Review of the end of our 2013 season Part 1

Hi all,

I haven't updated this blog for some months, busy with work and from postponing it got later and later. Time flies as they say.

But we didn't disappear or stopped, on the contrary, we had a rather good finishing of the season actually as you can see in the picture below ;-)

The last race of this season, Kegums Latvia, we ended at the highest spot on the podium, 2 heat wins. And we didn't start partying after that and was the reason for not updating our blog that long.

In part 1 I'll look back at our races in August and in part 2 the races in September.

The weekend of 3-4 August was held the first sidecar GP of the Baltic in Kiviöli, Estonia. This time we participated in the 53+ veteran class. Mikael and the side car arrived with the truck of the Kunnas family and I came with Ria straight from a holiday trip in Lithuania. With a training sessions at Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we had good time to ride the same track as the GP teams but only a "little bit" slower. Our only heat found place between the 2 GP heats.

We had a good start, third, but half way Aldis Vapa/Andris Macs passed us and I wasn't able to change our position back again. Fourth place at the finish line. Maybe too much holiday the last days.

A week later it was time for the second Baltic GP, Kegums in Latvia. Also this weekend races for the veteran class in the program. We traveled with Riku Kunnas and their truck. Our first training session was planned Saturday afternoon and then it started to rain.

We had a good time, very rare for me but this time it worked out very well. But the rain didn't stop after our practice session and only intensified more and more.

The Husaberg's clutch was defect and I replaced the disks, in spite of the rain the barbecue was fired up under the awning and I went for a shower. When coming back the paddock started to look more and more like a lake. It rained continuously and we started to get worried about track conditions for the morrow. The next morning the sun showed itself and the weather changed for the better luckily. But the track was very soft and the organization made the only correct decision to cancel all the training sessions for the morning.

At noon the program was adapted and instead of the 2 planned heats for the veteran classes we would do only one combined heat between the GP heats. Again a good start, third, but during the race we lost a few places.

Luckily most of the teams that passed us participated in the other group and we still finished third in our 53+ group. Both races, Kiviöli and Kegums, counted for an overall result and we ended as third on the podium.

All together 2 very nice weekends spend watching the big guns riding their GP heats and able to do some racing of our own without any pressure for points, just fun. At both events other teams from Finland participated in the different classes. Good atmosphere in spite of the rain.

Our next race was planned in Iisalmi August 17th but canceled due to low participation. That made Orimattila the first race for the Finnish championship August 31st. A very late start of the Finnish season this time.

The Orimattila track is one of my favorite places to ride and when the mood is good miracles can still happen ;-). During practice we ended up with the sixth position but only a small difference with number 5. When the season nears it's end my driving gets better and with a favorite track I was in a good mood.

We had a good start and I pushed forward halfway the first lap by passing quickly an other team. After that we got a good rhythm and it was clockwork time. The team of Lehtinen/Hietala followed a few seconds behind but we never gave them even a possible change. The fourth position was our reward.

The second heat was a repetition of heat one. This time the Swedish team Hammarblom/Källander pushed behind us but we never looked back and again we found our rhythm. For the second time that day we ended at the fourth position, 3rd overall that day. We had to leave quickly for our next race in Cesis, Latvia, and get the ferry to Tallinn.

In part 2 more about this trip.

regards,
Stephan

Results Orimattila Mylaps: http://www.mylaps.com/en/events/948505