Slotracing in Finland is strictly 1/24th, as our tracks are american-style fast, banked 8- or 6-lane tracks (Photo). We are only a few enthusiasts who do some 1/32nd racing. We race in six classes that are Gp.7, Gp.27, Int.15, Eurosport, G-15 Eurosport and G-15 Stock cars. Gp.7 and Gp.27 are open classes that are arranged together, separately from the scale meetings.

We have Finnish Championships that is contested in Gp.7. The number of racers in this class is only 15 to 30, as it is very expensive, especially because two thirds of our Gp.7 racers also race internationally. This means that the level is very high (which also explains the low attendance). We have no semi-pro class, because we see that Gp.27 is the one to do if you are not in for Gp.7. Of course, we all race Gp.27, but not that seriously. In fact, should we not race Gp.27 in European Championships, we would restrict the entry in Gp.27 to only those who don't race Gp.7.

Int.15 is a class that we should no longer race, as the number of entries is very low. We have tried to encourage kids to do this class, but to no avail.

Then, the scale classes are the corner stone of our racing. We have had the class from the early seventies, and in Gp.15 the rules have not changed very much from those days. The basic idea back then was to create a junior-class with a mass-produced motor, and Gp.15 was a good choice at that time. Some of you may remember that those days people did wind their own arms and the ones with the best arms usually won. That created the need to separate novices and pros into two classes. Then there were not yet the problem of wings...

Well, we continued to race Gp.15 (with no added air control) till the late 80's in three categories: Under 12 years, under 16 years and over 16 years. The best were yearly promoted to the class above, and the ones from the oldest category were promoted to Gp.7. Until the advent of perimeters in the mid-80's there was not very much problems as you could use the same chassis and just added sidedams and changed the motor. But then, suddenly, the whole concept of wingcars changed rapidly and the step from Gp.15 became too long. We had some Group 20 racing at that time but it was not enough for some. The number of Gp.7 racers dropped constantly. Well, we tried to make some changes to make changing the class a bit easier, but not much was achieved. Then, last year, we decided to introduce Eurosports to give an alternative for those who are not in for wingcars.

Now, we race Eurosports as an open class, G-15 Eurosports (with Int.15 motors) as a middle class, and the kids under 12 years race G-15 Stock cars (Mura 15, single-hinge chassis). This concept seems to work pretty well, we had some 85 competitors in this year's Finnish Scale Championships, and probably will have more in the future.

The problem with scale cars is that we only have fast tracks (Photo). Scale cars would be more fun on slower tracks, but they are also well suited for King tracks.

The thing that I would like to see is the introduction of production cars (Parma Flexi and Trinity Spyder-type cars with Gp.12 motors). They are just not robust enough for young kids on fast tracks, according to the fathers that have to do the straightening. (Here's something for the manufacturers to think about.) They are cheap, that I admit. But the people just don't seem to value these cars, which is a shame.

We are lucky to have the possibility to go abroad quite easily, to race in Sweden and Estonia (Photo). That we do quite often, and also they come over quite frequently. This has made racing much more interesting.

We have about 20 tracks that we use for racing. There are more small tracks that are not used for racing as they don't conform to track rules. Of these 20 tracks, we have five full length King tracks that we use for wingcar racing. Others are shorter, usually King-type tracks. They are OK for scalecars. No flat tracks are available. People who decide about the track layout seem to believe that they need a King or at least the big banking...

We have twice organized the European Championships for Gp.7 and Gp.27 in Finland (Photo), and probably will do that again next year.