McLaren Star®
International
Presents:
"Hakkinen Is Born To Be A
Champion"
In
1974 Harri Hakkinen watched as his 5 year old son eased himself in a go-kart
for the very fist time. Young Mika had been bugging him for a ride ever
since he saw the go-kart track near his father's work, and now here he
was. He drove out of the garage, put his foot down on the accelerator and
misjudged a corner some time later. And so on his first ever lap, he rolled
the whole thing over. Mika climbed out unscathed, unfazed and unaffected
as the others rushed to the scene. You'd be forgiven for thinking that
a huge shunt like that would put him off for life. Not a bit of it. Mika
went on to win the Finnish Karting Championship five times, which is quite
a feat. Nobody had ever done that before! This is an interesting
aspect of his personality and his approach to racing. If you drive a racing
car for the first time the standard procedure is to do a couple of cautious
laps, slowly increasing the speed and start to experiment with the kart.
Not get in, see how fast the thing goes and then forget to brake! The fact
that Mika immediately drove to the limit – and over it – demonstrates how
natural a driver he is. The success that followed shows that he has the
guts and self-control to get back in and attempt the limit again after
a big accident. This was further emphasized by his McLaren's fifth spot
on the grid in Australia '96, his first race following his accident at
Adelaide '95, where Mika almost lost his life in a racing car. A bit like
getting back on the horse that nearly killed you. Some people never get
over accidents. A young Marlboro backed bloke back in the 80's gave up
a promising career because of a reoccurring dream about dying in a racing
car. But Mika was unfazed by his first accident and began what went on
to be a world champion career in racing.
© 2000 - Alexandra Phasaria - All Rights Reserved.