Harju 2019
Core team
Joona Karimaa
Aleksi Paakkinen
Ville Setälä
3rd party assets
BTBFin
JP Virtanen
Janne Laahanen
meye.dk
generated.photos
sketchfab.com/karolmiklas
Reference sources
Janne Laahanen
Onni Keronen
Ville Setälä
Joona Karimaa
Joonas Lönn
Aleksi Paakkinen
Justup
Logo design
Lumi Fellman
Joona Karimaa
Test crew
gheeD
Janne Laahanen
Joonas Lönn
jukkagee
Keeb (Roni)
makinentommi
mik78
mika-n
Onni Keronen
Patterzzeni
The Stig of RBR
Teemu Suninen
Ville Pynnönen
Heikki Ylioikarainen
Hawk
Luppis
History of Harju
Onni Keronen
Special thanks
Workerbee
Tom Smalley
mika-n
Jyväskylä city / Kaupunkisuunnittelu ja maankäyttö
Land surveying department of Finland
Rallysimfans.hu
Created with
Blender
Wallaby
Cloud Compare
Krita
Status update December 2020:
Status update November 2020:
Status update July 2020:
History of Harju stage:
When discussing Rally Finland and it’s special stages many people think of stages like Urria or Myhinpää or Ouninpohja, the most legendary and well known special stage in Rally Finland. Regardless of their connection to Rally Finland none of them were included in the early versions of the rally.
Instead, the Harju special stage was included in the very first Rally Finland back in 1951 when the inaugural rally was won by Arvo “Kurva” Karlsson. The first Rally Finland had a 250-meter-long acceleration and braking test which was located on Yliopistonkatu. The same street that is still used on the special stage. In the next few years to come Harju evolved into a hill climb test starting from Yliopistonkatu and going up on the Harju hill and down again to finish on Pitkäkatu.
Carl-Otto Bremer going downhill on the Harju
stage in 1957.
(Archive of Museum of Central Finland)
Harju was included in Rally Finland regularly as rallying progressed towards the way it is now. Driven on closed roads which are called special stages. In the 70s and until the end of the fondly remembered group B era Harju was a traditional stage in the rally. During this era the stage started from Yliopistonkatu (like in current times) and finishing on top of Harju going through Oikokatu, Löylykatu and Pitkäkatu in the progress.
As group B vanished and rallying changed in 1987, so did the Harju special stage. The route was altered to provide a longer stage than before. This layout bearing some resemblance to the one used even today. The start was still located on Yliopistonkatu. The stage went to the top of Harju again and from there the route went downhill all the way until Sepänkatu, Pitkäkatu and Oikokatu to finish on Yliopistonkatu, yes the same street where the start was located as well. The new layout proved to be entertaining in the very first year of it’s existence. Lasse Lampi hit a tree on the gravel section of the stage and Martin Ericsson almost drove over a squirrel. Three years later in 1990 Didier Auriol found the very same tree that Lampi had found three years prior. After Auriol’s crash the tree was removed and crashes stopped on that gravel section.
The most tragic accident in Rally Finland history
happened on the Harju stage in 1996. Danish driver Karsten Rikhardt lost
control of his Mitsubishi Lancer on Pitkäkatu and lunged into the crowd
standing at the end of the street. One spectator died and 20 other spectators
were injured in this accident. Following the accident chicanes were placed on
the Pitkäkatu straight to control the high speeds of the rally cars. Eventually
after 1998 Harju special stage was removed from Rally Finland following general
opposition.
Harju special stage map from 1987 to 1998 slightly adjusted. The scene of the 1996 accident is presented with the red blob with a yellow circle in it.
The Harju special stage returned to Rally Finland in
2014 after 16 years of absence. The stage sporting mostly the same route as
before. Only difference was turning to Kortesuonkatu instead of continuing to
Oikokatu and Yliopistonkatu like in the earlier version. The stage has taken
it’s place as a cornerstone of the present day Rally Finland. Usually driven as
the first stage of the rally and then on next day as the last stage of that
day. Every year thousands of people have come alongside the Harju special stage
to follow the rally as the stage is very close to the city centre.
Harju special stage map in it’s current form from 2014 onwards.
An idea to create the Harju special stage to Richard Burns Rally was born in 2019. The project was started and carried by the father of the project Joona Karimaa who established a working group to build the Harju special stage to Richard Burns Rally in August 2019. Multiple enthusiastic volunteers went through the route to photograph it as thoroughly as possible. In addition to that a lot of incar videos from Youtube and some data accessible through internet has been in heavy use while making this project. The plan is to make as close copy of the 2019 version of Harju special stage as possible given the limitations of the game and other softwares. Release date is yet to be announced as the project is very broad and the number of working hours still required on the project can not be counted with one hand’s fingers.
- Original text in finnish by Onni Keronen, translated by Janne Laahanen
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