built Toyota Corolla GT AE86, his regular co-driver Marko Salminen with a Toyota Starlet, and other close friends.

The Finnish venture had started earlier, with private test sessions held north-east of Lahti to get to grips with Finland’s hard-packed gravel, together with our journey guest, Aurimas Eidžiūnas, in his Ford Puma N5. Jukka Hara himself also drove his BMW E36 M3, as did Marko Salminen in his Toyota Starlet and a few more BMWs. The testing session went very well and laid solid foundations for the upcoming event. As always, there was amazing hospitality during the test session provided by Jukka and his team.

It was a very warm atmosphere in quite chilly weather as crews prepared for the start in the afternoon in Jari-Pekka’s car park and buffet, which for this Saturday became a rally hub full of life. Samsonas Motorsport also had its production showcase in its service area, near the Sami Pajari tent, which attracted quite a lot of traffic and interest. The rally went smoothly despite very slippery and demanding special stages during both day and night. Our friends Aurimas Eidžiūnas and Artūras Laukys even managed to clinch first SS overall victory with their Ford Puma N5 and, after four stages, finished 3rd in class and 7th overall.

The battle between Martynas Samsonas / Ervinas Snitkas and Sami Pajari / Janne Ahtovirta went in the Finns’ favour, with Sami winning three stages and Martynas one in this duel, and a gap of 16.3 seconds after crossing the finish line late in the evening. Sami finished 2nd, and Martynas 6th in overall Jari-Pekka Ralli 2026 standings.