The show took place at the Telford International Centre on the 10th February 2024.
This video covers Yrjo ‘Vesty’ Vesterinen being interviewed on stage.
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It’s something like Ura uh Ura Ura yeah yeah do you mind if I just sck with VY no yeah it’s it’s probably better that way anyway Vey it’s fantastic to have you here and the origin of your trials career is a bit different to those of us
Back in Great Britain where the the trials sport was a huge sport how did it happen that you became interested back in Finland in a sport that was fairly low key in your country um right from a very young age I I was really interested in anything that um r
On a on a multra and made a lot of the noise so uh I would say it’s uh through having moved to uh the village where I grew up we had a couple of um triers there which is very uncommon um and uh I went to
Look at them writing the woods and I I really like what they doing and tell me vey am I right in thinking that your brother who was a very competitive motorcyclist had quite an influence on you yes he was um he was a lot lot older than me he was born in
1938 so he was uh just under 14 years older than me so he was actually he could have merely been my father uh but um he gave me a chance to to go to the races where he where he was going he went to ice racing he went to uh Motocross
Enduro uh road racing he did a bit of everything and uh I was with him and uh uh the more I saw the cleaner I was getting and what was your very first bike that you started playing around on um we all literally all me and my mates we all started riding
Mopeds um you need to be 15 to to be legally allowed to ride on the roads but um uh I think I was 13 when I got R mulid and we had this uh Dreadful fear of um police stopping us and asking for um to clarify what how you you can be so
Young looking and and riding a a m on the road I was stocked a few times and I’m still scared of all these memories yeah now tell me veye at that time how popular was trials riding in Finland well the this is actually quite a um an interesting question because I
Haven’t I have read somewhere that around about the time when I I started riding uh there were somewhere between I don’t know 6 to 10,000 license holders in the UK ACU license holders riding clouds and uh in Finland I think we were about 40 or 50
So really was a a fledgling sport back then in Finland yes it it did grow a bit uh I wouldn’t say it ever became a a particularly popular sport but in Finland people seem to take an interest in if somebody’s successful in something
Uh then a lot of kids want to do it but it’s like um uh when I was uh about about 10 years old everybody was doing uh um pole vating uh me including and I broke my arm so it was kind of dangerous the PO
Vating yes well we U I forgot to mention that at that time we had the uh uh the world record holder was was a finish B wter and consequently everybody wanted to go B oh it’s funny given the The Fairly minority interest in motorcycle sport in in Finland Finland has produced three
Legendary motorcyclists yourself three times world champion the late yarno sand in road racing and the the equally fabulous hiy Micha in Motocross so you’ve been part of a a trio of absolutely fantastic riders that your country has produced um I think you can just um sum it up by say saying that if
Thingss they an interest in in something um we we tend to take it quite seriously yeah you definitely do but back then when you were starting to take an interest in Trials who were Your Heroes who who did you look to and read about um I started reading I think there were probably
I’m not sure now but I think there were two weekly Publications motorcycle news and maybe the other one was motorcycling I might be wrong about the the titles but um I started receiving one of those my M mother ordered it uh for me in uh I think
1972 and occasionally before then I also seen a few and I I was just uh uh fascinated by the idea that they were actually Professionals in the game in particular uh Samy Miller and uh uh he really was to uh one of the figures that I thought you know if I could ever
Become even remotely like like he was uh then uh I I would have achieved something and at that time the most probably the most famous trial in the world was the Scottish 6 days trial was that something you were reading about back then yes we
Like I said in in the in the weekly Publications medines or what you call them papers we I did see the results and uh but we only had had one ride to my knowledge who took part in in the 60 days would have probably been
Around 68 69 his name was B luas and he was the The Finnish champion before me it’s interesting you mentioned Samy because as always he’s here with us this weekend and I’ve also spotted McAndrews somewhere in the crowd a minute ago and an old adversary of yours Bernie shriber
Is here as well so we’ve got a a fair few famous trials riders in our midst today including yourself well um it is it is nice to see that Sami keeps coming and uh I saw him already last night he seemed to be in good health and um still technically in
Interest asking questions about my bikes and uh I haven’t seen Burnie yet today but I’m looking forward to to see him later yeah he’s he’s going to be here with us at 130 or stage so I’ll I’ll be speaking to Sammy then and you’ll have a
Few Tales to tell did you get a chance at home to see any of those Riders was there ever an event in Finland that Sammy would have been at or McAndrews um the first proper foreign Rider um we’d seen a lot of Swedish Riders we used to go
Back and forth between Finland and Sweden and we had Swedish I come to Finland also compete but the first what I call a proper foreign R was Gordon Farley in 19 68 I would say might be wrong about the year but I think it was 68 and he was riding a a trium
Typ and he did two he wrote two TRS and won both quite easily and I was observing on one in one of the CLS um and it was a muddy R uh quite so deep difficult looking rck and I was absolutely amazed to see it looked like uh Gordon’s arms were
Stretching and stretching and stretching even more and he just refused to put his feet down and I thought okay uh I need to go and try try to cut some mus off it was an inspiration did he have his Checker bubble hat on oh yes yes yeah
Yeah fabulous and I I’ve been trying to figure out whether This was um just a myth or whether it was true but somebody said to me that uh his CB he had titanium rims on it uh I’m I’m pretty sure that somebody here might know whether that is a
Possibility or not but um something that’s still fascinates me that is it possible in 1968 they had titanium rings hard to imagine isn’t it yeah in 19 in April 1969 VY you rode in your first official trial and can you remember what the outcome of that was oh
Um yeah that was on my uh 100 cc Yamaha uh and the tri was in in Stockholm in a in a little town called well at stock called um place called hooding and U uh I from memory I finished second that’s pretty good for the first official event wouldn’t you think folks
Second in your first ever event not a bad outcome I would say V but mind you that was in the junior class yeah you know I I would have been miles away from the the top um Swedish Riders yes but still standard of Sweden level of riding in Sweden was pretty
High the Swedish Riders were already at that time competing against um Sam uh Father Don Smith M People I that bike you WR that didn’t have Grieves Forks because I read about you having a Yamaha with Grieves Forks yeah that it it did yes and you still finished second
I thought the bike was actually wonderful bet you did yeah but that’s and just consider it wasn’t my choice I I bought the bike of a friend of mine and uh his older brother had built the bike for himself and um it was a uh cocktail of
All sorts of beds GES for Bato silencer um the tank had been just the the front part had been so on off and then Reed to to give enough um turning Circle for the forks and it was bright yellow and I just I just thought it was a wonderful bik yeah
On it later to to learn it it was a it would actually it was a to Bad Boy it’s what we would call heat in this country a bit yes yeah yeah but it was still your first love for trials yeah so in 1977 it
Was quite a turning point for you and uh you rode a Baco to begin with but then you changed to montessa cuz what was the reason for the change of Mark did you did the montessa seem a better bit um the change was actually 1980 oh have I got that wrong yes yeah
I’m I’m I’m afraid so yeah okay we’ll wait till further on we’ll talk about that we’ll now talk about 19 1971 which yielded some really good results for you and that was when you had your first contact with the Baco family with senior bu and his family can
You remember that yes I I I do remember that occasion really well actually because um that changed my life entirely uh we had a European Championship round not far from my home in in espo in Finland and um uh I was fairly trying to sort of U get a decent result
Which I think I did I I’m not sure now but I think might might have finished third or something and then I was on a mon uh which I thought was the at the time at least my mind in my opinion was the best bike but um anyway after the
Trial Orel P BTO would come come to the trial with his uh cousin ignasio BTO uh Orel came to talk to me and said uh you’ve had a good day haven’t you said Jo yeah it was okay but could have been maybe better but he said um
Would you like to try one of our works P taros he said well you mean now I said yeah he said I after walking towards his bike I thought he meant that I would try his bike said no no no no no come with me he said U went to see marcol
Rmore and he said to marcol he said uh we got this young finish guy he wants to try a bike is that okay and I could see from Malcolm’s face that he wasn’t he wasn’t best pleased he thought oh no uh anyway oral wouldn’t take you no for
Answer so I took the bike took it to the woods uh came back and then U Orel asked me what did you think of the bike and I thought shall I tell the truth or and through in my my possible career as a TR fider and I thought okay best lie I said
Oh it’s an absolutely incredible bike and uh uh the truth was I I did like my Montesa better as a matter of Interest they did Malcolm utter any Yorkshire exclusives when he saw you going off his bike sorry did Malcolm utter any Yorkshire expletives did he say anything when you took
Off fast don’t remember so that was that was quite quite a year for you but of course this led to a decision time vesting there was potential to go to university make a proper professional career career in a in a a worthwhile occupation or be a professional motorcyclist was this something that you
Had to discuss with parents or family or um well after the test session in the summer of 71 on on Malcolm’s bu taco later that year I received a a letter from uh Baco asking if I would be willing to drive for them and and they said if if the answer is
Yes we’ll put a proposal forward and send you a contract to sign and uh I said immediately yes then the contract came through quite hly I didn’t even look at what it said in the contract I signed it uh because I was um so happy with be having been
Given the opportunity to become a work wrer and then um later um I I had to obviously tell my parents what I’ve done because I hadn’t really told them because they they were assuming that after my alien was would would have been a couple of months down the
Line uh I would then applyed to go to university to study something they never told me what they want me wanted me to studied it’s wanted me to go to university and get some academic career and then I then told my mother first I said look um I’m going to be a
Professional child Rider and she said um something like sounds like uh I can’t influence that deism said no No so a workable taco riter and at that at time vesty everybody in the trials world just Ted Baco they were they were really fantastic montessa also but Baco seemed to be the thing and for you to join the ranks of Malcolm rthl and and people like that must have been a dream
And you went on to have some great success and you were up against huge Rivals like Martin lampin as well these Yorkshire men were so used to the British trial scene and riding the type of terrain but then you became a real Contender and in 1975 you you really were dominating the
Season and really should have been the 1975 Champion but the rules were a bit could you explain to us how you missed out on that um from memory we had something like 12 rounds and again from memory perhaps it was only eight rounds of the P for the
Champions so you were allow to drop your worst results and um when the season started I didn’t think I was mature enough to to fight for the championship um and that was just the in hindsight the terrible mistake I made I should have believed in myself more because ultimately all I needed is
Uh if I had had one more third place instead of uh four I think probably four fourth places if one of those would have been a third place I would have been world champion but ultimately also the uh the irony of of the the outcome of the the championship was a um The
Biggest Loser wasn’t actually me not winning the championship but it was Malcolm Ral not winning it because uh he only lost the championship in in the last round uh for one less clean because both malcol and Martin uh finished an equal points but more than one more clean so as a consequence then
Because the the mass of how he they calculated the um the net Point uh Martin won the Martin L won the championship I came second and being third and all all that for one one clean that that really does illustrate how competitive that Championship was it
Was so close at at all times that that year but how do you it’s something i’ I’d like to ask how do you contend with having been so near and yet so far in that year to winning the championship does that give you a couple of sleepless
Nights afterwards or do you just just say well I’ll go again next year did you come to terms with that quickly Um he he he can’t afford to he couldn’t afford to dwell in in and and if uh Harbor bad memories you just have to get on yeah and um I think through that experience I was a little bit wiser and I my attitude uh for the 7th to six season The Following
Season was a not much different but just a little bit different you know bman had uh I decided that even if I’m having a bad day I’m going to f fight as hard as I can
1 Comment
This is a great video I really enjoyed it thank you.