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He
was born on the 6th July 1945 in Mikkeli, southern
Finland. In 1964, he started a second life, which would bring him
world fame. That year he made his debut, as a junior, in the
motocross on a 250cc Husqvarna. Heikki appeared as early as the
following year in the senior group, due to a lack of sufficient
competition. By that time his later archrival Kalevi Vehkonen was
already a senior rider. He made his GP debut 'at home' on the Hyvinkää
circuit, but with little success. A month before that first race he
broke his arm, and although he never considered cancelling the race,
his arm caused him so much trouble that he did not get a result
worth mentioning in his first race of the world championship. The
following years brought him varying success.
But
in 1969, Heikki won his first major Grand Prix victory, in the
presence of a large home-crowd. And from that moment on there was no
stopping him. Victories in Switzerland and Austria followed and all
the while he, at that time, was still an independent rider, with as
only help the promise that he could buy the parts at a reduced cost. |
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The
contract with Husqvarna first came about in 1970. Although the
seasons, through riding in more and more international motocross
events, became ever longer, they were for Heikki, who definitely has
high octane in his veins instead of blood, not yet long enough.
That’s why he, together with his good friend Jarno Saarinen, took
part in Ice Speedway races during the winters of '64, '65 and '66.
In 1967, they parted company. Saarinen became factory rider of the
Arwidsson/Yamaha team and became 'The Flying Finn' of road-racing,
up to that fatal accident at Monza Italy, in 1973.
To
our question if Heikki Mikkola has ever ridden a road-race, he
replies: 'Not one single metre, although a few times and with fairly
good success, I have taken part in the Päjänne Rally'. (The Päjänne
rally is, just as the Swedish Novemberkassan, one of the hardest
races which are ridden outside the official European motocross and
road-racing circuits. The race owes its name to the Finnish lake,
around which the circuit has been routed. Lorry
mechanic Heikki Mikkola’s dream, which he’d had since 1964, came
true in 1970. |
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He
then rode his first season as fulltime professional and was at last
in his element. He reached fourth place at the world championships
and even saw his way to winning the American summer series.
The
following years the pattern of 1970 kept on repeating. Already at
the end of January 1971, he got ready to hit the road (and to Heikki
‘hitting the road’ doesn’t just mean loading the bikes, but
also wife Kaija and later on daughter Hanna, who was born in 1971).
He began, very early in the season, with a race in Belgium, which is
the leading country of the motocross enthusiasts and where he is the
most popular foreigner with truly, thousands of supporters. He is
aware, more than most other foreign riders, of the peculiarities of
the Belgian and Dutch circuits. In 1971, he again came fourth at the
world championships, after victories in the Netherlands and Finland.
In
1973, he came third after a fierce struggle with the Maico veteran
Adolf Weil. Winning the American summer series that same year was a
great consolation since he hadn’t
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