V8 Thunder Finnish Championship series has been started in 2022 with two rounds during May and June. Milla Mäkelä enters the series with the Mercedes AMG V8 Thunder car aiming to challenge the reigning champion Toni Lähteenmäki.
“Of course top 3 is the minimum target for also this year and the aim is to be higher up than last year, we already have a bronze medal. We will try to challenge Toni in the races and focus on getting race wins to be able to fight for the title.” Milla says.
At Kemora opening round Milla got to climb on the second highest step on the podium two times in the two races despite minor steering issues in the second race.
“The first start was a bit bad, I had lots of wheel spin so the first corner was a bit tight, but I managed to hold my second place. From there on it was quite nice to drive to the finish line. In the second race my power steering failed partially already on the warm up lap. I got a better start and gained some distance to the pack in the beginning, but Harri Salminen caught up on me at the end. He’s car broke before he could make a move to pass me, so luckily I got to cross the line in a secure second place again.” Milla recaps the Kemora races.
The second round at Botniaring was driven together with the Baltic Touringcar series so there was a very international feeling at the pit with about 150 cars alltogether participating. Qualifying was driven on Friday and Milla wasn’t too happy with her performance even if she was starting 3rd on the grid for Race 1.
“The car was working amazingly well after we did some major set up changes to it. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to turn that into results in qualy as I was trying too hard and made a couple of mistakes. Also one of my flying laps was disturbed by traffic.” Milla says.
Although starting from the second row Milla was still second in the first corner in race 1 . The gap behind was growing steadily through the race and she made the second fastest lap of the race, which meant P2 start for race 2. The same pattern was repeated in Race 2 on Sunday aswell, second place after the start and solid performance to cross the line in P2.
“It feels good! Four starts and four times P2, it’s the best start to a season we ever had. The car is set up so well that the tyres are very easy to manage through the whole race. All my fast lap times were within 0,4 seconds. Now that the car is working so constantly we can focus on gaining more speed for the next round!” Milla ends.
The Finnish Championship series will continue with Round 3 at Seinäjoki street circuit at Vauhtiajot Race&Rock festival on 16th and 17th July.
Pictures Airismedia and Mäkelä Racing Team