Oliver – desire to win takes forward
Oliver is a young, 17-year-old snowcross rider from Rovaniemi. We talked about winning and the importance of teamwork with our sponsor athlete.
Oliver found himself surrounded by snowmobiles when he was still a kid. His father had “all kinds of trinkets” around, and Oliver’s interest was huge. When he was 10, he rode in his first competition. After that, the decision to start the sport for real was already done. The big success of his first competition was that he stayed upright for the whole thing! Nowadays, staying upright is not a success story anymore. The game has changed, and Oliver has grown into a young talent racing in the Finnish snowcross championship in the Pro class. The rise into the toughest class of the series came through the Finnish championship win in the Pro Lite class last season. Oliver is a factory rider in the class for the snowmobile manufacturer Lynx.
His goals are in the US, where the biggest snowcross shows in the world are located. An important short-term goal for him is to get a medal position from the Finnish championship in the current Pro class. Oliver is motivated the most by his goals to reach international series. After we asked him a bit more about his motivators, we found out that his desire to win is driving him forwards, every day. Oliver characterises himself as a bad loser, and said that if he’s not racing, he’s not doing anything else.
During his spare time, Oliver rides snowmobile routes. Living in Rovaniemi, Lapland, means that there are tons of routes and undiscovered terrain to explore on top of a snowmobile. The winters are long, which means the race seasons are quite long as well. During the race season, Oliver’s forestry studies are done through a special sports academy. That enables him to truly focus on racing and training. Oliver spends the summers training for the upcoming races.
This race season still has a couple of months left. Oliver says that he has just started to catch the red thread of driving in a new class. Due to the rise in the class, there are lots of new and amazing things, but they come with challenges. The rest of the season is the time to try out his true speed.
Our support is very important for Oliver. Oliver says that it’s really great to do things as a team, and that there are lots of good people involved in the races nowadays. According to him, the team spirit at the pits is very good, and racing is not just working hard as a family anymore. Without the sponsor support, Oliver says that he would not drive even a metre.
You can follow Oliver’s racing career on his Instagram @jaakola66