Riku Turunen #666

Born

1983

Role

Racer, Webmaster

Bike

Yamaha R6

Racing class

Jokamiesluokka, Superstock 600, BCRC

I have always been into things that goes fast, starting from bicycles as a kid and then later mopeds, cars and finally motorbikes. Ever since I had my motorbike driver’s licence back in 2012, I’ve always wanted to learn to drive fast(er).

After few years of reckless street driving I was finally ”talked over” by Jenni for going to the race track with my ZX-6R. It was almost the end of the summer 2018, and even there was long winter ahead, I knew this would be ”my thing”.

Summer of 2019 started with trackday at Alastaro Circuit where I rode with Track Punk’s bike the whole day. My laptimes were quickly getting better and better, so I decided to come back to track as soon as possible with my own bike.

After my third trackday, guys at the pit started to push me on participating to a real race. I thought about it for couple hours and decided ”why not”. I thought the trackdays are great fun, but oh boy… racing against others is totally different animal! My first ever race was pretty ok, I wasn’t the fastest, but I wasn’t slowest either! That gave me lots of confidence for the next day’s race. Unfortunately my riding skills weren’t yet on the same level as my urge to go faster, and that race ended with a crash.

After the crash my first thoughts were like ”how much it will cost to fix this and enter the next race”. Bike was rebuilt by Sami, me and Jenni within one weekend and I was able to participate two more race weekends in Finland. During the rebuild my Kawa got some new colors (cool silky black with yellow ”sun” decals) and many people have described it to be the ”most coolest bike in the grid” 😉

I’m also lead singer in the world’s most ass-kicking polish metal band, Exlibris. So when I’m not racing or practising driving, I’m usually touring or recording new material for the band.

Plans for the future? I’ll try to learn the right things to do on track to be faster and faster. Maybe one day I’ll make it to the podium!

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