Kallio victory not quite good enough

Five points stolen by team-mate Talmacsi in Qatar might have secured 125cc championship

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Mika Kallio did what he had to do and took his fourth win on the last Marlboro Grand Prix of the 125 cc Road Racing World Championship season in Valencia, Spain. However, the victory was not quite enough to secure him the riders' championship.
     
Kallio's rival, Thomas Lüthi of Switzerland, would have had to finish 14th or worse in order for the Finn to beat him, but Lüthi rode a tactically perfect race and finished 9th.
      The 19-year-old Swiss rider thus took the riders' championship title by five points. Incidentally that is the number of points Kallio's Hungarian team-mate Gabor Talmacsi snatched from the unsuspecting Finn when he overtook Kallio on the finishing straight - against the instructions of team manager Harald Bartol - at the Qatar Grand Prix last month.
      Talmacsi received a punishment for his stunt yesterday.
      "Talmacsi will not be riding for KTM next season", Kallio revealed shortly after the race, which saw the Hungarian obeying orders and finishing second behind his team-mate.
      The Finn did not have a definitive answer to whether Talmacsi really snatched the championship title from him. However, he believed the game was all over in the penultimate Grand Prix in Turkey, where he fell and was left without any points.
      Kallio had mixed feelings yesterday.
      "I'm disappointed that I didn't win the title. On the other hand, I'm really pleased at taking a win on this circuit here, where I've been useless in the past", Kallio said.
     
For the KTM team, yesterday's race was close to perfection. Thanks to Kallio's and Talmacsi's double victory, the team beat Honda and won the 125cc Road Race Constructors' World Championship by 28 points.
      KTM has decided not to replace Talmacsi with a new rider, and the Spaniard Julian Simon and Kallio will continue as the team's riders next season.
      Kallio's success this year has resulted in road racing frenzy in Finland that was last seen during the golden years of the 1970s, when the great Jarno Saarinen and his adjutant Teuvo Länsivuori won eight road racing medals between them.
      Saarinen, nicknamed "The Baron", was also outright World Champion in the 250cc category in 1972 and was widely expected to become a dominant figure in the sport, but he was tragically killed at Monza the following year.
      Kallio is the first Finnish road racer to have finished second in the world riders' championship since Teuvo Länsivuori managed the feat in the 500cc class in 1976.
      Back in the 1970s, Finland even had its own annual RR Grand Prix, at the Imatra circuit. Since those days, Formula One has stolen all the limelight, through figures like Keijo "Keke" Rosberg, Mika Häkkinen, and most recently Kimi Räikkönen.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mika Kallio takes slender lead in 125 cc World Championship after Qatar GP (3.10.2005)

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