Taru Rinne
Rinne at the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix
NationalityFinnish
Motorcycle racing career statistics
Grand Prix motorcycle racing
Active years1987–1990
First race1988 125cc French Grand Prix
Last race1990 125cc Australian Grand Prix
Championships0
Starts Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points
22 0 0 0 0 25

Taru Rinne (born 27 August 1968 in Turku) is a Finnish former professional motorcycle racer. She was the first woman to achieve points in Grand Prix motorcycle racing.[1]

Career

Karting

Rinne started her racing career in karting, competing against future Formula One drivers Mika Häkkinen, Mika Salo and Jyrki Järvilehto on multiple occasions. She won the Finnish Karting Championship in the 85cc class in 1979, ahead of Häkkinen. In 1980, she finished second behind Salo and ahead of Häkkinen who was fourth. She battled with Häkkinen again in 1981, and this time finished second in the series with Häkkinen becoming the champion. The next year Rinne won the series again and Häkkinen had to settle with second place. In 1983, she also finished first in the championship but was disqualified from the last race due to illegal fuel. Thus the title went to Häkkinen. She was also given a personal one-year ban from racing, which eventually ended her promising career in karting.

Road Racing

Despite her success on four wheels, Rinne decided to switch to motorcycles and debuted in the Road Racing World Championship, now known as MotoGP, in 1988.[2] With her Honda bike she qualified second for the 125cc class GP at Hockenheim in 1989 and managed to lead the race for a while. She eventually finished seventh bettering her earlier eighth place at Assen.[3] This was to remain her best ever result, as she got into a bad accident at Paul Ricard. While recovering from the accident, she got a letter from Bernie Ecclestone, who at the time decided which riders are allowed to compete in the series. The letter said that she is not qualified to compete next season. This ended her career at top-level and Rinne later said that the letter was the biggest disappointment of her life.[1]

Motorcycle Grand Prix Results

Points system from 1969 to 1987:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Points 15 12 10 8 6 5 4 3 2 1

Points system from 1988 to 1992:

Position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Points 20 17 15 13 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Class Bike 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Points Rank
1987 125cc MBA ESP
-		 GER
-		 NAT
-		 AUT
-		 NED
-		 FRA
-		 GBR
-		 SWE
-		 CZE
20		 RSM
-		 POR
-		 0 —
1988 125cc Honda ESP
-		 NAT
-		 GER
-		 AUT
-		 NED
-		 BEL
-		 YUG
-		 FRA
14		 GBR
-		 SWE
25		 CZE
-		 2 37th
1989 125cc Honda JPN
-		 AUS
-		 ESP
15		 NAT
19		 GER
7		 AUT
-		 NED
8		 BEL
-		 FRA
-		 GBR
-		 SWE
15		 CZE
12		 23 17th
1990 125cc Honda JPN
26		 ESP
-		 NAT
-		 GER
-		 AUT
-		 YUG
-		 NED
23		 BEL
-		 FRA
-		 GBR
-		 SWE
-		 CZE
21		 HUN
16		 AUS
19		 0 —
1991 125cc Honda JPN
-		 AUS
-		 ESP
DNQ		 ITA
DNQ		 GER
DNQ		 AUT
DNQ		 EUR
DNQ		 NED
-		 FRA
-		 GBR
-		 RSM
-		 CZE
-		 MAL
-		 0 —

References

  1. 1 2 Salmi, Riitta. "Mitä kuuluu Taru Rinne?". Turun Sanomat (in Finnish). Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  2. ↑ Taru Rinne career statistics at MotoGP.com
  3. ↑ "A Selection of Gossip from issue 119". BikeSportNews. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
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