By Thanks to Czech road racing statistician extraordinaire Jan Vavra, Road Racing News can feature today the fastest newcomers to Imatranajo since the famous Finnish roads course return to hosting high-level motorsport in 2016.
Over the last eight years, no less than 23 Imatra first timers have lapped below 1 minute 55 seconds including quickest debutant outright, 2018 IRRC Superbike Champion Danny Webb.
The overall list of those to achieve this feat alongside Tunbridge Wells Webb, reads as follows:
(PB lap time located near racer’s name)
1st – Danny Webb – 1.50.616
2nd – Vincent Lonbois – 1.51.213
3rd – Michael Rutter – 1.51.227
4th – Dan Kneen – 1.51.279
5th – Alex Polita – 1.51.521
6th – Sebastian Le Grelle – 1.51.570
7th – Davey Todd – 1.51.910
8th – Erno Kostamo – 1.52.716
9th – Pauli Pekkanen – 1.52.730
10th – Jamie Coward – 1.52.756
11th – Magnus Collin – 1.53.221
12th – Didier Grams – 1.53.445
13th – Juha Kallio – 1.53.542
14th – Martin Partelpoig – 1.53.652
15th – Martin Jessopp – 1.53.680
16th – Lukas Maurer – 1.54.188
17th – Jochem Van Den Hoek – 1.54.305
18th – Ville Valtonen – 1.54.319
19th – Horst Saiger – 1.54.353
20th – Toni Torpakko – 1.54.738
21st – Jani Ratto – 1.54.788
22nd – Marcel Elsner – 1.54.955
23rd – Marco Pagani – 1.54.984
Finalising the overall present forty most rapid Imatra newcomers (2016-2023), are as follows:
24th – Patrick Hoff – 1.55.038
25th – Marko Ratto – 1.55.300
26th – Amalric Blanc – 1.55.664
27th – Tomas Borovka – 1.55.828
28th – Jorn Hamberg – 1.56.269
29th – Markus Karlsson – 1.56.284
30th – Michael Dunlop – 1.56.484
31st – Jonathan Goetschy – 1.56.563
32nd – Virgil-Amber Bloemhard – 1.56.659
33rd – Thomas Wendel – 1.56.726
34th – Petr Najman – 1.56.835
35th – Sami Penna – 1.56.895
36th – Thomas Berghammer – 1.57.089
37th – Matthieu Lagrive – 1.57.104
38th – Jan Kopponen – 1.57.132
39th – Heikki Mannila – 1.57.345
40th – Kamil Holan – 1.57.391
Three more racers have set sub 1.58 seconds lap times, Petr Biciste (1.57.397), twice TT victor Gary Johnson (1.57.818) and Johan Fredriks (1.57.902).
Speediest newcomer in 2023 was Eemeli Lahti (1.58.715), just under two seconds faster than international road racing ‘Alien’ Peter Hickman (2.00.501).
Lap times were more than a touch down last year, thanks to persistent inconsistent weather, varying course conditions.
Information courtesy of Jan Vavra
Photo credit: Jíťa Valentová
Words by Stevie Rial, Jan Vavra
