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Tom Blomqvist Boatracing Team was
registered in 1997 by six guys with a mutual interest, boatracing.
Some of us have competed in smaller "village -events", some in bigger and
some just as eager spectators. But it's still been a combining factor after
school to this "thirty-something" bunch. The team is registered in Sipoo, a
coastal commune between Helsinki and Porvoo, where we have long traditions
in boating. We also are members of the Guarana motorbåtsällskap in Porvoo.
Tom Blomqvist is the person whom we have followed to all his races and
helped him on his practices outside the races. After the season, in 1997 we
all sat down and wondered how we could get something more out of the hobby
and get more people to join us and our interest.
1997: In season 1997 our achievement was to pass the finish line in
one Finnish Championship race. We had plenty of technical problems during
the season, mostly because we didn't have any experience from Formula 4
(S850) class. We took part in three Finnish Championships circuits during
the season, from which we did get tenth place for our driver Tom Blomqvist.
In spite of the difficulties during season 1997, we were already aiming to
the season 1998 with plenty of enthusiasm and dreams.
1998: To the season 1998 we started with quite confident thoughts,
because with the support from our sponsors, we had an opportunity to
concentrate to practice and to race more better. Our Team put some efforts
also to the visual side, all together we had "the biggest in village " pit
tent, gorgeous team shirts, caps etc. For recognition of this efforts we did
get the Finnish Boating Associations BEST PR-WORK-award. We took part in all
Finnish Championship circuits and we were the only team that took part in
all circuit starts. Most of the thanks goes to our team spirit, which was
really inspiring. The final position was the sixth place in Finnish
Championship year 1998.
1999: For the season 1999 we have made some changes. When we started
with this team we decided to get more people to join this class and sport.
Not only spectators but some juniors to keep up the interest for the
spectators. This coming season we will be competing not only harder than
last year but with two boats. Thanks to our sponsors we can offer a young
driver to join our team and drive our boat number two.
2000: To the season 2000 we go again with two boats and two drivers,
with attitude "seniors" and "juniors", that's why because our age coverage
in between 20 to 40 years. Our "juniors" consist of driver Olle Martin and
his friends, also two 20s young boys and finally but not last out "senior"
driver Tom Blomqvist with his 30 something friends. We are aiming to achieve
one medal place in Finnish Championships. We have probably 8 Finnish
Championships races this year. Season will be very heavy psychologically and
physically. The amount of races is more then ever before, at the moment
there is eight planned FC- circuits for season 2000. For spectators this
season will sure be very interesting, all the teams have done their best to
achieve maximum results and we don't think that races will disappoint you at
all. Welcome to share the atmosphere in Formula 4 (S850) races , as a
spectator or driver this year.
2001: This was a year with many happenings,
some planned but many not planned.
The winter passed by building the new boat. We realized at a very early
point that we simply can’t participate in the world championship in
Portugal. One reason was that there were no time to practice with the new
boat, since the championship was already in the beginning of may. In my
opinion a totally crazy time to arrange the race due to the fact that we
still have ice in the sea halfway in April.
In the beginning of June we all made a trip to Riga to watch the Formula 1
boat race. That was a nice experience for us all in the team, mainly for
sometimes being together and not having to take care of racing, just
relaxing and watching the “big guys” race.
During the season we participated in all races, having some setbacks but
also some major improvements from earlier years. We came in second in the
Finnish Championship and that is of course, even if it feels a little bit of
loosing, not bad at all when one remembers that the Finnish standard in boat
racing is top in the world.
In the end of August we made a trip to Denmark where the Nordic Championship
took place in the village of Hobroe. The race turned out to be a second
Finnish Championship when all four boats from Finland took the four first
places.
During the fall we made some test’s and pretty soon the new year was already
banging on the door.
One major thing still happened during the fall and that was the team
starting the Formula 2000 era!
2002: For this year our major goal is to win the Finnish
Championship! What is probably to be the biggest change from earlier is that
we will race with only one boat in the F-4 series this season. It is because
our second driver, Blomman will drive the F-2000 boat. We had some thoughts
for who would be a suitable driver for the second F-4 boat, but decided to
concentrate on Olle and Blomman. It will be a hard season anyway so we
decided to do it this way.
2003: Team members, updates needed !
2004: Team members, updates needed !
2005: It was an interesting summer, before the season the promoter changed
the race format a little bit, last year we drove 2 races
on a race day but for this summer it was changed so that: now we first have
to sprint races with 12 laps and then and Grand
Final with 25 laps! To the first sprint the start place is according to the
timed trials and to second sprint we flip the
whole start fleet over so that the boat who won the first sprint starts from
the last place! The points you get from the 2
sprint races will decide the start place for the Grand Final!
The first race was held in Nora, Sweden, 15 boats showed up for the first
race this year, very good I think! A very nice race
place but this year we had bad luck with the weather! Results, 6th and 7th
in the sprints and a 7th place in the grand final!
Not a perfect start for the season but not too bad either!
Three weeks after it was time for the next race, this time in
Mariehamn, a new race course for all the drivers! I personally
think that it was more than good that we finally have a race in Åland! Again
we had bad luck with the weather conditions,
very strong wind blowing the whole day! We had to skip on of the sprint
starts and postpone the final to 20.00 hours!
Results: sprint: 4th place, in the Grand Final my engine blew up son I had
to retire! Not a good weekend for me....!
For the next race that was in Motala, Sweden, two weeks after
Mariehamn, we didn’t get the best preparation for it, got my new
engine on friday morning, 24 hours before the timed trials! It was an hectic
Friday, lots of work to be done and then we had
to go out on the water and run in the engine! Well, we got I all done and
felt ready for the race! But when we went out for
the timed trials the engine didn’t run as it was supposed to do! That was a
problem we couldn’t solve or even find that day, so
we suffered from that problem for the whole race day! And on top of this I
had a small incident into the second sprint start,
got a 40cm*10cm whole in the boat! Results: sprint 1 8th, sprint 2 9th,
Grand Final 7th!
We went home and first we found the engine problem and got it fixed,
we did very much testing the following week and we got
some more speed, which was good because the next race was only a week away!
So we drove down to Karlshamn, Sweden for the fourth round! Karlshamn is a
nice place to be, always a lot of spectators and so on! Everything was
working perfectly, got the
3rd best time in the timed trials, best so far this summer! The races went
without any bigger problems! Results: sprint 1
6th, sprint 2 2nd and into the grand final 4th!
After this we only had a week before the next round in Mora, Sweden,
not much time for any testing between the races! We
felt quite good going to Mora after the good weekend in Karlshamn but we
were soon to found out our speed was not good enough
to do well in Mora! We had lost much speed comparing to last weekend, don’t
know why, I think I was because we simply didn’t
have any propeller suitable for the "thick" Mora water! Our team member
Jomi(Malmberg) were close to having is 40th birthday
so we in the team gave him an early birthday present, a helicopter ride over
Mora! Results. sprint 1 7th, sprint 2 8th and
Grand Final 7th!
Next up after Mora was Drammen, Norway, a nice but a little bit
narrow race course! I like the place but I hate the long car
ride to get there! We had done pretty much work on the boat before Drammen,
trying to get some more speed and acceleration (
that has been our biggest problem this year )! Well I don’t now I we got any
improvements but at least we had tried! Results:
sprint 1 7th sprint 2 10th and Grand Final 7th!
Then I was time for the last race for the season, Stockholm, Sweden!
Riddarfjärden is place were there always is quite rough
water, that suits me just fine, our old boat works very good in rough water!
Timed trials went good for me but there had been
some time keeping problems so all the times were skipped and we started
after the points we had gain during the season! Not
any big problems during the races, had a nice fight with Svenne Jansson in
the final! Finished at 3rd place, my only podium
this year, a nice way to end the season 2005! Results: sprint 1 4th, sprint
2 6th and Grand Final 3rd!
When we look at the final point standing for the whole season I ended
up at 4th place, I personally think it was a very good
result for the season! When we look at the total amount of participators
this year we will see that there were 26 different
drivers taking part in the series this year, so to finish 4th of 26 drivers
is not too bad! Seems like the composite boats
have been very fast this year, we made a joke in the team that we where the
fastest in the "wooden boat class" In a series
with 7 different races and 21 starts it is very important to try to score as
much points as possible in every start! A very
good year for the F2000 class in Scandinavia! Let’s hope that trend stays in
and we will see even more drivers next summer! We
will be there fighting for the points!
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