The highlight of our Finnish historic racing season took place again at the demanding Ahvenisto circuit in the city of Hämeenlinna. The event has grown year by year and again this year it was bigger than ever with totally almost 150 drivers. Also 15 Swedish drivers arrived to challenge us on our home circuit, so we had a nice battle between nationalities too. All pre -66 Historic Touring/GT cars raced together so there were full grids. In my class there were three reputedly fast Mini Coopers from Sweden, driven by Tommy Jagerwall, Sebastian Wrethagen and Yngve Gustavsson. The familiar Abarth league was present too, so there was a tough race expected. Frankly speaking, I didn't expect much success in this company, but in the end it wasn't so bad...
Free Practices and qualification.On Saturday we had a free practice session and qualification. In practice the car felt basically ok, but I had the old and very slippery tyres on, so the lap times weren't much to talk about. For the qualification I fitted a new set of rubber, and that made a real difference. I became 4th in my class with a lap time of 1:42.338. Swedish Yngve Gustavsson was 1st with Cooper , followed by the familiar Fiat Abarths of Risto Hoikka and Joni Luotonen. Anyway, I was only 0.9 seconds behind Gustavsson, so my position for the Sunday's first race was pretty good. Class win in Race 1I got a pretty good start, but still Tommy Jagerwall was able to overtake both me and Joni Luotonen in the first corner. Joni drifted on the gravel in the second corner and I was able to overtake him. This didn't last long though, and soon Joni took his place in front of me again. After the first lap Risto Hoikka was leading, Yngve Gustavsson was 2nd, Tommy Jagerwall 3rd, Joni Luotonen 4th and I was 5th. Next Joni overtook Tommy Jagerwall and after few laps I managed to do the same on the hill. Before that we even had a small "racing incident" when I hit a bit Jagerwall's rear corner at Taru's corner. Meanwhile Risto Hoikka had got a stop'n go for jump starting and after that he even spun and stalled his engine. Also Yngve Gustavsson slowed down for some reason and suddenly I was second in class after Joni's Abarth. Joni was slowed down by a Porsche 911 in front of him and I approached him a little by little. In the end I was only 0.36 seconds behind him when we crossed the finishing line. So I thought that I was 2nd, but the the story didn't end there. Later it appeared that Joni had got a 10 seconds penalty for overtaking under yellow flags, so finally I was 1st in class! A very eventful race and a win. Perfect, I would say... Back to earth in Race 2In the 2nd race I spoiled my chances already in the start by lifting the clutch a fraction too early. It was a clear jump start and I knew already then that there would be a stop'n go penalty waiting for me. So, the first few laps I drove just for fun, and actually that's what it really was. We even drove with Joni side by side about half lap until I gave up and turned to the paddock to suffer my punishment. The stop itself wasn't so bad, but I had to wait very long at the gate before I could get back to the track. The exit from the paddock is directly to the racing line and there is a traffic light which is turned green when the track is clear. So, I was dropped as last of all cars. During the rest of the race I did more overtakes than ever in any of my previous races, and finally I was 5th in class and somewhere midfield overall. Risto Hoikka won, Joni Luotonen was second and Yngve Gustavsson 3dr. ConclusionThe whole weekend was really great and the class win in the first race was much more than I expected. Of course much of it was due to bad luck of others, but in the 2nd race it was my turn to suffer. Anyway, driving on the Ahvenisto circuit is always great and with so many cars in the races there wasn't any quiet moment. It was also very nice to have so many Swedish drivers in our class. This time we Finns won, but next year it may be different. Results, links to photos and more of the Historic Grand Race 2003 can be found at: http://www.historicrace.fi/grandrace3.htm | ||||
