The V8 Thunder Finnish Championship serie continued with Round 3 at Vauhtiajot festival at Seinäjoki on 16th and 17th of July. Mid season mark was crossed when 5th and 6th race of the total 10 during the season were driven on the streets of Seinäjoki city. Milla Mäkelä started the weekend holding second place in the standings and her main goal was to maintain that position over the weekend.
“The street circuit at Seinäjoki is very challenging and as always on street track you have to fully focus on every corner because a small mistake could have severe consequences when the walls are very close. Qualifying is important this weekend if we want to have a chance to fight for the win, but main point is to have a solid weekend.” Milla says.
In qualifying Milla scored P3 on the starting grid for race 1. Some work was done with the clutch to improve the starts and that showed to work as Milla got up to second place with a brilliant start.
“I was holding P2 quite firmly. I knew Petri Ortju was close beind, but I managed to grow the gap to crucial parts of the track. He only got close on the narrowest part where there is no room for two cars to be side by side, so I wasn’t worried of overtake to take place. Unfortunately Ortju eventually did try something on that narrow part which caused him to hit the rear of my car and spin me. Luckily I didn’t hit any walls and got to drive home in P4.” Milla recaps.
After the race the stewards investigated the collision and they issued a time penalty to Ortju, which promoted Milla up to P3 in the results of Race 1. Since Toni Lähteenmäki took the win and Harri Salminen in P2 in the race Milla grew further the gap to P3 in the championship standings.
Race 2 was started in wet conditions. Milla started again in P3 according to the lap times of race 1. Remembering the championship standings she made a plan with her team to play it safe in this race to secure good points and avoid any unnecessary damage during the race.
“My start was great again, I think I found my touch to the clutch after it was lost for a while. I got up to P2 after the first corner, but Ortju had a good push into turn 2, so I admit he got away a bit easy this time. After a couple of laps Salminen was also close and we had a good battle for a couple of corners but I eventually yielded. I crossed the line in P4 and I’m happy about that. We did exactly what we agreed before the race and our goal for the weekend was fulfilled.” Milla says.
Her team learned on the street circuit that the breaks of the car need to be checked thoroughly before the next race is up. The performance of the car is good, the handling is great, so the speed has to be hunted in the braking zones. There’s a good 1,5 months to do that before the season continues at Alastaro Circuit on 3rd and 4th of September. Milla is already looking forward to put up a good fight again.
“Vauhtiajot was an amazing event, lots of crowds and fans around which was awesome! I could really feel the support of the crowd, but I am looking forward to racing on real tracks again. The whole nature of racing is quite a lot different on a street circuit. You need to take a new angle for set ups, strategy and everything and I must admit that I enjoy the racing more on a traditional track.” Milla adds.
Pictures: Reijo Kärkkäinen/ RK.kuvat.fi and Jari Kohonen
Championship standings after 6/10 races:
1. Toni Lähteenmäki 150
2. Milla Mäkelä 110
3. Petri Ortju 78
4. Vesa Mäkelä 60
5. Harri Salminen 57
6. Antti Punkari EPUA 52
7. Paavo Hietala 50
8. Jarkko Tähtinen 38
9. Lasse Yrjänä 38
10. Mikko Siironen 7