Karjala Raceway

Karjala Raceway is a 3.28-mile (5.279-km), 13-turn road course in Finland. Every May, it hosts the annual Karjala Grand Prix, considered the biggest and one of the most historic races in the TM Master Cup Series. It's known for its exciting racing, as well as its wide variation of straightaway and corner lengths, easily making it one of the hardest tracks for a stock-car driver to master. In the past, it also held races for the GRL, the TM Junior Series (now TM Lights), the Vaughn Stock Car Championship, the ARLA Elite Series, and Dash Cup.

The track record is currently held by two-time Master Cup champion Alexis Rainsford, who set the aforementioned time in qualifying for the 2012 Karjala Grand Prix.

Kekkonen won the 2009 Karjala Grand Prix in just his rookie season. Only three other drivers have won the race in their rookie season. Mathias Taube in 2010, Leonid Roderick in 1998 and Yuliya Nosova in 2007. Danny Savin is the only driver to have won the race back-to-back.

Construction and establishment
Gerard Madigan was contacted in 1971 about designing a Grand Prix track in the middle of Finland, after his successes with the Decatur Raceway. The track, now known as Karjala Raceway, was inspired by Madigan's intent to create an even better design than what he had devised in Illinois. He enlisted the help of his brother, Frank, as well as the original owner of the land, a man by the last name of Mallat, to create the layout. However, once it was completed, its transition from high speed to low speed, plus a high speed S curve, was deemed too hazardous for Grand Prix racing, so for a source of revenue, Madigan instead brought stock cars to the facility.