9/7/1906 - 14/2/2001
Record updated 17-Mar-09
Helge Hallman was a successfull driver, racing in Scandinavia and Estonia in the mid 1930s
Helge Hallman was a freight manager from north-western Finland who started racing in 1931 when friends convinced him to compete in a borrowed Chrysler. He won that race and, with the help of the Holmvik brothers who owned a garage in Pedersore repairing Ford cars and trucks, built a Ford based racing car.
Hallman was a calm and calculating driver rather than spectacular. He had some success racing in Scandinavia and Estonia in the mid 1930s.
He then retired but, after WWII, returned to the track with his old Ford which had been stored in a shed for 8 years.
He rebuilt it with a truck engine and entered the Finnish GP in 1936 but retired when a wheel came off. The errant wheel coming to rest on the railway tracks than ran alongside the track bringing a freight train to a halt.
He had better luck in 1947 finishing second in class and 7th overall in the Finnish Grand Prix in May and winning his class and finishing 4th overall in the Kalastajatorpanajo at the end of October.
The garage where his cars were built opened on May 1st 1930 and is still standing to this day. It was bought by the county as a repair shop for their own vehicles and though it has not been used for over 10 years, the Helge Hallman Hall is preserved as a historical building.
With thanks to Marten Portin