The races that contribute to the Finnish Formula Ford season have now been completed, and champions named. In addition to the Finnish and NEZ championships, the rookie of the year and Ford Malja (the Ford Bowl) awards have been settled. The season was interesting, with different drivers reaching awards positions. In addition, the substantial cash awards also gave some extra color to the competition!
We already covered the Finnish Championships (with Janne Knuutinen winning) and NEZ Championships (Antti Buri taking the honors). While these series have the highest honors, there was no cash to be had. Cold cash was available to the tune of 6000€ at the Danish Metal Formula Ford Festival in Padborg Park, but unfortunately the Danes took the most of this.However, our Finnish series awards also had some substantial money rewards. Most importantly the Ford Malja award, with its 5000€ top prize, and sums of 2000€, 1500€, 1000€ and 500€ going to 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. In addition, the rookie of the year (Vuoden Tulokas) main prize is 500€ to the winner!
While final results are yet to be displayed (please see FFF ry's official results page for updates), preliminary counting suggests that Janne Knuutinen will take the first prize in Ford Malja, followed by Mäkelä, Nummi, Kurki-Suonio, Kivinen and then Stenius. The rookie of the year award has already been determined, with Sebastian Nummi taking the honors. Surely all the winners will appreciate the financial boost these awards give to their budgets.
On a more personal note some reflections on the season now; our team reached 6th in the Finnish Championships (out of 7), 6th in the Ford Malja (out of 9), and 4th in the rookie of the year series (out of 5). In NEZ we were 14th (out of 21), and in the Padborg Park Dansk Metal Formel Ford Festival final heat we reached 12th among 15 cars, all others being Duratecs (our team did not take part in the Falkenberg NEZ race). To our regret, we were left a few points behind the last "money position" in the Ford Malja and rookie of the year (much to my personal chagrin)! In the rookie series, the Saturday DNF at the Ahvenisto Finals was the key failure, dropping us from a third to fourth (the FF series regulations, allowing no results to be omitted, are quite tough in this regard). In the Malja, Ville Kivinen's misfortune in Padborg helped our points significantly, but was just not quite enough. Some higher points could have been had with some effort at Alastaro, but it is too late to dwell on that now... Anways, the season showed us that the Finnish and Nordic Formula Ford series is fairly competitive - especially for a two-man amateur team with no previous experience - but that it is also fairly easy to get going and survive. Throughout the season there were always plenty of helping hands (and advice! ;-), and the races provided ample opportunity to learn. I will review my season budget a bit later, but it seems 20keur is a reasonable estimate, in particular if one also has to build up a spare parts stock initially. With spare parts (and tools) on hand, cost is probably closer to 10-15keur. From my perspective the best event (so far...) was the NEZ finals at Padborg, although the Ahvenisto races also were quite good. All in all a very interesting season, and we look forward to 2010!
