Suomalainen 50 luvun Hot Rod kuski

lätyskä · 16.1.2011

Tuommoisen löysin tuolta drag osiosta

http://www.iltasanomat.fi/ulkomaat/Suom ... 41803.html

nash · 17.1.2011

ja vielä naiskuski

frosty · 18.1.2011

...joka osallistui jo 1950-luvulla kiihdytysautokilpailuihin....

Mahtimamma mutta tais olla eri laji kun auto on tuon olonen?

ja kuuklella löytyy paljo lisää. Jossain näkyy mm. eltsukipurin näköinen laite.

Chevy-74 · 18.1.2011

Näkyi joku korjanneen tuonne että stock car ja speedway sarjoissa.. Rautanen täti 8)

bdr529 · 18.1.2011

Juttu Vancouver Sunissa:

Canada's first female stock car driver still motoring at 86

When dad refused to let her learn to drive, young Kaija used her allowance to buy books on cars ... and then memorized them

By Alyn Edwards, Vancouver SunDecember 10, 2010

Her name is Kaija (pronounced Kiya) Kalevala and she still gets weepy as she recalls being forced to hang up her race car helmet and goggles after a decade of being a strong competitor on two continents.

In 1956, the Burnaby resident was blocked from entering the pits to compete in midget car lead racing as part of the famed Indianapolis 500 race. Officials said it was bad luck to have a woman in the pits. And she is still saddened by pressure put on her sponsor that ultimately sidelined her stock car during crucial races at Burnaby's Digney Speedway. That caused her point standing to slide in the 1954 season and she was no longer a serious contender.

When her mother arrived from Finland to live with her, she couldn't accept offers to compete at out-of-town race tracks. Finally, her employer told her she had to choose between racing and driving his auto parts truck. The career of the first woman in Canada to compete head to head in male-only stock car races suddenly ended.

But Kalevala wasn't done with getting attention for her driving skill. For two days, she led the 1956 B.C. Truck Rodeo in points and only lost on the final day coming second. All other competitors were men.

Women just didn't drive trucks back then. But she did. And, in the early 1950s, women didn't compete against men in car races. And to add insult to injury, this tall Finnish beauty with her striking blond hair was at least as good as the male drivers and often better.

The road the Finnish immigrant travelled to achieve race car prominence in Canada is like a fairy tale on wheels. Her father was in the army and the family didn't have a car. Yet Kaija's fascination with motorized vehicles started early and became all consuming.

"Any time I saw a vehicle with the hood up, I would go over to look and ask questions," she says of her early teenage years in Finland. When her father refused to allow her to take driver training saying that women didn't drive, she used her allowance to buy books on driving and memorized them.

At 17, Kalevala was ready to take her driving test. But she had never driven a vehicle. "I drove in my head everywhere I went," she recalls. "I would operate the controls and shift gears just as if I was really behind the wheel."

She camped out at the local driving school and told the owner she wouldn't leave without being tested despite never receiving instruction. The instructor finally agreed to the test just to get rid of her. He was amazed when she passed the test. The owner made her take a second test which she also passed.

She used her driving papers to get a position as volunteer for the Finnish army reserve. She initially chauffeured officers and delivered important documents in a red 1939 Chevrolet.

One morning, the only vehicle left in the compound was a three-ton Dodge truck. She asked to drive it, although she had never driven a truck before. "I always asked the men how they drove trucks and learned how to double clutch and downshift on hills without ever driving a truck," she recalls.

"I had no trouble when I actually got behind the wheel of that truck."

She was soon hauling loads of heavy guns and food for the soldiers along with hay for army horses. The job she didn't like was carrying dead soldiers back from the front in wooden caskets.

In wartime, trucks ran on wood gas derived from burning charcoal through a complex burner and piping system. She would have to carry heavy sacks of wood to the top of the truck to load the burner and then clean out ashes after every trip.

Her next job was hauling goods to the rail yards for a large Finnish department store. She then drove GM and German-built MAN trucks for the Finnish Department of Transportation.

From there, she joined the Finnish Film Company driving heavy three-ton trucks and a bus along with a front-wheel-drive Renault car racing film around Helsinki between three theatres just in time to change reels as there was only one original film available and there were no copies.

In 1947, her racing career started with road rallies including ice races driving the Renault and other vehicles. She always placed in the top five.

As a female truck driver, she was always an oddity and the subject of conversation. She also took flying lessons for her private enjoyment.

In 1950, Kalevala attracted the attention of one of Finland's best known track racers and when he got a new race car, she got his old Ford flathead-powered Formula One car. She received national attention in her first race being the only woman in it.

The only way she could enter races in Finland was in the so-called 'powder puff' all female races. She won every time and soon there was no other woman willing to race against her.

She decided to immigrate to Canada in 1951 when she discovered she was being taxed more heavily as a taxi driver because she was female. When Kalevala arrived in Toronto, she only knew two words of English: Yes and no. When a Finnish friend told her about Digney Speedway in Burnaby, she decided to take the train to Vancouver.

Through connections, she used her training as a mechanic in Finland to get a job at Scott Motors on Vancouver's Kingsway used car lot row.

She did everything including full engine rebuilds. And she got sponsorship with Ford dealer Stonehouse Motors to start racing at Digney Speedway in 1952 as the only female driver.

"The first car was a sedan and it had so much steel bracing inside that it was top heavy and wouldn't perform," she recalls. The second car was a much lighter coupe and the young driver started moving up in the pack and making a name for herself.

By day, she drove a truck with a radio telephone for Jefferee and Jefferee, delivering auto parts to service stations and garages. Her spare time was spent preparing her car for the track or racing it.

"Aurora Speedway in Seattle heard about me and wanted me to race there," she recalls. Then she asked for a month off to compete in the lead-up races to the 1956 Indianapolis 500. When her boss's daughter couldn't manage the heavy clutch in her parts truck, her boss took over the driving. But it was too much for him, too. "He told me I had to make a choice. Either give up racing or give up my job."

She kept driving the parts van and, at age 43, married a foreman at the General Motors dealership on the same block as the company she worked for. Her husband died of cancer four years later.

At 86, Kaija Kalevala is still driving a van. Her apartment is filled with boxes of trophies, awards and newspaper stories from both Finland and Canada about her pioneering efforts, from her truck driving which started at age 17 to her racing career that took her through her twenties. Her most recent recognition is being inducted by the Greater Vancouver Motorsport Pioneers Society.
Laajenna

Chevy ´53 · 18.1.2011

frosty sanoi:

ja kuuklella löytyy paljo lisää. Jossain näkyy mm. eltsukilpurin näköinen laite.
Laajenna

Laitoin kuvat talteen. 8)

Chevy ´53 · 19.1.2011

Nyt tämä on tallennettu jälkipolville:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/show ... p?t=551916

Liity / Kirjaudu

Suomalainen 50 luvun Hot Rod kuski

lätyskä Gearhead

nash 3rd gear

frosty 1st gear

Chevy-74 1st gear

bdr529 1st gear

Chevy ´53 Gearhead

Chevy ´53 Gearhead

Kerro tästä muillekin!

Liity / Kirjaudu

Suomalainen 50 luvun Hot Rod kuski

lätyskä Gearhead

nash 3rd gear

frosty 1st gear

Chevy-74 1st gear

bdr529 1st gear

Chevy ´53 Gearhead

Chevy ´53 Gearhead

Kerro tästä muillekin!

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