Abstract Genes in the HLA class II region include the most important inherited risk factors for type 1 diabetes (T1D) although also polymorphisms outside the HLA region modulate the predisposition to T1D. This study set out to confirm a recent observation in which a novel expression quantitative trait locus was formed by three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in the intron of HLA-DRA1 in DR3-DQ2 haplotypes. The SNPs significantly increased the risk for T1D in DR3-DQ2 homozygous individuals and we intended to further explore this association, in the Finnish population, by comparing two DR3-DQ2 positive genotypes. Cohorts with DR3-DQ2/DR3-DQ2 (N = 570) and DR3-DQ2/DR1-DQ5 (N = 1035) genotypes were studied using TaqMan analysis that typed for rs3135394, rs9268645 and rs3129877. The tri-SNP haplotype was significantly more common in cases than controls in the DR3-DQ2/DR3-DQ2 cohort (OR = 1.70 CI 95% = 1.15–2.51P = 0.007). However, no significant associations could be observed in the DR3-DQ2/DR1-DQ5 cohort.