Venetsia Drifting 2018 - 25th of August - Kokkola, Finland

Venetsia Drifting is an annual drifting competition held in the city centre of Kokkola, Finland. Track is a street circuit closed off from public traffic. Around 40 drivers with different levels of experience participated to this year's competition.

Day started with free practice and continued with qualification which determined who went to battle who in the bracket. Each driver had two attempts which were scored. Actual competition began shortly after qualification. Two drivers competed against each other driving in tandem. Both drivers had to lead and follow. Driver with a better score continued to the next round. Power2Drift Team Finland's Juha Pöytalaakso ended up taking the first place. Henri Haanpää from Haanpää Motorsport was second and Juha Rintanen of Juha Rintanen Motorsport was third.

Unfortunately I didn't get to see to whole competition since my train left a bit earlier than it finished. Curbs were packed with visitors and it was nice to see a lot of people attending the event. Only downside was that there weren't any grandstands near the track and it was a bit hard to see what happened there if you didn't have a good viewing spot.

I uploaded few clips (#1 & #2) to my Instagram account. Please check them out as well 😎

Historic Grand Race 2018 @ Ahvenisto Race Circuit - 18th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 1/2 - Pit

Here's a photo set from the pit area of 28th Historic Grand Race held between 18th & 19th of August at the Ahvenisto Race Circuit. Event showcased three major themes which were 40th anniversary of Mini 1000 race class, 70th anniversary of Porsche and 50th anniversary of Ford Escort. Overall 170 drivers from Finland and Sweden took part in the event. Weekend included 18 starts which were divided between different race classes such as Historic Stock/GT & Formula, Roadsport, Subaru Sport, SS 1300, Locost and Mini 1000. There was also a Tourist Trophy exhibition showcasing veteran motorcycles in the middle of the day. At the end of the day when all classes had finished their races visitors were allowed to enter the pit area. I included photos from the hobbyist car park to Part 2/2 - Hobbyist car park. Check it out as well 😊

Historic Grand Race 2018 @ Ahvenisto Race Circuit - 18th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 2/2 - Hobbyist car park

Here's photos of the hobbyist car park which was organized during Historic Grand Race at the Ahvenisto Race Circuit. A lot of nice cars attended it. Take a look 😊

Jaguar E-type

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 1/4 - Rods & trucks

Here's a photo set of hot rods, street rods and pickup trucks I encountered during my LinnaCruising visit. LinnaCruising is a three day event held at the Kantola event park in Hämeenlinna, Finland. Area was easy to access since it is close to the city center of Hämeenlinna. I ended up taking a morning train to the city and walking from the station to the event park.

Event park of Kantola is on the shore of a lake called Vanajavesi. Park itself is a big grass area with a big gravel parking lot. LinnaCruising turned 16 years old this summer and it was the first time it was organized in Kantola. From 2013 to 2017 the event was held in Ahvenisto Race Circuit and before that in Satulinna and Verkatehdas. I visited Ahvenisto the next weekend. Story of that visit to Historic Grand Race is also coming out later this month 😊

The event opened on Friday evening with a Drive-In movie and live music. Saturday morning started with a burnout competition. There were also two F2 and F4 Powerboat exhibitions at the near lake. The day ended with a cruising and live music. A swap meet was organized on Sunday before the event closed. This was my first visit to LinnaCruising and it was a very pleasant one. There were a lot to see and experience. Hopefully I get to visit it next year as well.

Remember to check out my other photos from the event as well (links below) 😎

Part 2/4 - Cruisers     Part 3/4 - Muscle cars     Part 4/4 - European cars

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 2/4 - Cruisers

Let's continue with nice cruisers from LinnaCruising 😎

Buick Super

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 3/4 - Muscle cars

And here's few muscle cars I saw during my LinnaCruising visit 😊

Dodge Charger R/T

LinnaCruising 2018 - 11th of August - Hämeenlinna, Finland - Part 4/4 - European cars

Here's few European cars I spotted during my visit to this year's LinnaCruising 😊

Citroen Traction Avant

Vauhtiajot Drifting & Tuning Show 2018 @ Kapernaumi - 21st of July - Seinäjoki, Finland

Here's photos from a one day trip I made to Seinäjoki in July to their local racing event called Vauhtiajot. Vauhtiajot is a festival which combines motorsports and music. It is held in two locations. Street circuit where all of the racing takes place is build to the industrial area of Kapernaumi near the city center of Seinäjoki. I visited the event on Saturday and only bought tickets for that day's track event. The track event continued also on Sunday but since I only stayed there for one day I had to skip it 😐

Five classes, which are Legends, BMW Extreme, V1600, Touring Cars and Gran Turismo, competed at the track during the weekend. There was also a car show and few exhibitions such as drifting and drag racing during breaks. Most of the photos I took are from the car show and pit area. I felt that it was a bit too difficult to spectate the races and see what is going on at the track if you weren't sitting in a grandstand. So I wish there would have been more of them. I uploaded one clip of the Gran Turismo cars driving in the circuit when they had their practice session to my Instagram account. I'll see if I can make another one of the drifting exhibition. Look out for that 😊

Legends cars lining up for practice

Turku AutoSaloon & Drifttime Shakedown 2018 @ Itäparkki, Skanssi - 14th of July - Turku, Finland

Here's few photos which I took while visiting this year's Turku AutoSaloon. Event was held in a parking garage of a shopping center called Skanssi in Turku. It was my first visit to this show and I was positively surprised by it. The venue was great and there were a lot of room to look around all of the cars. There was also a lot of variety in cars which I enjoyed. Few of my favorites were Porsche 911, Opel Kadett C, oval era VW Beetle, DeTomaso Pantera GTS and supercharged Dodge Challenger.

Event also included drifting exhibitions and a Gymkhana style competition. Track was laid down to the roof of the parking garage. Here's video clips from the competition I posted on my Instagram 😊

Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4

Helsinki Bike Show 2018 @ Merisatamanranta, Kaivopuisto - 9th of June - Helsinki, Finland

Here's photos from this year's Helsinki Bike Show (HBS) organized by Modified Motorcycle Association of Finland (MMAF) and Aliens MC at Merisatamanranta in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki. HBS is a free of charge ride-in motorcycle show for custom motorcycles. Show gathers around 100 motorcycles each year for display. The quality of those bikes is always really high. Jury picks out three best motorcycles of each category (Sportbike, Street fighter, Cafe racer, Bagger, Custom, Classic custom, Chopper, Best paint, Jury's and People's choice) which receive a trophy. In addition a lot of visitors ride in with their own motorcycles and gather around the street and harbour of Merisatamanranta.

1946 Indian Chief