Team Finland comes to the Motocross of Nations 2015 with hot young guns blazing. Valtteri Malin, 18, Miro Sihvonen, 16, and Jere Haavisto, 16, will experience their first MXoN in France. Finland’s team is country’s all time youngest as next youngest team wast two decades ago when Miska Aaltonen, 22, Juha-Pekka Konttinen, 18, and today’s Team Finland’s manager Jussi Vehviläinen, 17, made the team.
Malin will ride with KTM 450 SX-F in MX1, Haavisto with Honda CRF250R in MX2 and Sihvonen with KTM 250 SX-F in Open.
This year KTM Motorsport Finland team’s Malin has been racing the EMX250 series where he currently sits 34th in points with a best moto result 11th in the second heat in Germany.
Team Manninen Bros Honda’s Haavisto is the silver medalist from last year’s Honda EMX150 class and has been racing in EMX250 class this year. Last year he won plenty of races in EMX150, but lost the title only by two points due to injuries. In this year’s EMX250 his best result is from Sweden where he placed 12th in the first heat and 18th overall.
Sihvonen has been racing in EMX125 class for the Belgian Diga Racing Team. Sihvonen won the second round in Valkenswaard and is currently fifth in points before the final round.
Team Finland will once again be managed by Jussi Vehviläinen who is former GP-rider, MX3 class World Championship bronze medalist and multitime Team Finland member as a rider. Vehviläinen hasn’t been racing for some years now and has been concentrating running his own JPV Racing motocross training business in Finland and training camp in California. Next Winter Vehviläinen will join forces with fellow company Race SoCal to put even more effort on the training side of things.
Team Finland is aiming for the place in top 20 in this year’s MXoN in France. Last year Finland placed 16th in Latvia with Ludde Söderberg, Toni Eriksson and Santtu Tiainen.
Malin, Sihvonen and Haavisto will also form Team Finland in un-official Junior World Championship race, 44th Coupe de l’Avenir, in Belgium a week after MXoN. The team’s only goal is the World Title.
Finland had also other rider options for the MXoN team but Finland’s number one rider Harri Kullas and MX1 riders Santtu Tiainen, Ludde Söderberg and Henric Stigell were out of the team for different reasons.
When Finland took the last MXoN medals
20 years ago, in 1995, the young Team Finland with Miska Aaltonen, J-P Konttinen and Jussi Vehviläinen placed ninth in Sverepec, Slovakia. Belgium, USA and France made the podium. One year before, in 1994, the also young team consisting of Aaltonen, Konttinen and Marko Kovalainen, 19, was 14th. Then the top three countries in Switzerland were Great Britain, USA and France.
This year’s Team Finland’s youngest rider Haavisto will not be the youngest Finnish rider in MXoN of all time. Current Wilvo Nestaan Husqvarna Factory Racing’s Harri Kullas, who has a citizenship of Finland and Estonia, was also 16 years old when he made his debut in MXoN in Donington Park, Great Britain in 2008. But at the time he was two weeks younger than Haavisto will be at this year’s race.
Back in 2008 Kullas’ teammates were today’s team manager for Red Bull IceOne Husqvarna Factory Racing Antti Pyrhönen and multitime enduro World Championship bronze medalist Matti Seistola.
Taking a closer look at the experienced Team Finland manager Jussi Vehviläinen, the highlights of his career, beside the MX3 bronze, are third overall in Portugal MX1 GP in 2005 and second overall in Belgian MX2 GP in 2004. Vehviläinen was also strong part of Team Finland in MXoN in 2002 (Kovalainen, Pyrhönen) and 2003 (Aaltonen, Pyrhönen) when the team rode to bronze medals.
The member of Team Finland 1995 Miska Aaltonen, made his debut in MXoN at the age of 18 in 1991 alongside Pekka Vehkonen (125cc World Champion 1985) and Kurt Ljungqvist (former professional rider and nowadays CEO of Finnish Motorcycling Federation). Aaltonen was also member of Team Finland in 1998 when he, Kovalainen and Petteri Gustafsson rode to silver which is the all time best MXoN result for Finland.
Copyright: Photo: Marko Vihriä