Rallying in Finland - numbers

The conversation on JV's post further down the forum reminded me that I had this information about rallying in Finland that illustrates just how popular it is over there. Read on and just try to imagine these figures. I got these links and info on the world rally forums, particularly from user Riitta (thanks!). Most of these links are in Finnish, but you can get the general idea...

There are maybe 50-60 rallies a year, with maximum entries of 220 cars (Riitta explained that usually the entries vary between 80 and 220) Look at these pages and see ("osanottajat" is the entry list). I think those are organized by month and day:

http://www.mantta.fi/yritykset/tenab/kale2002.htm (to see other years just change the year on the link)

This page details the competitor and car stats:

http://www.mantta.fi/yritykset/tenab/rafu/lkm2002.htm

Look at the kinds of cars... not quite prorally material

Also, I understand that these lines are the number of actual competitors for the year (first line drivers and second line codrivers, last column totals - 1901 drivers and 2337 codrivers ):

YLEINEN A-JUNIORIT B-JUNIORIT YHTEENSÄ
---------------------------------------------------------------
1-ohjaajia yhteensä 726 38% 448 24% 727 38% 1901
2-ohjaajia yhteensä 562 24% 487 21% 1288 55% 2337

The main page for this site - http://www.mantta.fi/yritykset/tenab/

BTW, JV or Topi, why are Toyota Starlets so popular for rallying over there, what with their tiny wheelbases?

I guess this can be filed under "curiosity", but there must be at least a little something that we can learn from them on how to attract more people to rallying? BTW, some of the Finnish guys in the forum believe (and I tend to agree with them) that the secret of their success is in quantity of competitors and level of competition.

LOL, I feel like I am talking about some fantasy rallying land in middle-earth (Lord of The Rings).

This would probably make for an interesting Specialstage.com editorial (if only I had the time)...