Jarno Saarinen

Jarno Saarinen

Nation:	Finland
Motorcycle world championship
statistics
Starts Victories Poles SR 46 15th - 18th
World title:	1
World Cup points:	459
Podiums:	32
According to class (es): 50 cm³ class First start: Grand Prix of Nations 1971 Last start: 1971 Spanish Grand Prix Constructors 1971  Kreidler World Cup balance Twelfth World Cup ( 1971 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 2 - - - World Cup points: 17th Podiums: 1 250 cc class First start: German Grand Prix 1970 Last start: 1973 German Grand Prix Constructors 1970-1973  Yamaha World Cup balance World Champion ( 1972 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 28 8th - 10 World Cup points: 260 Podiums: 18th 350 cm³ class First start: Grand Prix of Austria 1971 Last start: 1972 Finnish Grand Prix Constructors 1971-1972  Yamaha World Cup balance Vice World Champion ( 1971 - 1972 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 14th 5 - 5 World Cup points: 152 Podiums: 11 500 cc class First start: 1973 French Grand Prix Last start: 1973 Austrian Grand Prix Constructors 1973  Yamaha World Cup balance Seventh World Cup ( 1973 ) Starts Victories Poles SR 2 2 - 3 World Cup points: 30th Podiums: 2

Jarno Saarinen's tombstone in Turku

Jarno Saarinen in an ice race in 1963

Jarno Karl Keimo Saarinen (born December 11, 1945 in Turku , Finland , † May 20, 1973 in Monza , Italy ) was a Finnish motorcycle racer , also known as The Flying Finn (the flying Finn) .

Between 1970 and 1973 he contested a total of 48 races in the motorcycle world championship and in 1972 won the title in the 250 cc class. Saarinen died in 1973 in a racing accident in Monza .

Career

Jarno Saarinen studied engineering at the Technical University of Turku. His career aspiration was engine developer. After graduating, he worked for Puch in Finland and rode ice speedways and road races on motorcycles of this brand .

On August 4, 1968 Saarinen finished eleventh in his first world championship race in the 125 cc class at the Finnish Grand Prix in Imatra . In 1969 Saarinen became Finnish champion, and in 1970 he was able to achieve fourth overall place in the World Championship on a privately financed Yamaha TD2 250 cc. In 1971 Saarinen entered the classes up to 250 cm³ and up to 350 cm³ and took third and second place in the World Cup. This achievement prompted Yamaha to offer him a works contract for these two classes for the 1972 season . Saarinen thanked Giacomo Agostini with the title in the 250s and second place in the world championship in the larger class .

In the 1973 season Saarinen competed again in the 250 cc class and also in the 500 cc class with the new four-cylinder two-stroke Yamaha. He won the first three races of the season in the small and two out of three races in the large class.

Monza tragedy

On May 20, 1973, Jarno Saarinen was killed in a serious accident in the first lap of the 250 cc race at the Nations Grand Prix in Monza, in which Renzo Pasolini also had a fatal accident. The circumstances of this accident, which is considered to be one of the worst in the history of the motorcycle world championship, have not yet been fully clarified.

On the first lap of the 250cc race, Pasolini's motorcycle, lying in second place, broke to the left in the Curva Grande at around 220 km / h. The Italian was thrown into the lane and was dead on the spot. His motorcycle flew back onto the track in a high arc and hit Saarinen, who was lying directly behind him, on the head. The Finn was thrown about 40 meters through the air and was also fatally injured when it hit the track. The gas leaking from Pasolini's motorcycle set the track and the straw bales on fire on fire, but the twelve other pilots involved in the crash all got away with broken bones , bruises and abrasions .

In the following hours a dispute broke out between the drivers and the race management about the start of the other races, which were finally canceled. That same evening, it was announced at a press conference that Pasolini had caused the fall by a driving error. His team boss at the time, Gilberto Milani, and an expertise prepared by Sandro Colombo assumed a piston jammed as the cause of the accident. Other sources attribute Paso's fall to the dirty track and blame the race management for the accident. In the previous 350cc race, Walter Villa , who contaminated the track with oil due to a technical defect in his Benelli , had failed to take it out of the race and to clean the track in the following 30-minute race break.

Jarno Saarinen was buried in his hometown of Turku. In the 48 Grand Prix races of his career, he achieved 15 wins and a total of 32 podium finishes. In 2009 the Finn was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame .

statistics

title

• 1972 - 250 cc world champion on a Yamaha
• 1972 - Mallory Park Race of the Year winner
• 1973 - Daytona 200 winner
• 1973 - Imola 200 mile winner
• 15 Grand Prix victories
• Induction into the MotoGP Hall of Fame

In the motorcycle world championship

year	class	team	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	Points	WM	Victories
1970	250 cc	Yamaha	6th	DNF	4th	DNS	3.	4th	4th	3.	DNF	DNF		DNF	DNF	57	4th	-
1971	50 cc	Kreidler	DNS	DNS		DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	6th	2.		17th	12.	-
	250 cc	Yamaha	8th.	DNS	DNS	DNS	DNS	5.	3.	3.	6th	2.	5.	1.		64	3.	1
	350 cc	Yamaha	6th	5.	DNS	DNF		DNF	1.	3.	2.	DNF	1.	DNF		63	2.	2
1972	250 cc	Yamaha	3.	4th	2.	3.	DNS	DNF	3.	1.	1.	1.	2.	1.	DNS	94	World Champion	4th
	350 cc	Yamaha	1.	1.	4th	3.	DNS	DNF	2.		DNF	1.	3.	2.	DNF	89	2.	3
1973	250 cc	Yamaha	1.	1.	1.	DNS	DNF	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	45	4th	3
	500 cc	Yamaha	1.	1.	DNF	DNS	DNS	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	30th	7th	2

DNS : not at the start | DNF : Race not finished

Trivia

• To this day, Saarinen is the only Finn to win a motorcycle road world championship.
• There is still an active Saarinen fan club in Italy.
• The Italian Formula 1 racing driver Jarno Trulli is named after Saarinen.
• Saarinen was the first European to win the Daytona 200 at the Daytona International Speedway in 1973 .
• In Wolf Haas - Crime Eternal life a figure wearing Saarinen name as a nickname and another figure bears the name of his widow Soili Karme.

literature

• Klaas Tjassens: Jarno Saarinen: the flying Finn. T & T, Weissach 2002, ISBN 3-932563-20-4 . (Text in German and English)

References

Web links

Commons : Jarno Saarinen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Italian Saarinen Fan Club (Italian)
• Photos from Saarinen at classic-motorrad.de
• Jarno Saarinen on the official website of the Motorcycle World Championship (English).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jarno Saarinen Made MotoGP Legend ( English ) motogp.com. Retrieved December 26, 2012.