Career
Välimäki"s first World Rally Championship events came in 1998, in Sweden and Finland, behind the wheel of an Opel Astra GSi 16V. In 2000 he drove a Ford Escort WRC to 13th place on Rally Finland. In 2001 he contested the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC) in a Peugeot 206 S1600, finishing third in the category in Finland and finishing the season ninth. He contested the 2002 JWRC season in a Citroën Saxo, but only managed a best finish of fifth on Rally Great Britain, ending the year 15th in the classification.
He also did two other WRC rounds in a Toyota Corolla WRC, but retired from both.
2003 saw Välimäki do four WRC rounds with the Hyundai team, but he retired from all four of them. He used the Hyundai Accent on four rounds of the 2004 season, finishing seventh on Rally Mexico.
He also used a Ford Focus RS WRC 03 on Rallye Deutschland, finishing 14th. Välimäki returned to top-class WRC action in 2006, entering three rounds with a Mitsubishi Lancer WRC05.
He used it to finish fifth on Rally d"Italia Sardegna, before finishing ninth in Greece and seventh in Finland.
In 2009 he contested the Chinese Rally Championship. In 2011 Välimäki announced he was ending his active rallying career. JWRC Results.