Erno Kostamo, who competes in the IRRC series of international track motorcycling, runs a workshop in Joensuu on weekdays. For the competition, he hopes for help from the sticker store.
Erno Kostamo tightens the last screws, jumps into the saddle of the customer’s motorcycle and sets off on the test track.
Kostamo is known for his career as a track motorcycle rider, but most of the time he serves customers in his motorcycle repair shop in Joensula.
Kostamo’s own racing bike also needs to be fixed, but it can’t be solved by tightening screws. Kostamo received a bill of almost 15,000 euros when the engine of his BMV broke down in Belgium the other week.
Now Kostamo is selling 100 euro support stickers on social media to finance the competition expenses for the rest of the season.
– When collecting funding, I have always had the idea that small streams grow into big streams, Kostamo states.
Kostamo characterizes the support received from the campaign, which has been running for about a week, as amazing.
– If someone hasn’t had money for a hundred-euro sticker, they’ve been looking for someone who does.
The stable space left below
The broken bike has not been Kostamo’s only setback this season.
Kostamo’s team unexpectedly announced that they were withdrawing from the IRRC series on the eve of the Belgian race.
– There were six business days until the next competition, Kostamo states.
Since there were no suitable stable places available, Kostamo had to set up his own stable on a fast schedule. Equipment, transport help and storage places were managed here and there.
The setbacks came to an unfortunate end for Kostamo, because he was in a great mood from the beginning of the season. At the beginning of July, Kostamo won two starts in the Imatra competition.
A lung burst in the hospital
Despite the bad luck and financial difficulties, Kostamo plans to continue racing motorcycles next season as well. Even the fact that three years ago the sport was about to take Kostamo’s life hasn’t stopped the plans.
Kostamo got into the middle of a bad mass crash at the 2019 race in Macau. Just before the 2019 season, Kostamo had announced that it would eliminate unnecessary risks.
– It was difficult to convince outsiders that I was sane when I had a broken back and a punctured lung in a hospital in Macao.
Kostamo is not attracted by the speed and danger of track motorcycling. Instead, he says that he enjoys driving immensely.
In the same breath, however, Kostamo says that he questions the meaning of the sport.
– Even in Belgium, I said out loud that I damn well wouldn’t recommend this job to anyone. You could be a normal hero and do normal things.