WRC legend Latvala makes U.S. rallying debut in Toyota’s Olympus Rally roster

FIA World Rally Championship ironman Jari-Matti Latvala will make his U.S. rallying debut in a one-off start on next month’s Kubota Olympus Rally.

Latvala (above), who earned 18 overall wins in a record-breaking 212 WRC starts, will drive a second Toyota GR Corolla Rally RC2 on the American Rally Association (ARA) National Championship’s most historic event, April 17-19.

The 40-year-old Finn, co-driven by countryman Tuukka Shemeika, lines up alongside full-season Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Seth Quintero in what will be only the second event for the all-new GR Corolla following its competition debut on the 100 Acre Wood Rally earlier this month.

Toyota’s GR Corolla Rally RC2 made its competition debut on the ARA’s 100 Acre Wood Rally.

Latvala played a hands-on role in the development of the RC2 class contender, testing the car at several North American locations, including the fast, flowing forest roads on the Olympic Pensinsula close to the Olympus Rally route. It was those test miles that sowed the seed for his upcoming U.S. debut.    

“Last year, I tested the GR Corolla Rally RC2 five times in the U.S.,” says Latvala, “and with that, and knowing the potential of the car, came the desire to do a rally. Testing in the area of the Olympus Rally, I really enjoyed the roads, plus I appreciated the history and significance of the event, so I thought this would be an exciting rally to take part in. And luckily for me, I now get the opportunity.”  

This year’s Olympus Rally sees the Washington-based event celebrating 40 years since its inclusion in the 1986 WRC – the first of three consecutive appearances in rallying’s top-tier series. Organizers are marking the occasion with a route that includes more than 200 competitive miles across 18 all-gravel special stages in the dense forests of the Olympic Peninsula – a mileage that’s comparable with a modern WRC event.

“Yes, this is a long rally,” says Latvala. “And it’s not just the distance that’s a challenge. A lot can happen, and from what I’ve heard, the risk on the Olympus can be a lot higher than on other ARA events. After the recce you need to look at it all and decide where you can push, or what stages are more of a risk for the tires. This is a new program, we are still developing the car, so it’s important that we finish and maximize the experience and information we get from competing here.”  

The RC2-spec Corolla incorporates several major components from the Rally2-spec GR Yaris that won last year’s WRC2 drivers’ title with Oliver Solberg, including its turbocharged, 1.6 liter three-cylinder engine, five-speed sequential transmission, front and rear differentials, brakes and suspension. But the Corolla’s longer wheelbase means the RC2 machine is more than a re-bodied Yaris and, as Latvala explains, that makes for two cars with their own strengths and attributes.

“Of course, there’s a lot that feels the same,” he says. “With the longer wheelbase, and maybe the little bit bigger body on the Corolla, you can see that the car isn’t quite as nimble as the GR Yaris. But on the other hand, the Corolla is more stable in the fast stuff, so you feel very comfortable on faster, wider roads. And from what I’ve seen and what I understand, almost all the rallies in ARA are fast, flowing stages, so the Corolla is well suited to those and the feeling you want.” 

The GR Corolla Rally RC2 demonstrated its potential on its 100 Acre Wood debut, despite rally-raid rising star Quintero drinking from the firehose on only his second-ever stage rally start. The 23-year-old Californian was seventh after the opening day in Missouri, but was forced to park the car early on day two after ingesting water in a watersplash. Air intake and engine dried out, Quintero rejoined and completed the final loop to rack up valuable mileage and data. And following that theme, Latvala says that getting both Corollas to the Olympus Rally’s Shelton-based finish is the defining aim for the second outing.

“You’ve got to remember that Seth is still very new to this type of rallying,” says Latvala. “For me, his speed is very impressive, but the biggest challenge for him is learning how to drive with the [pace]notes and creating those notes. That’s a big challenge, so helping him get comfortable with that is a priority for the team and also for me. And as I said, let’s not forget that a big priority is to make it to the finish – that’s both of us.”  

Latvala retired from full-time WRC competition at the end of 2019 and moved into his current team principal role with the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team in 2021, but he continues to compete at a high level. He won the 2025 FIA European Historic Rally Championship in a 1993-spec Celica ST185 and finished a close second in the WRC2 class on last year’s Rally Finland at the wheel of a GR Yaris Rally2.

Jari-Matti Latvala finished second at the wheel of a GR Yaris Rally2 in the WRC2 class of last year’s Rally Finland.

“For me, the target on the Olympus is to get that good feeling and good flow that I had in Finland,” says Latvala. “But, obviously, it’s my first time on this rally and I haven’t seen the stages yet. It’s not like Rally Finland, where I know the stages very well after doing it 20 times, so pushing closer to the limit is more difficult. But overall, I want to see the level of the Corolla and how it compares with the other cars; just get a feel for the level of the drivers and the competition in America and then build it up from there.”   

One thing’s for sure, the GR Corolla Rally RC2 will be a more competitive proposition than the factory Toyota’s that competed on the ’86 Olympus Rally. Back then, in the final WRC event of the spectacular, but controversial Group B era, all-wheel-drive, mid-engine rocket ships such as Peugeot’s 205 T16 and Lancia’s Delta S4 had completely redefined rally-winning thinking. In contrast, Toyota’s rear-wheel-drive Celica Twincam Turbo was magnificently old school – and virtually unbeatable on the WRC’s car-breaking African marathons.

In 1986, Toyota factory drivers Bjorn Waldegard and Lars-Erik Torph had finished 1-2 on Kenya’s epic Safari Rally, then repeated the feat in the Ivory Coast, with Erwin Weber making it a Celica 1-2-3. But on the season-closing Olympus – the WRC’s first U.S. visit since 1974’s Michigan-based Press On Regardless Rally – Waldegard and Torph were a couple of fully-committed, crowd-pleasing…also rans.

Lars-Erik Torph heads for fourth place in his Toyota Celica Twincam Turbo on the 1986 WRC season-closing Olympus Rally.

Torph finished fourth, more than 28 minutes behind Markku Alen’s winning Lancia, with Waldegard two minutes further back in fifth. Second to Alen’s Delta S4? Juha Kankkunen, just 1m26s behind in his Peugeot.

A year later, Kankkunen would go one place better, winning the 1987 Olympus Rally in a Group A Lancia Delta HF. And now, four decades later, four-time WRC champ Kankkunen is deputy team principal to Latvala at TGR-WRT.

Not surprisingly, Latvala has tapped his illustrious co-worker for any recollections and advice before his own Olympus adventure...          

“I did talk about it with Juha, and with Markku Alen, too,” says Latvala. “You know, they both enjoyed the rally, the stages. Markku recalls the dust being pretty bad, pretty heavy. But, as Juha says, some of the details aren’t so clear after 40 years! But it’s great to hear about it from those guys, and of course with my own experience of testing there, you start to build a picture. For me, the first thing that comes to mind are stages in Wales, for example Dyfi.”

Juha Kankkunen (left) was an Olympus Rally winner in its mid-1980s WRC era. He’s now TGR-WRT deputy team principal to Jari-Matti Latvala (right).

As preparation for his Olympus Rally debut, Latvala will put in a day’s testing on the Monday before the event, then spend a day with Quintero as he gets dialed in to the fast forest gravel. After that it’s recce, fine-tuning of notes, and then into the opening four special stages through dusk and into darkness on Friday, April 17. Six more follow on Saturday, with eight Sunday stages making for an intense final leg.

After that, it’s back to Europe for Latvala, and a packed schedule of WRC rallies in his TGR-WRT team principal guise and FIA European Historic Rally Championships in defending champion mode. Will he add any more ARA rounds or U.S. testing to his schedule? Too early to say. But what’s certain is that Latvala will be paying close attention, June 11-17, as the candidate event for a potential U.S. WRC round in 2027 gets under way in Tennessee and Kentucky.      

“Obviously, the USA is huge market for car manufacturers, but you look at the growth of Formula 1 in recent years and you look at the size of the fanbase, too, and I think it’s very important that the WRC should be in the U.S.,” says Latvala. “But to give the WRC something to build on, I think it’s very important that we have a strong national championship, too. The two go hand in hand.

“So for me, getting the chance to compete on the Olympus Rally is something I’m really looking forward to. But getting a feel for U.S. rallying – the fans, the atmosphere – is just as important. With the GR Corolla Rally RC2 program, you can see that U.S. rallying is important to Toyota. I can’t wait to experience it, and I know that this is the start of a very exciting journey.”