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.

It is awesome to start our season and we can’t wait to see some tough battles and real racing. Of course, we hope that our drivers keep the medals to Finland, but we know there is a strong overseas presence which benefits our local racers when they head off to race internationally.

This season will see an increase in the junior category with the first ever GT10 International Ordinary race taking place which has attracted fifteen competitors.

For twenty years this was just our National Class but finally the UIM has recognised it and now we see other countries adopting it as a way of attracting new racers to our sport.

Johannes and Nuppu have been busy during the winter break, creating a new RaceWKND logo along with a brand-new layout for their website https://www.racewknd.fi/

It’s via this site that you can watch the broadcasts and highlights of racing over the weekend. All competitions are broadcast live on ISTV and RUUTU.fi with the highlights of the competitions shown on Alfa TV the following Saturday.

There will be a live broadcast on Sunday 29 May from 11:30 on ISTV:stä with a pre-race show hosted by the former World Champion Tuukka Lehtonen and Julius Sorjonen who has been commentating on ice hockey for the past seven years.

Amongst the racers competing in the highly competitive F4 class is Stefan Arand, who will be hoping for a better start to his championship campaign after finishing a lowly seventh last time out in Lohja.

When Arand spoke to PRW he said.

As this will be our last year competing in Formula 4 I am going to try to give the bests performance I possibly can at every single race we take part in. We have also started testing and working on our F2 program and might even do some races, depending on how confident I feel with the boat. We are looking forward to this weekend’s race in Lohja which is being organised by the RaceWKND team, who always manage to make extremely well organised and safe race weekends.

Two Finnish competitors who will be trying hard to frustrate Arand’s title aspiration are Jarno Vilmunen (#74) and Tino Lehto (#25)

Vilmunen said.

The beginning of every new season is often tense, but this time I have a new boat which I plan to win the UIM F4 World Championship with, so expectations are certainly high. The goal for this weekend is to be on the top step of the podium in Lohja.

Last year it was Lehto’s first season in the F4 class and it certainly exceeded his expectations.

This year, the goal is to be on the podium in both the Finnish Championships and the World Championships. Awesome season coming!

Sweden’s Hilmer Wiberg is another overseas competitor drawn to the RaceWKND series.

I like to compete in Finland, the competitions are fun and extremely well organised. The Lohja competition will be good practice for the GT30 World Championships taking place in Italy later this year, where my goal is neither more nor less than gold.

Four classes, sixteen heats, F1 two-seater rides along with the opportunity to book an extraordinary helicopter flight for yourself and your friends to watch the races from above. Excitement guaranteed both on and off the water.