Wild-headed drivers will speed along the legendary linden alley to the main straight that licks the coastline of Vuoksi this year as well. Today, it’s the drivers of the international IRRC street track series, but half a century ago, the World Championship stars of track motorcycling gassed up in the same place. Jarno Saarinen was crowned 250cc world champion right here.
The World Championship title secured on the last weekend of July in 1972 made the engineer from Turku the first Finnish motorsport world champion in history.
The career and life of the Finn, who rose to the top almost like a comet, ended the following spring with a tragic accident in Monza. Before that, Jarno Saarinen was her life partner Soilin formed a power duo with him that made even the big factory stables tremble.
There is also an international TV series in the works about the lives of Jarno and Soil, the plot of which has plenty of hooks based on facts. Like, for example, the fact that their first transport vehicle in the world was a hearse.
– Yes, it was noticed and caused surprise when we arrived at the pit with a hearse, but we had no other option then. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have made it to Europe. Jarno’s family had a funeral home and we were able to borrow the company’s second hearse. It was such a beautiful Plymouth Belvedere, Karme says.
In Finland, the two were allowed to travel in a van, but they could not go abroad with it.
– In Europe, we slept in the hearse and on the backboard we cooked food with a primus cooker, ate breakfast and made tea.
– We were a team of two. Jarno was a skilled mechanic and I did everything I could. I took lap times and showed the pit board. I also often drove the transporter at night so that Jarno could sleep. He called me his night eye. My job was also to keep the wheels clean and I was needed as a helper when changing the crankshaft.
In the spring of 1972, the world of motor sports shook when Saarinen beat the Nürburgring race by Giacomo Agostini. MV-Agusta’s star driver hadn’t lost clean driving a race in five years. Last time he was beaten by a multiple world champion Mike Hailwoodnow a Finnish private driver.
While the Italian star Agostini spent the race weekends in luxurious hotel accommodation, Jarno and Soili Saarinen lived in the pits in Imatra too, in their small green Volkswagen Kleinbus van with wheels on the trailer.
– However, after the world championship was secured, the race organizers took us to spend the night in the tower apartment of the State Hotel. It was something big that I had always wanted, Soili laughs.
The street course was named after Jarno Saarinen
At Imatra, the anniversary of Saarinen’s championship was honored by naming the street circuit the Jarno Saarinen Circuit. Saarinen also drove Imatra in the first World Cup competition of his career in the -68 season.
A rally legend Markku Alén witnessed Jarno Saarinen’s big day in Imatra 50 years ago.
– The weather was similar to now, i.e. hot. It was probably 30 degrees. It was my first time in a motorcycle race. That’s where my enthusiasm for two-wheelers began and my strong appreciation for these guys.
– Jarno and I had the same sponsor and through that I met him three times before his sad fate in Monza. I’ve told everyone that man had charisma.
However, the winner of 15 world championships has no shortage of charisma Giacomo Agostini too, who recently turned 80 years old. In his peak years, Agostini dominated the tracks to his heart’s content in his MV-Agustala. Saarisen, who won the World Championship gold as a private rider on Yamaha, was going to have a really tough opponent.
– Jarno quickly developed to top speed. He would surely have won several world championships but for his fatal accident. He already had the ability to ride a motorcycle as a gift. He also knew the technical side and could even put the bikes in better condition than the Yamaha factory mechanics.
Agostini didn’t touch his bike during his active career, but now it’s different. The Italian, who arrived at Imatra for the demonstration drive, adjusts the carburetor of his MV-Agusta with a spanner in his hand. At the same time, he exchanges news with a rally legend Simo Lampinen with. Jarno Saarinen’s brother also comes to greet Agostin,Jari Saarinen.
– Back then, you certainly wouldn’t have gotten close to “Ago”, but now you can, Saarinen laughs.
50 years ago, he too was on the spot in Imatra with about 54,000 other spectators to witness his brother’s world championship. Although Jari Saarinen himself did not participate in the competitions, he believes that Jarno’s popularity in the world was not only due to his success in competitions.
– Jarno was friendly and international and got to know all the drivers. Apparently that’s why he was so popular over there in Europe, much more than in Finland.
Jarno Saarinen caught an ambulance to ask about the health of his rival
A former competition partner, Martti Pesonen the report on the training sessions for the Spa-Francorchamps competition in the -71 season offers one example of Jarno Saarinen’s character.
– Spa’s track was then 14 kilometers long and the speedy route went from village to village. My bike caught up during training at high speed and I hit my head quite badly when I fell. When the ambulance started to transport me from the crash site to the hospital, I was conscious enough to hear the sound of a motorcycle, Pesonen says.
Jarno Saarinen had overtaken the ambulance, stopped it and asked Marti if he was okay.
– I waved my hand at him, after which he turned back to the track and started to continue training. He had seen my bike upside down on the side of the track and the ambulance driving away and guessed that I was riding there. He really cared about other people, Pesonen recalls, his voice trembling with emotion.
Saarinen arrived at Imatra in 1972 in the World Championship points lead, but the championship struggle Renzo Pasolini and Rodney Gould against was still not at all clear. In the competition, the Finn handled his part perfectly and took the 250cc race victory.
– When Jarno -72 at Imatra stood with Soil on the podium with a victory wreath around his neck as world champion, it certainly evoked strong emotions in me as well. Of course, Jarno had a basic character and talent for driving, but I consider the most important success factors to be how carefully he always thought things through and carried them out with determination.
In addition to his world championship, Jarno Saarinen, who drove twice to the World Championship silver and once to bronze, also left his own driving technical legacy to the sport. Today’s cornering technique, where the knee slopes the surface of the track, is based on the style Saarinen created in his time.
– It started with the fact that we had such bad tires. You had to “chirp” a bit to keep up with the others. Yes, others started to use that style as well, those who finished fourth in the Imatra race Teuvo Länsivuori describes.
Saarinen considered quitting before his death
After the world championship, Japanese Yamaha and Italian Benelli started a bidding competition to get Saarinen as their factory driver.
– Benelli offered more money than Yamaha, but after thinking for a long time, Jarno believed that Yamaha was more competitive, Soili Karme says.
Karme says that Jarno Saarinen started thinking about quitting when the pressure grew at Yamaha.
– He said he would quit immediately after the next season if he won one world championship. If he won the championship in both categories, he would continue for one more season.
– He was supposed to start making use of his civilian profession as an automotive engineer. He had already agreed with the Yamaha importer to set up a motorcycle shop in Turku. I was an accountant myself, so we probably would have worked well together also as entrepreneurs.
For the opening race of the -73 season, two big leaders from Yamaha arrived at the Paul Ricard circuit and they said that Jarno would be made the 500cc world champion and team mate Hideo Kanaya you can win the 250 cubic meters.
– Jarno got really angry about this. In the evening, we went out to eat alone, and Jarno said that if necessary, he would even break his factory contract. He planned to talk to the importer of the racing equipment and try to pay back the contract money by earning it by driving.
– At Paul Ricard, Jarno won the 500cc class and in the next race at Salzburing, he drove all the way to the finish line in the 250cc class, even though he led overwhelmingly and left teammate Kanaya far behind. After that, the Japanese gave up their intention to order a team, because Jarno had told them that he would throw the gloves on the counter if that didn’t happen.
After the first three races of the season, Saarinen had won five of his six starts. However, career and future dreams were tragically shattered in May’s Monza race, when a mass crash after the start claimed 27-year-old Saarinen and the Italian Renzo Pasolini spirit.
Jarno Saarinen made his last trip from Monza to Finland aboard the same Plymouth Belvedere, which he had considered his transport car at the beginning of his career. Despite the sad end of the great story, the memory of Jarno Saarinen still shines strongly in Imatranaj on a hot day in July.