Last weekend saw the opening round of the 2022 Finnish Powerboat Championship Series RaceWKND take place in Lohja often referred to as the “Lake City”.
In the F4 class after Tino Lehto and Stefan Arand finished on equal points the winner of the class was decided on who had posted the best wining heat time where Lehto was faster than Arand.
The victory was the first in his F4 career and he was extremely after the podium presentation.
Of course, it feels good as we have really worked hard for this. However, this is not enough, and training and development will continue towards the next competitions.
When Arand spoke to PRW he said.
Yes, this weekend was a bit unlucky. The difference in the heat times which decided the winner of the class was one second. I broke my best prop after the finish of the second heat and unfortunately, I didn’t find a good prop to go into the third and fourth heat with.
The racing was so close that not only was the first two position decided on the faster heat time but so was third and fourth place after Roope Virtanen and Jarno Vilmunen ended the weekend both on 694 points. Virtanen had been faster so got to stand on the third step of the podium.
The season also got off to a good start in the other classes.
Arand’s fellow countryman Erik-Rennes Pihlak took the victory in the GT30 class finishing just one hundred points of Hilmer Wiberg from Sweden. Leevi Paasonen took first place in the GT15 class winning three out of the four heats.
The GT10 class which saw an impressive fifteen entries was won by last season’s champion Valter Laine with Sisu Seliö collecting second place after finishing on equal points with Toni Kade. Handing out the trophies to the GT10 competitors was Sami Seliö’s father Niilo Seliö.
When Seliö spoke to PRW he said.
This is something that makes me feel good and proud. My father handing out the prizes to the GT10 competitors in the class he created for me more than thirty years ago… Now finally there is officially a UIM GT10 class.
The Finnish F1H2O racer went onto say.
After a hard weekend I ended up watching the podium presentations for GT10 class from Helsinki Airport. I would have liked to have been there but I’m on route to Macon where F1 is waiting. In the end impressive results for Sisu after taking pole position then crashing out of heat three and still manage to get it all together and finish second overall. Congrats to all GT10 pilots and to Valtteri for winning.
The next race will be held on June 18-19, in Rauma on the west coast of Finland.
Images taken by Andres Raava Photography.
