After being air-ambulanced to hospital following a practice crash as a Newcomer at the Isle of Man TT a fortnight ago, Suzuki Finland-sponsored Juha Kallio was back in action at the weekend in the opening round of the Finnish Road Race Championship at Virtasalmi; impressively scoring a podium position.

The 777rr Motorsport Suzuki Team rider, still suffering the after-effects of his heavy crash during 600cc qualifying at the 2013 TT Festival, raced his GSX-R600 to third place in Saturday's seven-lap Superstock 600 race and fourth place in Sunday's 12-lap event to go equal-third in the series.


Said Kallio:

"I'm still very sore. I remember I should have been in third gear, but was in fourth going into the corner at the Isle of Man and far-too fast. They took me to a hospital in a helicopter.

"My expectations for this weekend weren't high, I didn't have enough time on the bike after my crash at the Isle of Man, I expected a rough weekend; and that's what it was. During Sunday's race, the pain was immense and I didn't take any risks out there. In the end I got pretty-good points and I'm satisfied with that. Without the great-working suspension and tyres on my Suzuki GSX-R600 I would have been much slower out there, but I'm sure I'll be ok and improve this weekend at the next round in Alastaro."

Team Manager Joni Hannula said:

"Juha astonished us all with his performance because he was still really sore after his big crash at Isle of Man TT, but he still took some good championship points this weekend. Another factor for such a good result was Pirelli's new tyre model that worked really well for us. We have a new race next weekend so hopefully we'll just continue to improve from here."

,