Ouninpohja has been covered in not just one but three posts in this blog, but it still deserves to kick start the new Classic Stages series, which is based on the Top 30 WRC Stages list created earlier. We’ll be looking at what these stages are made of and why they are so special within their rally.
Rally: 🇫🇮 Finland / 1000 Lakes Rally
Surface: Gravel
Length range : 6-34 km
Typical length: 32 km
First appearance: 1973
Latest appearance: 2017
Jumps: more than most stages
Speed: one of the fastest ones
Ouninpohja always gets big crowds of spectators and there’s a lot going on. Through the years it has almost become the epitome of Finland’s WRC round. To many people Ouninpohja equals the Neste Oil Rally Finland.
– Kai Tarkiainen, Clerk of the Course
Ouninpohja is not the most enjoyable stage to drive, it’s so difficult. It’s not enjoyable until you have finished the stage with a good time.
– Marcus Grönholm
Why is it so great?
Finland is known for jumps, and Ouninpohja is packed with them. The jumps over the corners make the stage difficult, almost scary to some drivers.
It has been often the fastest stage of the rally. Even too fast, since sometimes the stage has been replaced with an alternate version (Rapsula, Konivuori, Kakaristo) when the full route would have been too fast. The stage has also been cut in half and chicanes deployed to make it appear slower.
Ouninpohja has been often one of the longest stages of the rally, usually over 25 km. Only the 1986 version was only 6 km long due to the stage being cut in two parts.
The first appearence of the stage in the 1000 Lakes Rally was before WRC started, in the 60’s. It became a staple in the 70’s and only four times the area has been completely absent from the rally (1975–1976 and 2009–2010). Ouninpohja has been run often twice, even three times in 1982.
The original 25 km version was all fast roads with just one junction in the middle. This is longer than any other Finnish stage has of a fast intact section, without small roads in between. However, since 1992 Ouninpohja has been equipped with a small road section which increased the length to over 30 km.
Finally it goes without saying that Ouninpohja is a spectator favourite. The Kakaristo area is like a rally festival and the Yellow House jump close to a pilgrimage location.
Key locations
#1 Yellow house jump
#2 Amazon jump
#3 Kakaristo junction
#4 Triple jumps on the small road
The legends
The legends of Ouninpohja include Timo Mäkinen running the Mini with the bonnet open in 1967
In 1985 Hannu Mikkola made a commited run on the second pass of Ouninpohja with a damaged Audi Sport quattro S1 E2
Finally, Kris Meeke’s big stage win in 2016 was something that will be remembered for years.
Further reading and watching
📝 1000 Lakes Classics: Ouninpohja pt. 1 – The Legends
📝 1000 Lakes Classics: Ouninpohja pt. 2 – The Evolution
It Gets Faster Now! 
Really great article Antti, I really think Ouninpohja is just one word you can say to a rally fan and they will know exactly what your talking about. I hope we will see the full stage back in the WRC when it goes to Rally Finland in the near future (I say full stage because the stage was partially used in Rapusla last year but only about 8kms and it was the start side of the stage’ The yellow house jump has to be one of the most famous jumps in rallying. Great moments like Richard Burns nose diving his 206 and Markko Martin flying in 2003. As someone who is new to rallying in the past 2 years, watching Kris Meeke’s 2016 Ouninpohja onboard is just so special, the DS3 flying in the air with spectators crowding junctions, Kris Meeke’s smooth but flamboyant driving and Paul Nagle screaming the notes just sums up Ouninpohja.
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