| Driver Jani Paasonen |
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Born: 1975-4-11 Length: 182 cm Weight: 108 kg Lives: Mäntyharju - Finland Occupation: Rally driver & Drivers instructor Email: jani.paasonen@drivex.fi 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 because 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 laying third place overall. Accident ended his rally, but he had made rallying history. Jani Paasonen was the first driver to score the fastest time for Mitsubishi's World Rally Car. 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 WRC sharing team´s second works car in gravel events with fellow Finn Janne Tuohino. |