against Jarno because he aimed a lot at road-racing, but he has made impression on me. At that time Matti Pesonen led in road-racing. Matti didn’t spoke English or Swedish such as Jarno and that worked in his disadvantage.
Jarno had learned much in company of Matti, especially how to preparing Yamaha engines. Matti were a ace in that domain, but he never succeeded to become world champion because he was always in default at paying the organizers of the championship. He never had a lot of money and you know that the battle of road-racing cost a lot of money. Because he was alone and still didn’t understand English it was impossible to win a GP. I believe that he would been deserved however a world title, just like Jarno. It is the injustice of the road-racing law. That doesn’t matter at motocross. There had to come a good racer.

C.W.: How your motocross career did go further?
H.M.: In 1966, I finished 3th in the 250cc ice-race championship, behind Teppi and Matti. The year afterwards I became champion, in front of Matti and Teppi. In that year Jarno drove 500cc.
In the field of motocross there were very good racers in Finland, the bests of them were Kalevi Vehkonen. But he didn’t having an easy time. He had to settle men such as Jyrki Storm, Juha Tirinen, Lehtinen, Jorma Järvinen, Lars Oberg, Hahl, etc. All good racers with whom I could fight, but with difficultly. Kalevi were better than I and dominated the championship. He won the GP of Finland in 1968, and I finished in 6th , just like the year before. As from that moment Kalevi, who’s fought only for the championship points of Finland, decided to ride all the GP’s in 1969. I decided to go with him also to participate in the world championship. He buy himself a caravan and of my side I buy myself a Mercedes diesel van, which could shelter the bikes and the spare parts. Respectively we finished 11th and 14th in the championship. The following year I won my first GP, on August 9 at Hyvinkää in Finland, the GP of Switzerland in Wohlen on the 30th and finally the GP of Austria, in Launsdorf. I became fourth in the world championship, behind Robert, Geboers and DeCoster. The evening after my victory in Austria I signed a contract as Husqvarna factory-rider.

C.W.: What was the differences between the factory riders and the private riders?
H.M.: There were not much difference. With Husqvarna we were with four official riders in the 250cc. That were Hakan Andersson, Torleif Hansen, Uno Palm and myself. We had one mechanic for the 4 bikes. My factory bike was not much better than the bike which I used the year before. Practically we had the same bikes such as the customer bikes, from time to time they let us test a little novelty. Again I finished fourth, behind Robert, Andersson and Geboers. In 1972 I move on to the 500cc. I became the teammate of Bengt Aberg. That year it went not very good, but nevertheless I won still the GP of Czechoslovakia and the Trans-AMA serial in the USA.

C.W.: For 1973 Arréhn let you change of class?
H.M.: I returned to the 250cc this time with the prototype factory machine. The machine had a lack of power, I didn’t have an easy time. Eventual the factory wanted to use me no longer in the 250cc and for this reason I became a 500cc racer. As from 1972 on the factory trusted me a mechanic. Firstly I got an Belgian mechanic (Robert Gielis), than Pelle Mas were assigned to me. In the beginning I found it nothing, he had a manner of work which I couldn’t appreciate. Old motocross racer, for two times he couldn’t find the right settings for the bike. Eventually they reached an agreement, since that I could no longer pass him by and he had a large share in the championship.

C.W.: Tell us over the season to your world title.
H.M.: I had the best bike, the best mechanic and I was the best. Nobody will contradict that. Absolutely never I had problems with my bike. The crashes in Belgium and East-Germany were my own fault, I went too fast. That season I also was always the best during practise, except in the USA (2nd) and in Luxembourg (as a matter of fact there in the last heat I was not so fast too).

C.W.: Who were your major opponents, riders as well as bikes.
H.M.: There are two riders whom I want to mention: DeCoster and Wolsink. And what the bikes concerns, only the Suzuki were really dangerous. The Maico were out-of-date and had lack of speed. The Suzuki, as well as the Husqvarna were better than the Maico in that season. Bauer didn’t have his year, he left to Suzuki. Weil were fantastic on the fast and flat level tracks, for example at Gaillefontaine he drove with much easily. The Husqvarna and the Suzuki didn’t differ much from each other. The Japanese pretty often had problems with the suspension which broke sometimes, whereas at Husqvarna it all went without troubles.

C.W.: How you look at the 1975 season and the coming seasons?
H.M.: 1975 will be still heavier than 1974. My most dangerous opponents are the Suzuki's of DeCoster and especially of Wolsink. It’s the last which I fear most, especially after the 5th or the 6th GP. The Dutchman continually improves and improves, he is intelligent and he is on an age that one finds oneself in his bests physical shape. Brad Lackey and Arne Kring shall doing well in 1975. Kring has a different condition as Brad, but I have seen that he was very fast on tracks which requires an tremendous condition. In the coming season Brad however will be very good. I think these two will finish in 4th and 5th place at the end of the 1975 championship. If everything go well the coming season, I make aspiration on the title. DeCoster did it three times in continuation, why shouldn’t I can do that? At the moment I have the form to gain the title. We can say that at this moment team Mikkola-Husqvarna-Pelle Persson are used on each other’s ways. The whole Husqvarna team is homogeneously the coming year. Arne is standing on