East Londoner wrote:I had a book out from the library a couple of weeks ago about some of the lost race circuits of Europe. Pretty damn good book. Apparently, there was a race track in Finland by the name of Keimola, and it's just been left to rot since the late 70s, apart from some illegal races conducted in the 1980s. I wonder if any of the Finnish members of the forum could shed anymore light on this?
I happen to live right next to Keimola, and like DOSBoot said only the watchtower is standing. Most of the other structures, like all stands, entrance to the track, guardrails etc. were demolished in 1998 I believe.
Here´s some brief history of Keimola... if you´re too lazy to go to wikipedia...
Founded by Jochen Rindts father-in-law, Curt Lincoln, it was Finlands first permanent racing circuit, built in 1966 to host races after 'Eltsu' was deemed too dangerous.
It was said to be a great track, some even compared it to Monza. Being only 3.3 km (or 2.1 miles for you americans), it never hosted F1 races, but F2 races were hosted there, and so drivers like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Jochen Rindt and Denny Hulme drove there also. It was a part of Interserie between 1970-1972. It also had a rallycross track and hosted drag races. Tracks financial situation went down during the 70s and it was eventually closed in 1978.
One of the tracks problems was that after the events, there was huge traffic jams, because the Helsinki-Hämeenlinna road was only two-laned, even though a new road was promised to be built to make the access in/out of the track easier. They were only 10-years too late...
Illegal races were indeed held during the 80s, finally ending in 88. In some better world for motorsport, those races wouldn´t have been illegal, because after the tracks closure, some enthusiasts asked for permission to use the track, but since it was denied, they broke the locks.
Afterwards, the tracks pit area was used as a tire yard, but it burned in 2004. They´re going to build a new residential area there, called Keimolanmäki, and the roads are going to follow the track layout and the watchtower is going to get restored.