Miä näemmä laitan tähän vähän tuolta Speedhunters.com sivustolta löytyvästä artikkelista siltä varalta ettei kaekki jaksa niitä läpi käydä. Kyseessä lähinnä Helsinki Thunder 1997, kisa jossa Soheil Ayari voitti F3000 mittelön Montoyan otettua paalun.
JJ Lehto was arguably the fastest driver in the field during 1997 and with the set up abilities and all round skill of his co-driver, Steve Soper plus the excellent Schnitzer team behind them, these pair were to give AMG Mercedes a fight for the title that the relative performances of the cars should have made impossible. Their team mates, Peter Kox and Roberto Ravaglia could not match them, only scoring one victory, that at Silverstone, where conditions were so bad that the race was red flagged. Another lap and it would have been a Schneider/Wurz victory. It was only a matter of time before the Mercedes steam-roller would take control.
That outcome was delayed while we all went off on a strange trip to the Thunder Race held round a narrow street circuit in the middle of Helsinki. It was, without doubt one of the weirdest places I have ever been for a race. The grid had contracted severely in numbers down to 23 starters from the 47 seen at Hockenheim. The reasons were varied, from the proximity of the Le Mans 24 Hours to the proximity of the walls around the absurd track. The FIA made all sorts of noises about fines for those who had failed to show up but in the end sent them bits of paper with warnings on....................scary.
Qualifying was unique in my experience with thousands of well refreshed Finns cheering on JJ Lehto as he struggled to keep up with the AMG armada, the noise was like a football match and could be heard above the engines. On his last possible lap he snatched pole position to the disbelief of Mercedes. "I am sorry. I have scratched the sides........." he said to Charly Lamm, boss of Schnitzer who was surveying the damage caused by the walls to both sides of the F1 GTR.
After that amazing performance kharma was with the Finn and you just knew he was going to win on his home turf. Lehto sped off at the start like a scalded cat and then the Mercedes both struck trouble, a gearbox issue slowing Nannini and Wurz clattered the wall after misjudging the space while lapping Thomas Bscher. So a famous victory for the Finn and his British sidekick with AMG missing another opportunity to assert their superiority.
jotain ehkä tietäisin, olinhan siellä minäkin..
