How trailblazer Kalle Rovanpera has ripped up the WRC record book
At the tender age of 22, Kalle Rovanpera is redefining what’s possible to achieve in rallying and inspiring a new legion of fans as a result. The newly-crowned World Rally Championship title-winner and his peers reflect on his ability and the start of his success in the top tier.
Dubbed a talent that comes along once in a generation, Kalle Rovanpera has not only rewritten the World Rally Championship record books but has already changed rallying forever.
It has previously been perceived that conquering the WRC requires a wealth of wisdom and experience of competing at the top level. Arguably the sport’s two greatest drivers, nine-time world champion Sebastien Loeb and eight-time title winner Sebastien Ogier, claimed their first crowns aged 30 and 29 respectively.
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Tom Howard is a News Editor working across both Autosport.com and Motorsport.com websites. Starting out as a sports reporter in local newspapers, Tom focussed on motorsport covering several national championships in the UK, including the BTCC.
After a period working as a freelance journalist, Tom moved to Australia in 2013 landing a job at leading Australian motorsport news outlet speedcafe.com, covering international motorsport events including F1, WRC and Supercars. Progressing to Editor in 2017, Tom was named Motorsport Australia Journalist of the Year for his work. He is also a two-time winner of Supercars Journalist of The Year (2017,2019) and a Supercars Championship Media Award winner in 2019.
Tom moved back to his native UK in 2020, firstly working in BTCC, before joining Autosport and motorsport.com in 2021.
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