The doubled letters aren't typos. They are caused by the (insert your favorite expletive here) Geocities Easy Upload.
They no longer allow the use of a FTP.
Grand Race, Ahvenisto, 17.-18.08.
Before the wekend.
We had a kind of a shakedown couple of weeks before the race. The Steyr and Lasse completed about ten slow laps of
Ahvenisto. The engine wasn't revved above 5000 rpm and most of the session was spent showing the lines to the new owner
of the Alfa, who was due to make her racing debut at the Grand Race. Results of the shakedown showed some extra work to
be needed: gears 3 & 4 jumped out of gear, most of the tyres made contact with the body and the throttle cable came
loose. Otherwise the steyr was a VERY quick steering car with relatively good brakes. Oh, and a noise measurement
that showed 113db, have to loose half of the noise to be allowed to race at Ahvenisto. (noise limit 110db)
Pekka also had some mechanical activities. Due to the engine failure at Jurva the Abarth engine was still dismantled
a week before the weekend. Pekka got it all together on thursday, only to find out the block had cracked and pushed
the coolant out and in to the oil. So,what do you do with a cracked abarth block on Thursday when you are supposed to
race on Saturday? Luckily it wasn'tsuch a big problem as Lasse agreed to loan his brand new spare engine. Compared
with the previous engines used in the Abarth main differences were forged pistons and an 'evo' cam, it was hoped to make
a little more power and rev higher (about 9000rpm) to allow more top speed. The spare was wheeled in to Pekka's
garage Thursday evening and Pekka had 24h to swap the engine. With all this work Pekka missed the planned
practice/testing. It would have been important for him asAhvenistois a very challenging track and Pekka has never been around it.
The race weekend.
We arrived to the Ahvenisto on Friday to get a common pit for four race cars: Pekka's Abarth, Lasse's Steyr, Timo Seppälä's
BMW 2002 (HRF Roadsort B) and Anja Heer's Alfa (formerly Lasse's). A pic of the pit up left. Timo is a BMW enthusiast
living near Lasse. He has raced a selection of BMWs over the years including a season with Lasse's BMW 1800TI, in 2000
Nürburgring Nordschleife Youngtimer Trophy co-driving with Lasse's 2002 TI and last year Grand Race with the same car.
The Steyr now had widened wings,somemodification to the gear linkage and Ducati Paso 750 silencers. What a pathetic noise it made,
it sounded like a stock beetle with a rusty exhaust. It was like it had been castrated. Noise level: 99db, way too low. Weight
was measured 483kg without driver but with about 20 litres of fuel, quite close to the homologation.
Some pictures from the weekend:
The Abarth after the first race. 1.
TO BE CONTINUED SOON...
-06. 07. 2002
Second race weekend, Botniaring, Jurva, 29-30. 06.
This race report isn't particularely thorough, 'cause I was unable go to the race.
The Steyr is still a bit unfinished so Lasse went to Jurva only as a spectator and to support Pekka and the Abarth.
Botniaring is a short, about 2.6 km, circuit with some banked corners. It has been relatively rarely used in the HRF
series so Pekka was giving a little less handicap here to the more experienced racers, compared to for ex. Ahvenisto.
The car now had the 4-speed 'box instead of the 5-speeder and Pekka though it made the car a bit more balanced as it is lighter.
The pace was a huge improvement over the Motopark race. Pekka lapped third fastest of the six cars (Luotonen, Tabell, Huttunen, Selenius and Jyri Holmén with his cooper)
, right in the tail of Tabell but Huttunen wasn't that far behind either. Joni was still a couple of seconds faster with his abarth
In the first race Pekka finished third in class ten secs behind tabell and three ahead Huttunen. Joni won the class. The good news was that
Pekka's fastest lap was faster than Tabell's so Pekka got ahead of Tabell in the starting grid for the next race.
The second race didn't quite go to the plan. Abarth blew oil pan gasket and spit which resulted oil smoke. Pekka retired on lap 8. In the long run it was a good thing because when Pekka took the engine apart after
the weekend the timing chain had started to come apart. So there cuold have been a lot bigger damage soon to follow if the engine hadn't been disassembled.
Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super
The Alfa has been sold. The new owner is planning to take part in the two HRF race weekend that are left this season.
It is a normal giulia, '64 if I remember correctly, that has been built to TI Super spec by Jukka Pellinen who has used it to some success in stage rallies. 1600cc, all aluminium DOCH in-line four, double 45mm webers,
5-speed, four wheel disc brakes, aluminium skinned doors, LSD, 147 hp and 161 Nm, 940 kg.
For more info and pics of the car, check out Jukka pellinen's site on the car: www.pekkalasoftware.fi/giulia
-22. 06. 2002
The first race weekend
The first weekend of the "Gulf Historic Race Cup 2002" was 8-9. 6. at Motopark circuit in Virtasalmi. Lasse was motorcycling
in Norway and the Steyr still needed some finishing touches, so Lasse was going to skip the first two races. I went with Pekka Huotari, the new owner of the Abarth Lasse used to race. The Abarth is Pekka's first race car
and he has never done any trackdays, driving schools etc. Only time he had been on a racetrack was the mandatory teaching/test for the licence, which he completed in a Peugeot 106 GTI.
The abarth should be an intresting learner's car ;*).
Pekka has done some modifications to the abarth over the winter, mostly all sorts of little mods to reduce weight. The weight reduction had been surprisingly effective,
last season the abarth was weighted between 630-640kg without driver, at motopark scales showed 597kg and F/R balance 40/60% with some petrol. So it is getting closer to the homologated 583kg.
The schedule had two 15min practice sessions and qualification on Saturday and a two lap warm up and two 10 lap races. Before the first practice session Pekka had driven the Abarth about 10km on the highway. When
he returned from the practice it seemed like it had been a bit of a culture shock. Pekka described the handling "horrible" and complained he hadn't enough time to look at mirror, flags ar racing lines as all
his concentration had to be used to fight the Abarth. By the time he saw the lap times, 2.07, 12sec down on the class leading
Joni Luotonen with a similar abarth, he looked like he was ready to rip his racing licence. In my opinion the 2.07 was a good time for a first timer
with a such a challenging track/car. For the second practice Joni agreed to give Pekka a tow for a couple of laps to show him around.
The session begun promisingly, Pekka hanging behind Joni for two laps. After the two laps Joni decided to pull away, but Pekka didn't realise it
and tried to hang on. He was nowhere to be seen on the second lap. We hopped into a car drove to see what had happened, fearing
Pekka had bent it and would be ready to quit. Luckily he had only spun and stalled it and was gushing with joy as he was learning to drive the car.
The Abarth won't start if it is hot, it has such a compression ratio the starter motor can't turn it around when hot. The bad
news was Pekka only completed two laps when he would have needed all the kilometers he could get. The time: 2.02, instant 5 sec improvement.
Sadly the Saturday had been hard on the historic competitors reducing the already traditionally low number of competitors of the first weekend. In the
small (<1300cc, Historic E-F) class Jari Tabell had gearbox troubles with the Spit, it was fixed overnight but didn't hold -> out of race. First timer Jukka Selenius's Sprite had a broken engine -> out of race.
Also a Falcon and a Lotus cortina, had broken already. After the retirements there was only three starters in the small class, Joni, Pekka and Martti Huttunen
in a Alfa Giulietta sprint.
First race: Pekka took a careful start and ended up third in class. He started to reel in the alfa as it had trouble with hot brakes. after a couple of laps Pekka passed the Alfa and surprisingly a class win seemed possible.
At the same time Joni had diced with a Porsche 911 but spun and dropped back, couple of corners later a spark pulg wire came off and Joni's
abarth turned into a three cylinder. After all there wasn't enough lap for pekka and Joni took the win, Pekka second. Pekka's best lap time 2.01.3, better than Huttunen's best.
Race two: This time Pekka took a not so careful a start, 6000rpm and drop the clutch, a risk with an abarth using Fiat 600 driveaxles designed for 28hp.
For his inexperience he didn't want to dive into the first corner between the other cars and ended up last in line again. He seemed to have a better pace than in the first race and was instantly reeling in the Alfa
but after two laps he felt a strange viration at the rear and a couple of corners later lost drive. The inner end of the left driveaxle had bent in the start
and cracked couple of laps later.
After the weekend.
The 5-speed gearbox Lasse had loaned to Pekka, it wasn't sold with the car, has been replaced with a 4-speed and the 5-speed will be dismantled and cleaned.
It probably won't return to the car.
Pekka was testing at Motopark 19. 06. 2002. He had bought a lap timer, very good when you are trying to learn. He was very pleased with results. Best lap time was 1.57.46, with steady lap times around 1.58.
For the next race the abarth will get new tyres. Next race: Botniaring, Jurva 29-30. 06. PS. I will soon post pics of the Steyr.
Steyr project pictures, and some others too.
Steyr in the present condition: 1 2 3 4
5 6
- 07. 04. 2002
Moved the guestbook to the up left corner, to make it accessible to all visitors.
- 20. 03. 2002
Title page and this text without the frames for visitors with 800x600 resolution.
- 13. 03. 2002
A sprint
We were watching a sprint race in Lahti last sunday (10. 3.). The event was divided into two races, one on the saturday and on on the sunday. There were both modern and historic cars but the main interest
for us were the historics, particularely the 2002 TI Lasse used to own. The car's new owner Jari Tilli showed good pace: class win in both races
and 4th and 5th overall (historics). The fastest historic car overall was a Saab 96 V4 by a clear marginal. It is a
devilishly fast car in the snow if driven by a skilled driver. Also of interest was the first outing of a Historic G Fiat Abarth
1000 that we're hoping to meet on the track next summer.
Steyer-Puch 650 TR2, the first car introduction:
The loyal racer, Abarth 1000, is no longer with us, as you may have noticed from the last post. It was handed over to a
new owner in a trade that brought in the Steyer. The Abarth's new owner will race it in the championships his summer. He hasn't
raced before and he had built the Steyer over two years (to immaculate standard, I might add) to race it in the HRF Historic
F/D class, the same class as the Abarth. However he became unsure if the Steyer would be competitive. So, now he has one
excuse less, 'cause his new car has been proven.
The Steyer shouldn't be a totally hopeless racer. It has some strong points, biggest of all is the homologated weight, 450kg,
which shouldn't be far off, althought the car is yet to be weighted. At this point I believe I should tell something about the
spec, I'm sure not everyone knows what kind of a car a Steyer-Puch 650 TR2 is. The car has been built in Austria. It is
based on a Fiat 500 bodyshell. It has an air-cooled flat twin (Fiat had an inline twin) of XXXcc (I will soon add the displacement, have to check from the papers) displacement in the back. Lasse's
car's engine is a race engine built in Hungary and is believed to produce somewhere between 50 and 60 hp, the power to weight
somewhat down on the Abarths 630kg/94hp (583kg homologated). But it has a tremendous
noise! Have to do something to that before the Ahvenisto noise restrictions. The steyer rear single wishbones are attached
directly to the gearbox. The ratios still need some attention. The front suspension is similar to the Fiat, a transverse leaf
spring and upper wishbones, but a panhard rod has been added. The Steyer is not yet completely race ready, some final assembly is still to be done and some parts still need some attention. And if you have to know, the car is white with a black roof.
As such the Steyer should be faster than a comperable Fiat 500 Abarth and we hope it will be competitive against the Imps,
but we are quite sure the Fiat Abarth 1000s and Tabell's Spitfire will prove uncatchable.
I try to post some pics of the car!
- 20. 02. 2002 The first post to the new site/layout! The site in it's former layout was located at "www.oocities.org/motorcity/pit/9922",
and probably still is. I have lost passwords, changed e-mails, so I have no access to that site's maintenance anymore.
My Father, Lasse Peltola has raced old cars since the mid-eighties with varying success. Since 1990 mostly in the races
organized by the HRF - Historic Race Finland and Historic Rallies, before that it was mostly
owner club track days and sprints. (For more info on historic racing in Finland click the "Racing In Finland" link on the left.)
The cars that have been raced:
-31. 08.2002
- 18. 04. 2002
The tow vehicle for the steyr, airborne, a Fiat 1800 estate: 1
Not a race car but... webmasters 127.
If you used to visit the former site you surely noticed it never got ready, and the updating was lazy. This is the reason for the
new layout (and I wanted to do new graphics;*). The Diary. No old posts will be deleted, modified or updated. I will write new posts to tell you all the
news/dirty detail and to complement the old ones instead of writing all new texts. This will make it easier to update the
site and hopefully prevent it coming a "ghost" site that no one cares for, like the old one.
"The Foundation Stone"
("national" means the car is built from a lower spec model, ie. cortina->lotus cortina, but is built to full FIA spec.
It is only eligible to Finnish events. "FIA" means international papers.)
- A varied selection of road/trackday AAllfas: Giulias, GTV, GT Junior...
- Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600cc HRF Roadsporrtt
- BMW 2002 HRF Roadsport B
- BMW 1800 ti Historic F /track "nationnaal"(red one)
- BMW 525 3.0 E12 HRF Roadsport B
- Fiat 1500 '64 Historic F /rally (& trraack) "FIA" "the mother of all Group N cars..." ;*)
- BMW 1800 ti Historic F /track (blue oonne) "national"
- Fiat Abarth 1000 berlina corsa Historriic F /track, "national", Class Champion '96(driver Joni Luotonen),(Lasse->)'99, '00, '01
- BMW 1800 ti Historic F /rally/track ((bblue with white stripes) "national"
- BMW 2002 TI Historic G "prod. car" /rraally & track "FIA", Nürburgring Youngtimer Trophy 2000
Current racecars:
- Steyer-Puch 650 TR2 Historic F /trackk "FIA"
- Alfa Romeo Giulia TI Super Historic FF /rally & track "national"
Project racecars:
BMW 1800 ti Historic F /track "FIA"
BMW 2002 TI Historic G "prod. car" /rally "FIA"
BMW 2002 TI Historic G "Group 2" /track "FIA"
Please, send e-mail, write in the guestbook: What cars/subjects are you intrested! I'll answer you on the site to best of my knowledge!
