Mika Kallio #36

Mika Kallio

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Mika Kallio
Mika Kallio
Nationality	Finnish
Date of birth	November 8, 1982 (1982-11-08) (age 26)[1]
Place of birth	Valkeakoski (Finland)
Website	mikakallio.com
MotoGP Record
Current team	Pramac Racing
Bike number	36
Championships	0
Race starts	117
Wins	12
Podium finishes	33
Pole positions	14
Fastest laps	8
Points	1120
2009 championship position	7th (16 pts)

Mika Kallio (born 8 November, 1982 in Valkeakoski) is a Finnish Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He debuted in the 125cc World Championship with the Finnish rookie team Ajo Motorsport in 2001 and was awarded the "Rookie of the Year" in 2002. After moving to Red Bull KTM during the 2003 season, he finished runner-up in the class in 2005 and 2006.

In his first year with KTM in the 250cc class, Kallio took two wins and finished seventh. In 2008, he led the championship throughout the first half of the season, eventually having to settle for third place. For the 2009 season, he moved to the MotoGP (800cc) class, racing on a Ducati Desmosedici GP9 for Ducati's satellite team Pramac Racing.

Career

Domestic

Kallio started racing in 1997 and won the Finnish championship in road racing with further success in 1999 and 2000. During 2000, he also became the Nordic champion after finishing second in the previous year.

While Kallio pursued his road racing goals, the Finn has also scored plenty of success in ice racing back home in Finland, having achieved the Finnish motorcycle ice racing championship in 2000, 2004 and 2005 in the 125cc class. At 500cc level, Kallio also won the title in 2004 and 2006.

125cc (2001-2006)

Kallio made his debut in the 125cc World Championship as a wildcard rider at the 2001 German Grand Prix. Continuing with Ajo Motorsport and the Honda RS125R for a full season in 2002, he finished as the Rookie of the Year. Halfway through the 2003 season, Kallio switched to Red Bull KTM, KTM's factory team. He immediately took his career-best fourth place in Czech Republic. The highlight of 2003 was his first-ever class podium, a second place at Sepang behind Dani Pedrosa.

Kallio racing with his KTM bike.

After a 2004 season filled with bike reliability issues, Kallio took his first championship pole position and victory at the second round of the 2005 season at Estoril. He went on to take seven more poles and three more wins and lost the world title by just five points to Thomas Lüthi. He lost five points at the fourth-last Grand Prix in Qatar when his KTM team-mate, Gábor Talmácsi, pulled out from behind the slipstream and passed him on the last few metres of the race to take the win by 0.017 seconds. Kallio had started from pole position and led every lap of the race and was not pushing on the home straight anymore, as Talmácsi had been ordered to stay back by the team because he was not a title contender. Talmácsi was fired after the season finale at Valencia.

Kallio's 125cc KTM bike.

In 2006, Kallio was again a challenger for the 125 cc title. Although he produced his best season to date, the young Finn was outshone by Spain's Álvaro Bautista and while he tried to hang onto the Spaniard, he was forced to settle for the runner-up spot once again, although he did finish a full 65 points ahead of the third position. Kallio scored three victories, four pole positions and 11 podiums during the 2006 campaign. At the end of the year, viewers of the Finnish motorsport television series Ruutulippu voted Kallio the Finnish Motorsportsman of the Year for the second year running. He collected 33.1% of all votes and pipped enduro world champion Samuli Aro, WRC runner-up Marcus Grönholm and F1 star Kimi Räikkönen.

250cc (2007-2008)

For the 2007 season, Kallio moved up to KTM's squad in the 250cc category alongside Japan's Hiroshi Aoyama. After a difficult start to the season with mechnical woes at Qatar and Spain, Kallio would consistently be fighting around the top six positions. The turning point of the season would be at Germany, where Kallio took his debut pole position and podium finish in the class for come home in 2nd behind team mate Aoyama to cap a fine 1-2 for KTM. A third place followed at the Czech Republic, although a nasty highside at San Marino, and more mechnical problems at Portugal were to slow his progress.

However the Finn would capture his first 250cc class victory at the rain-soaked Japanese race, and later added to his tally at the final round in Valencia, fending of Alex de Angelis on the final lap. He ended the season with two pole positions, two wins, four podiums and two fastest laps to place him seventh in the standings with 157 points.

Kallio remained at KTM for 2008. A strong start to the season saw a third place at the season opener under the floodlights of Qatar. A fortunate win at Jerez, Spain after title rivals Álvaro Bautista and Marco Simoncelli crashed out together on the final lap. Another solid third place at Portugal, before contining his strong run with a masterful victory in China under tricky conditions. Kallio had built up a strong lead in the championship but his luck would soon change. After difficult races in France and Italy, the latter hampered by clutch issues at the start of the race, his bad luck continued in Catalunya when his bike broke down, and almost crashed on his return to the pits. His healthy lead in the standings had simply vanished.

His woes seemed to continue at Donington Park after qualifying only 14th. However, he passed one rider after another to jump up right to the head of the field to take a surprise victory. It were to be his final win in 250s. The KTM riders could not keep up with the pace of Piaggio riders and his title challenge was over in Australia, having been passed by eventual champion Simoncelli and Bautista a few races before. He did however make a long awaited return to the podium in third place, beating off fellow KTM rider Julián Simón to the line.

A forgettable race in Malaysia was followed by an accident in the final round at Valencia. Having been the only rider to keep pace with the new world champion, Simoncelli, Kallio was pushing to the limit to keep up and launch an attack on the final lap. However, he crashed half way round the final lap and slowly came home in an 11th place. He wrapped up the year to finish third overall with 196pts. It included three victories, three more podiums and two fastest laps, although he did not score a single pole position.

MotoGP (2009-)

On 19 October 2008, Kallio was announced as part of the new Pramac Racing lineup for 2009 in Moto GP alongside Italian Niccolò Canepa. The Finn has been provided with the latest spec Ducati Desmosedici GP9 ensuring equality for the satellite teams and the factory squad.