Kuusankoski FinTrack Summer Touring 19.5.2001
The Finnish FinTrack Summer series
started this weekend at the Kuusankoski track in the southeast of Finland.
Over 40 drivers were entered in the Touring Modified class, but a few opted
to stay at home because of the uncertain weather. 38 drivers showed up
to battle in this class in the very competitive touring car scene. As mentioned,
the weather looked a bit bad in the beginning. After an overnight rain
the track was soaked in the morning and free practice was run in wet conditions.
Only a few drivers ventured out onto the wet track since the weather was
getting better, and it was looking as though the race would be run in the
dry.
I went to the track on Friday and
arrived there 440km later to get a few practice runs. It took me some time
to get a feeling for the track but in the end I was quite happy with the
handling of my new MR4TCSpecial. So going into Saturday I was hoping to
have a good race.
Once the timed practice was underway
the track was indeed dry and all drivers got a chance to see what the track
was like. Already it was clear that the race would be very close between
the top drivers. A new rule for this summer series is that there’s a control
tire. The only tires allowed are TakeOff in the SSA, SSB and SSC compounds,
and only 8 tires per driver. The tire rule worked well and everybody was
running the SSA compound because of the chilly weather. 
Qualifying was very close but in
the end it was Associated/LRP driver Teppo Kauppinen who took TQ in his
first race in Finland with his new Associated TC3 FT car. Teppo’s car seemed
to the fastest on the straight and it worked very well in the corners as
well so it was the dream debut with the TC3 for him. Only .5 seconds behind
was Corally driver Simo Ahoniemi with Teemu in third with his Schumacher.
Qualifying did not start of well
for myself. My first run was quite clean but the laptimes were just not
what they should have been. Since the track was wet in the morning I had
not had a chance to notice it early enough. The reason for the bad laptimes
was that I had the wrong inserts in the TakeOff tires. So for round two
I glued up a new set with the right inserts. I also decided to change the
can of my motor since the magnets were a bit bad. This worked well, the
problem was just 
that I did not check the motor
before I was up on the drivers stand…and then the car went backwards….yup
I did the classic thing. So my second round was over before it started.
I did then change it and went out to see how the car was working…and I
was happy to see that I had now found the speed. So going into the last
round the pressure was on…I had to have a good run. It was ok and clean
but I lost 3 seconds in the end when I dumped so my final qualifying position
was 15th.
The track stayed dry for the finals
so everybody was looking forward to a set of close races. It was Simo Ahoniemi
who was the winner of the first very close final with Teppo in second and
Sakke Ahoniemi with his Corally in third. Teemu had a DNF in the first
main but in the second one he checked out about halfway into the five minutes
and never looked back. So it was the Axis that took a comfortable win this
time with Teppo again in second.
Going into the last race it was anybody’s
win. Basically it was the winner of this final that would take the top
spot overall. Teppo’s TC3 shot away from pole position convincingly and
led the first couple of laps. He then had a coming together with Simo so
after that Teemu took the lead with Sakke coming through into second. That
was the way the race finished so it was Teemu who once again won overall
with Teppo doing enough to finish in second ahead of Simo.
I had two good runs in the b-finals,
finishing third in the first and second in the second final. That second
final was actually my best race ever since it was a close fight from start
to finish. In the beginning we were three drivers fighting but after about
three minutes we were only two. I really tried to win, but I could not
really get close enough. In the last minute I was probably trying a bit
too hard and that meant that I dumped in the end and that was it. Anyway
I was really happy after a final like that. I finished 12th overall.
Next it’s a three week break from
racing for most drivers except Teemu, Sakke and Simo who will be racing
at the Reedy Race in Ripon next weekend. The rest will surely work hard
to try to find even more speed for the next round of the FinTrack series.
Results:
1. Teemu Leino, Schumacher
2. Teppo Kauppinen, Associated (TQ)
3. Simo Ahoniemi, Corally
4. Sakke Ahoniemi, Corally
5. Juho Levänen, GM
6. Tomi Myöhänen, Schumacher
7. Jaakko Ilvonen, GM
8. Kalle Lehto, Associated
9. Henrik Hokkanen, Yokomo
10. Tero Malmström, Associated
12. Kenneth Södergård,
Yokomo
16. Jussi Kankaanmäki, Yokomo
21. Björn Södergård,
Yokomo
22. Jarno Siltanen, Yokomo
29. Jyri Konoila, Yokomo
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