Starting the defence of a World Rally Championship title, let alone winning the 2022 WRC2 co-drivers crown, are days that Reeta Hamalainen thought may never arrive. That’s not through a lack of skill or opportunity, but something far more sobering. She has overcome one of the biggest hurdles one can face in life to become the first woman to win a WRC2 title – cancer.
Diagnosis during the 2018-2019 off-season was both a life-changing and life-affirming episode in Hamalainen’s career, which begins its next successful chapter this weekend as she enters Rally Sweden alongside fellow Finn and WRC2 drivers’ champion Emil Lindholm in their Toksport Skoda Fabia.
