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Jarno Saarinen

I have much to say about Jarno Saarinen; back in the 70's, he was my idol.  I have seen him riding at Spa (Belgium) in 1972 where he beats all with a long gap upon arrival. I was overwhelmed...

Here is what Klaas Tjassens wrote as Jarno Saarinen's biography in his excellent book "The Flying Finn":

Jarno Saarinen was born in Turku, Southern Finland, on December 11, 1945. Like his three brothers, motorcycles and racing them were very important for him. He was a very good technician. He studied at the Turku Technical Institute and graduated in 1971 as a car-engineer. He was a perfectionist in maintaining his bikes and he was a thinker. His near-vertical clips-on were his “trade-mark” and were copied by some of his fellow-countrymen.

Jarno made his first steps in racing on ice. In 1962 he participated in an ice-race for the first time. He was a member of the Tunturi-“works” team at an age of 16 years (Tunturi was a factory in Turku where Puch-mopeds and motorcycles were assembled). He became second in his first ice-race on a 150cc. Puch. Jarno became, like many of his Finnish rivals, a very experienced rider, because he raced on ice, tarmac, sand and grass tracks, in enduros etc. In 1965 he became Finnish champion ice-racing in the 250cc. Later on he specialized in road-racing. In 1969 he became Finnish Champion in the 125 cc. on a Puch and in the 250cc. on a home-made Yamaha.

In 1970 Jarno wanted to see the world. Participating in the Grand Prix was in his mind the best way to do so. Because he didn’t have enough money to buy a good bike, he went to three Turku banks for a “study”-loan. He received money from all the three and he bought a brand new Yamaha 250cc. TD 2 production-racer for it.
In his first Grand Prix on it, the West-German, he finished a good 6th. The following races were even better. Twice he finished 3rd and four times he became 4h. In his own GP, in Imatra, he had to stop with engine-trouble. After that, he needed all his time for his study. At that moment he tied for points with Kel Carruthers for second place in the 250cc, but he didn’t race in the last GP’s. At the end of the 1970-season he was 4th in the title-standings. Not a bad result in his first GP-year. He became Finnish champion in the 250cc. class.

In 1971 Jarno got bikes from Finnish Yamaha-importer Arwidson, a 250 and a 350 Yamaha. These bikes were not so very reliable in the first GP’s, but later in the season he got them going like he wished.
His first GP-win was the GP of Czechoslovakia at Brno, where MV Agusta star Giacomo Agostini was sidelined with machine-trouble. Some weeks later he won the 350cc. GP of Italy at Monza and to show the world what was to come in 1972 he also won the 250cc. GP of Spain. Jarno also had some outings on a 50cc Van Veen Kreidler!
He became Finnish champion in the 250 and 350cc. classes.

1972 was a very good year for private rider Saarinen. Again sponsored by Arwidson, he beat golden boy Giacomo Agostini on the mighty 350cc. MV Agusta fair-and-square on the Nürburgring, in the West-German GP. In the Czechoslovakian GP he notched a double! He won both the 250 and 350cc. races. In his own GP, again at Imatra, he became champion of the world in the 250cc. In the 350-class he finished in second place for the title, behind Agostini.
At the end of the season Jarno raced in some international races in England, for instance in the Race of the year at Mallory Park. He won all the 9 races he competed in!
In Finland again he became champion in the 250cc. and 350cc. classes.

Two factories asked Jarno to ride for them in 1973. First he tried the 350 and 500cc four-stroke Benelli-fours, but also Yamaha let him know they were very interested in him. As turned out later, they had plans to launch a new four-cylinder 500cc two-stroke racer to beat the MV Agustas in 1973. Jarno signed for Yamaha, the factory which had made the bikes he had raced on in all his 250 and 350cc GP’s before.
In the first months of 1973 Jarno showed the world his fine form by winning the famous Daytona 200-miles race and the Imola 200 on 350cc Yamahas, against a whole Armada of 750cc. bikes.
In the first GP, at Paul Ricard in France, he won both the 250 and 500cc races. He repeated this performance in Austria, on the Salzburgring. He won the 250 cc again at Hockenheim, West-Germany, but had to stop in the 500cc. after a hectic struggle with Phil Read on an MV Agusta: Jarno’s chain broke at 220 kph.!

May 20, 1973, the day of the Italian GP at Monza became the saddest day in GP-history. In the 250cc. race Jarno Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini were killed in the most horrible accident ever. Pasolini slid off, it was said on oil of Walter Villa’s 350cc. Benelli during race before, his bike was catapulted back on the circuit by the steel barriers. Jarno crashed hard against the bike. Twelve other riders fell and some of them became more or less serious injured. The organizers of the Italian GP at Monza has been criticized until this very moment for the bad circumstances for racing in their 1973-event and for the bad organization that year.

Jarno always stayed a legend because he was such a nice man. He was open and honest, a friendly man, he liked joking and was always very helpful. Together with his girl-friend Soili, later his wife, he always lived in a Volkswagen “Kleinbuss”, as the Finnish say. He was a fantastic rider and a very good mechanic. Until 1973, when he became a Yamaha works-rider, he always prepared his bikes himself, sometimes until 4 o’clock in the morning! His riding style was very much influenced by his ice-racing experience. Some of his rivals had mixed feelings about his “wild” riding in his first GP’s. Nevertheless, he only crashed once in a GP-race, until that dreadful crash at Monza in 1973, that wasn’t his own fault.

See the excellent book from Klaas Tjassens 

A "must" reference for all motorcycle Road Racing lovers / historian

Meanwhile; you may want to see the excellent site of Henk Van Melzen at http://home.wanadoo.nl/jarno.saarinen/

[Text and Pictures graciously offered by Klass Tjassens and Henk Van Melzen]

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