So you thought Barry Sheene was good?
 

As a lad my heroes on bikes were our Bazza and Mick Grant as he rode for Kawasaki. My non English favourite was a wee Finnish guy called Teppi Lansivuori,(some might remember that he rode Nº 8 for Suzuki?)

However if you take a look at the link below you get an idea of a rider who was probably better than all of them in the 1970's. With just 3 seasons racing internationally he was simply amazing. He was the person that brought the knee down riding style to the world,(later copied and pefected by kenny Roberts) He scared many of the etsablished riders like Read and Agostini due to his 100% win attitude.

This guy won the Daytona 200 on a 350cc bike when up against much bigger machinery! He also won a World title as a privateer!

Alas his bright flame was snuffed out so prematurely in a terrible accident at Monza in 1973,(an accident that also saw the death of World Champion Renzo Pasolini....Ago's great rival)

Many with a better knowledge of racing from the time mention that without his sad demise,kenny Roberts would never have come to europe to race...as he would have seen it as being pointless to try!

The guy I refer to is the one and only:

Jarno Saarinen


(he was such a big hit with Italian fans that in the 1970's many Italian boys were named after him...I sight...F1 driver Jarno Trulli)


Take a look at the link to get a better idea of how good this guy was:

http://images.google.es/imgres?imgur...lr%3D%26sa%3DN

I have a chum from Finland who had a connection with Jarno, there's a bunch of Jarno memorabilia and a bike or two in a garage in Turku I'd really like to get my hands on.

At the risk of turning this into a 'Memorial' page I would like to mention another of the greats :-

JOEY DUNLOP - The undisputed 'King of The Mountain' & probably the greatest road racer of all time.

SEE HERE for just one of the tribute sites put together after his untimely death.

BTW, this is also the man of whom Carl Fogarty (Motormouth Almighty) said ". . . Joey was a hero to me and words cannot express how much of a loss it is."

When was the last time anyone heard him say anything positive about someone other than himself ??

And a gentleman into the bargain.

my dad always raved about Saurinen. He was a bit good and it is trajic how he and others died in that race.

Here here. Absolute comitment on the fast bends. Also, the way he worked on /set up/ knew about every single component on his machine was very similar to Senna.

Really nice guy too it seemed like.

Yes,
Remember him well from my youth. Brilliant rider. Got a lot of his skills from ice racing!

mines got to be Ben Bostrom ......now thats a rider !

The daddy of rear wheel stearing

Stewboy....Get with the programme mate! :wink:


Supervox mentioned an all time legend who has a record which will never be equalled on road circuits. Someone who tragically died in a corner of europe not normally asociated with racing.

I mentioned someone that had already taken the rcing world by storm in just 3 sesons and very possibly could have been the next Agostini if not better!

I dont quite think that anyone preently still racing,(apart perhaps from Mr.Rossi) could come anywhere near those two guys. 8)

yeah yeah yeah blah blah blah :lol: