Grand Prix of Finland

GRAND PRIX OF FINLAND

BENGT BJORKLUND

SATURDAY WAS THE DAY of practicing. Rain had made the circuit surface slippery, but the riders pressed on in spite of it. Not all were too pleased with the course — some felt that it was too narrow. One of the riders who had troubles was 1962 World Champion of the 500cc class, Mike Hailwood, who fell off a 125cc MZ and felt so badly that he decided not to start on Sunday.

50cc

Sunday came and the weather was grey. But 25,000 people trudged up the hill to watch the start of the 50cc race, the day’s first. Ahead of the field at the start was Hans-Georg Anscheidt on Kreidler, leading 50cc man. The West German had to win to take the title from Ernst Degner for sure, but he did not win this time. Honda, who had not had a 50cc victory since Takahashi’s great series — including the 50cc — at the U.S. Grand Prix — won their first at Tammerfors. It was 1962 125cc World Champ, Swiss Luigi Taveri, who turned the trick. After 11 laps lead by the Kreidler star, Taveri and Tommy Robb went to the top, riding their single cylinder four-strokes with extreme precision to a double victory for the Japanese factory. Degner, who was also looking for a World Championship in this class, came after the two Hondas and Anscheidt. So the two Germans must go to Argentina to decide the title — Anscheidt barely leads now, with 36 points to Degner’s 35.

350cc

The Honda riders on their four-cylinder machines were great favorites in the 350cc race, and in fact Jim Redman was already the World Champ before the start of Finland’s GP. Honda had three riders in the field, Redman, Robb and Kitano. Another strong name was Frantisek Stastny, the Jawa works rider. Outsider was Alan Shepherd, who rode a MZ for the East German factory — a bike bored out to 251cc to be allowed in the bigger capacity race.

With that two-stroke Shepherd took the lead at the start, and began to go away from the four-stroke fours. But after one lap Honda had a good lead, with Robb and Redman in the two top positions. Stastny was in third place but soon pulled off with engine trouble.

In fifth place after three laps was Sweden’s Sven-Olof Gunnarsson, riding a Norton with five-speed gearbox. Gunnarsson had three Hondas in front of him, and also the MZ, all works bikes. But he did well with his private machine and after five laps had pulled up on the rear wheel of the fourth man, Japan’s Moto Kitano. For some laps he was in the Honda’s stream, but he saw that he could go faster and was soon pushing ahead. With the Finnish champion Taneli Leop after him, Gunnarsson was going better and better and before long both Scandinavians had overtaken the Japanese rider. Up in front were no close battles — Robb had the lead all through the race, followed by Champ Redman and Shepherd.

125cc

Third race of the day was for 125cc’s. Taveri and his Honda were favored here, and he had already won the 50cc. But the lead was taken by Jim Redman, though he and his second place Honda teammate put on a good show of swapping first place throughout. Redman was the eventual winner, Taveri second, and Tommy Robb unfortunately fell in the paddock corner while running well up in the field. Third was Shepherd on the fast two-stroke MZ.

500cc

The day’s last race — 500cc. Bigger machines and fast going. With Mike Hailwood not on the line; a fight shaped up among the best boys behind the Champion. After practicing, the riders formed to start as follows — Stastny (Jawa), Gunnarsson (Norton), Foil (Matchless). These three were in the first line on the starting grid and when the flag fell for the start, Stastny’s Jawa twin began to haul. Straight away and behind him were Foil and Gunnarsson. Now everyone waited for the next lap. Engine sounds were coming nearer and as everyone looked toward the last hill before the starting line they saw a white helmet with a black ace — Gunnarsson. For the first time in sporting history a Swedish rider had the lead in a World Championship race — and what a lead! — ahead of Stastny and the 500cc World Championship runnerup, Shepherd.

Shepherd was looking for a win and tried harder and harder. But Gunnarsson’s 500cc Norton was faster and, although Shepherd pulled away from him briefly on the 8th lap, the Swede wrested the lead from him soon after. Gunnarsson led for 24 of the 32 laps, until the overtaking of lapper riders when Shepherd, more experienced in this situation, drew up even. Side by side they started to overtake two slower riders, but Gunnarsson took the wrong course and had a bad break in the hairpin bend before the paddock. He fell off the Norton and slid into the hay bales. Jumping up quickly he started the engine and took off on a new course — but too late. Shepherd now had a huge lead and on the last 8 laps Gunnarsson could not do anything about it — his rear brake pedal had been broken off. But he still finished in second position, ahead of Jawa factory rider Stastny and Finland’s champion, Anssi Resko. •

RESULTS, GRAND PRIX OF FINLAND

50cc, 17 laps, 38.12 miles

1. Luigi Taveri, Switz. (Honda), 59.45 mph

2. Tommy Robb, Ireland (Honda)

3. Hans-Georg Anscheidt, W. Germany (Kreidler)

Fastest Lap: Taveri, 60.89 mph

125cc, 28 laps, 62.79 miles

1. Jim Redman, Rhodesia (Honda), 65.86 mph

2. Luigi Taveri, Switz. (Honda)

3. Alan Shepherd, England (MZ)

4. Hans Fischer, E. Germany (MZ)

5. Frank Perris, England (Suzuki)

6. Jukka Petaja, Finland (MZ)

Fastest Lap: Shepherd, 68.35 mph 350cc, 30 laps, 67.27 miles

1. Tommy Robb, Ireland (Honda), 66.61 mph

2. Jim Redman, Rhodesia (Honda)

3. Alan Shepherd, England (MZ)

4. Sven-Olof Gunnarsson, Sweden (Norton)

5. Taneli Leop, Finland (AJS)

6. Moto Kitano, Japan (Honda)

Fastest Lap: Robb, 67.85 mph 500cc, 32 laps, 71.76 miles

1. Alan Shepherd, England (Matchless)

2. Sven-Olof Gunnarsson, Sweden (Norton)

3. Frantisek Stastny, Czech. (Jawa)

4. Anssi Resko, Finland (Matchless)

5. Harald Karlsson, Finland (Norton)

6. Roland Foil, Switz. (Matchless)

Fastest Lap: Shepherd, 71.83 mph