Kyösti Pykälistö
| Nationality |  Finnish
|
|---|---|
| Born | 2001-12-09 Finland |
| DEC Holder | DemocalypseNow |
| Current Series | AutoReject 3.5 |
| Current Team | Template:GBR Chris Short Racing |
| Car Number | 22 |
| Former Teams | Nurminen Racing Engineering Template:BEL Vivendi EBL |
Kyösti Pykälistö is a Finnish racing driver, currently in AutoReject 3.5.
Career
2017–18: AutoReject 2.0
His notable career began with AutoReject 2.0 Europe in 2017, racing for Nurminen. Despite the team being defending champions, neither driver could manage that much. Pykälistö scored no points in the opening weekend at Ricardo Tormo, and got only one the next time out with a feature race 10th at Magny-Cours. Austria was better, with a fourth place finish for the feature and seventh for the sprint, but four pointless weekends followed. In the final round at Brno, Pykälistö came sixth in the feature race and third in the sprint. He was ultimately fifteenth in the championship, adjacent to teammate Gregg Donnelly.
Pykälistö stayed in AR2.0 for 2018, but moved to Vivendi EBL, who in what was perhaps a stroke of justice for him ended up being teams' champions. He had a much better start to the season, coming second in the feature and third in the sprint, which would end up being his highest-scoring weekend of the year. He followed it up with his first pole at Magny-Cours, but only came fourth and didn't score in the sprint. No points were had at Ricardo Tormo. He came second in the sprint race in the UK, followed by a feature race fourth in Austria. After that mediocre stretch, Zandvoort was the next good weekend; he took pole again, and came third in the feature race and fourth in the sprint. With three weekends to go, he was second in the championship, 23 points anyway from anyone in either direction. He took pole at Lausitz and finished second, but didn't finish the sprint race. At Spa it was reversed, as he was eighteenth in the feature and second in the sprint. This left him ten points behind championship leader Katie May going into the final round at the Hungaroring. He took pole and won the feature race with May third, gaining eight points on her, but he didn't score in the sprint race.
He competed in his home race in SEAT Leon Supercopa in 2018, failing to finish.
2018 ARWS tests
Pykälistö participated in the 9-12 April 2018 Monza Test held after the ARWS ladder's weekend there. He again tested for Voeckler in the ARWS 2018 Young Drivers Test, not matching Mineiro from one series above him, but the times were still respectable.
2019: AutoReject 3.5
For 2019, he moved up to AR3.5 with Chris Short Racing.