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Viktor Shaytar scored maximum points in Alastaro

Viktor Shaytar drove Art-Line teams new Dallara F308 - Opel-Spiess in Alastaro and scored max points. He won both races from the pole

In second race Shaytar even took an extra pitlane drive-thru, but that didn't prevent him to wim. Because of confusing race numbers 21 and 12, Shaitar thought he had got a stop&go penalty and drove to the pits. That dropped him to 5th but on the last lap he passed Mika Vähämäki and won the race.

Vähämäki leads after season opener

The first meeting of Finnish F3 Championship took place at Ahvenisto Circuit in Hämeenlinna in 17.-18.5. There were three F3 races on the opening weekend instead of usual two.

There was a late addition to F3 field: Sami Isohella who raced in International Formula Master last year, was in Estonian T.T. Racings car that Raivo Tamm drove last season. The team fielded also another car for Aki Sandberg who was supposed to drive an older Dallara of Nitro Motorsport.

Even though it was Isohella's first race in F3 class and he had done only very limited amount of testing, he was very fast in qualifying and took the pole position before Mika Vähämäki of ADFR.

Isohella took very good start in first race and that probably guaranteed win for him because there was a total chaos behind him: David Markozov's car was leaking coolant water already in starting grid and in first corner he spun on his own liquids. Several drivers it each other while trying to avoid the Russian. Jani Tammi and Tom Sandberg retired because of this accident and Mika Vähämäki lost his front wing.

In race two, it was Vähämäki's turn to win. Drive shaft of Isohella's car broke down on the starting line and Vähämäki drove to a easy victory on drying track. Viktor Shaytar of Art-Line team started from the back of the pack because of an accident in qualifying but drove a great race and finished second. Kimmo Joutvuo who had some troubles to find a good setup for his new car finished third.

Just before the third and final race of the weekend, it started to rain heavily and teams changed to wet tyres in starting grid. This time Isohella and Vähämäki both got a good start and they had a close fight for the victory. Vähämäki made several attempts to take the lead, but Isohella kept his position during whole race. Shaytar had a great race again and he finished 3^rd in his unique ArtTech-FIAT machine.

Ahvenisto race was also the opening round of Russian F3 championship. Most of the Russian teams trusted in cars prepared within local F1600 rules. Ivan Samarin crossed the finish line in this kind of ArtTech-Lada machine twice first and once second winning all races in Russian championship. How ever, he didn't score FC points because of his car doesn't match F3 rules.

Next meeting of the Finnish F3 championship will take place at Alastaro circuit in 14^th-15^th of June. Some more drivers are excepted to start their season at Alastaro.

Formula 3 FIA NEZ cup

Racing calendar for 2008 was confirmed in FIA North European Zone (NEZ) meeting in Oslo, Norway. For the first time, F3 will have a NEZ cup.

Formula three NEZ cup is a one-off event that will take place in Moscow, Russia in July. Finnish and Russian F3 actives suggested a longer cup series with races in different NEZ-countrys, but in NEZ comissions meeting on 6^th of April, only one date was confirmed.

First ever F3 NEZ cup will be run at Moskow Autodrom (ADM) in Myachkovo, Moscow area. ADM is a modern racing circuit built in 2006. It's 3275m long and 9-12m wide.

NEZ consists of Nordic countries, Baltic states and Russia.

North European Zone racing calendar 2008 can be found from AKK motorsport web site.

Satellite picture of ADM

Triple Champion Joins ADRF

Mika Vähämäki who won Finnish, Swedish and North European Formula Ford championships, will move up to F3 category. 18-year-old driver from Kerava signed a contract with Alan Docking Racing Finland.

Vähämäki will race the whole season 2008 in Finnish F3 Championship.

– Again we got a young top driver like last year. Vähämäki will certainly fight for top positions for the whole season, says former F1 driver Mika Salo, one of the ADRF directors.

Russian Teams to Finnish Championship

Several Russian teams are about to join Finnish F3 Championship in 2008 and the championship will have one race on Russian soil.

Representatives of Russian F1600 championship visited Finnish F3 associations meeting in Helsinki. In the meeting it was decided that the two championship will co-operate in future.

Several Russian teams have plans to race in Finnish F3 Championship and the series will have one race at Moscow Autodrom. New professional teams joining the Finnish F3 will make the championship even more interesting and the modern ADM circuit is a great addition to the calendar.

There will be co-operation in other level also. One of the Russian championship rounds will take place in Finland. When the two series are joined in one grid, there will be about 30 fast single seaters providing close and spectacular racing.

Limmonen Won the Championship

19-year-old Koiranen bros. driver Tomi Limmonen won Finnish championship on his first F3 season.

Tomi Limmonen, who stepped up to F3 level from FR2.0 for this season, managed to secure the championship with two second places from Alastaro finals.

An other rookie, ADRF's Jesse Krohn, took the pole position and won both races at Alastaro. How ever, even that wasn't enough for the championship and Limmonen was crowned as a champion with three points margin to Krohn.

Alastaro weekend was a total disaster for Anssi Kela who was in points lead before season final. In race 1 2006 champion Arto Taimi crashed with him and they both retired. In second race Kela spun because of some oil on the track and finished 9^th. That meant only 4 points from last weekend Anssi dropped 4^th in the championship.

Two rookies, Limmonen and Krohn, ruled the season. Champion Limmonen won 5 races. Runner up Krohn won 6 times and captured 4 of 6 (race 1) poles. Kela was the only driver able to win a race and Jegor Popov managed to take one (race 1) pole. Rami Räikkönen finished 3^rd in the championship completing all-rookie top 3 with stable results: he finished five times 3^rd and five times 4^th.