Kimi The Cowboy

So now Formula 1 -champion Kimi Räikkönen has then drove his life's first hundred laps on an oval track. From somewhere deep down in Georgia I found out from someone who was there, that the 31-year old rookie had a big smile all the time.

The man loves new challenges and NASCAR pick up -trucks on a 800 meter long oval offers them 110 %. The experience will sink into the subconcious only because there is no recorded telemetry for after-analysis.

My Columbian reporter buddy Diego Mejia uses the headline Kimi The Cowboy in every message he sends concerning this Finnish territorial conquest. NASCAR is afterall the pure yankee rednecks' favorite sport and Räikkönen will seriously get to know what real cowboy-spirit is like.

The test area is a minioval which inclination is in a 12 degree angle. On long 4 km ovals like Daytona those inclinations are about 33 degrees and there you go with a big bang into the wall and make the car go into small pieces.

I know that Räikkönen has planned to drive on those really big ovals and maybe even Sprint Cup this year.

The Italian Max Papis has drove F1 and now NASCAR for the last years. Papis praised in his column in Auto Sprint -magazine that due to Räikkönen's switch even the Italians will get more interested about the leading motorsport serie in USA.

Papis said he switched from the highest Sprint Cup into truck-serie because that way he could switch from an uncompetitive car to a top car in it's own class.

Papis emphasised that truck is the 3rd most famous motorsport-serie in USA when measured by tv-spectators that the serie has about 800.000.

Papis also believes that Räikkönen will get advantage from his rally-background compared to his competitors who switched directly from F1 to these races. In rally you have to improvise very quickly with grips that change from place to place.

Turun Sanomat

HEIKKI KULTA

Courtesy: Nicole