The memory of The Baron lives on

It was 40 years ago today in Monza when the world stopped for me for the first time ...

There are a good many of us here in Finland who can still recall exactly where we were when we heard the news of Jarno Saarinen’s fatal accident. For a number of Finns, the tragic fate of the first serious Finnish motorcycle road racer - and thus far the only World Champion in this discipline - felt like a death in the family.

On a beautiful spring day in May 1973, the news of Saarinen’s death in a horrific accident on the Monza racetrack in Italy hammered brutally into the collective consciousness of Finnish motorsports fans and others.