this weekend it was the third and final round for the Finish championship already. The race took place in Alavuus at a deep sand track with significant height differences. A beautiful track especially for the spectators but also very demanding for the sidecar class.
When we started our trip Friday afternoon the outer ring of Helsinki was completely blocked by an enormous traffic jam caused by a concert organized on a location with insufficient transportation options. Via small back roads we were able to escape this and suffered only a limited delay. We wanted to get the hack through the technical inspection already the same evening so we can sleep a little longer the next morning.
We made it in time and since Mikael is now having his driving license i didn't have to drive the whole trip alone anymore. Only 7 teams arrived at the paddock this time. This year's season isn't the best for our class. Let's hope that next year there will be less problems and injuries.
With only 7 teams any place behind the gate is okay so we didn't really push during timed practice and the 6th position was ours.
The start of the first heat was good and at the fourth place we got through the first corner. We lost 2 positions soon there after but were able to overtake one place back again. We held this position for some laps but with a 20 minutes and 2 laps race on a heavy track like this I had to take it a little easier. At lap 5 we did loose one position and only then I noticed that the seventh team wasn't directly behind us. Only after the finish we heard that they got technical problems and had to retire. 6th position for our efforts and we were satisfied with our performance during the first half of the heat.
For the second heat only 5 teams showed up anymore due to technical or physical problems. During the exploration lap we noticed the track had gone so bad that we decided to concentrate on finishing the race and not to try to create some surprises. The track had worn out so much that between the already large holes and bumps from the first heat new ones had formed in between them. Not a single part of the track were it was possible to take a breath, all the time you had to push and pull the hack around. Especially a large down hill with deep sand had become rather scary. Keeping the throttle open to have the engine pulling all the time and dragging the rear brake the same time was the only option to keep the side car on it's line. I really counted down the times we had to descend there.
But at the end we went home with 2 fifth places and a fourth in the overall standings for the Finish championship. For the first time we have finished in all the heats of a series. Satisfied we started our trip back home and this time Mikael did the driving.
Very nice pictures from Alavuus in Markku Laukka's web album: http://mla.kuvat.fi/#/kuvat/Kuvat+2012/18.9+-12+SM+Motocross+Alavus/
Greetings,
Stephan
Mylaps results ( SV = sidecars)
Trip to Alavuus
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