f-s-p

The league fixtures will be confirmed this saturday and finals are as follows: Individual saturday September 3rd - Haapajärvi and U21 July 30th - Kauhajoki. Kaupunki cup will be announced a bit later. Pairs is gone now, wont be arranged again because of the number of clubs taking part was too small and all the stuff that happened last season.

Finnish final next sunday at 1pm local time at Hyvinkää. Draw: 1. Markku Weckman HeMK 2. Henri Malinen P-KMK 3. Jouni Seppänen PirMM 4. Ari Tuomisto FMS 5. Quali 1st 6. Harri Saari IRR 7. Seppo Siira Ruotsi 8. Mika Helin ValkMK 9. Timo Kankkunen P-KMK 10. Teppo Toivola A-SMP 11. Jussi Hytönen P-KMK 12. Jussi Nyrönen P-KMK 13. Quali 2nd 14. Mats Järf VaMK 15. Sami Hassinen P-KMK 16. Janne Vilponen A-SMP 17. Quali 3rd 18. Quali 4th A mini qualifier will be held before heat 1 with 6 riders competing for 2+2 places in the final. Two 3 rider semis with 2 going through and then one heat for the 2+2 places in the actual final. Riders in the mini quali are: Aki-Pekka Mustonen VRT, Esko Rantanen PirMM, Nina Ala-Riihimäki IRR, Pertti Flink LMS, Tomi Tani P-KMK, Tommi Suolammi HäMK.

Finnish team to Berlin will be Järf, Malinen and Lehtinen with team manager Jouni Seppänen. Lehtinen was supposed to be out for the rest of the season with back injury but is already back on the bike and will ride in Berlin unless something unexpected happens...

I think this was mentioned in last years ice racing thread and was pretty much laughed at after some thinking...

Järf having problems with his knee (from the fall) and bike. Just could not get the setup right for the bumpy track and kept bouncing on at the back... The russian forum bloke was wrong in the sense that Järf should not even had an opportunity to decline from the final as he was 17th with "zero points" like many Finns before him in the Eurovison song contest.

Järf fell after trying a bit too hard. He's ok and the bike should be in one piece too by tapes up.

Anders Secher takes his place. Who's he? Anders Secher ny landstræner i Speedway Danmarks Motor Union (DMU) har lørdag den 5. februar 2011 på et pressemøde i Jyske Bank BOXEN offentliggjort, at den tidligere manager for Grand Prix-køreren Bjarne Pedersen, 44-årige Anders Secher, bosat i Viborg, er ny Speedwaylandstræner i Danmarks Motor Union (DMU).

Sounds a bit arrogant and I personally dont know of a reason that justifies this attitude from him.

I should see him ride in a few weeks. If has a new bike for example, I'll let you know. But I dont think there was any foul play in the semi. Riders sometime hit the tapes and other times miss the two minutes...

The nordic final keeps growing. Lahti had 1500 last year and now this. It must have been a great! Any idea anyone why Hallstaviks Elit match has been cancelled all together.

I did not see this one as I was experiencing some culture. Doesn't take much convincing though to agree with Conkers when he said the winners were basically miles away... Seppänen was complaining about his front grip and basically was a bit disappointed. He has a secret weapon between his legs this season and I was wondering if he'd put it to use in Sanok... I would have thought Malinen might do better, especially since Sanok is the place where he's done his best meeting yet (I think) when he was in the semis in the cup a couple of years ago. Anyone know any photographers that were there? My army of snappers isn't out until the racing really begins...

Lineups for the SM-liiga have been announced. It will be an interesting season. These lineups have names I'm certain wont be riding a full season, but have been added in order to foresee dictated team changes according to averages mid season. Looking forward to it. Also there are talks of liveupdates and two minute counters/clocks, but we'll see about them when the pricetag turns the final numbers, who's still ready. SM-liiga lineups 2011: Kotkat (SeMK): 1) Juha Hautamäki, 2) Markku Autio, 3) Rene Lehtinen, 4) Mika Loppi, 5) Kauko Nieminen ja joukkueenjohtaja Petteri Koivunen. Paholaiset (PMK): 1) Joni Keskinen, 2) Jiri Nieminen, 3) Marko Suojanen, 4) Jere Lehtonen, 5) Jouni Viljanen ja joukkueenjohtaja Panu Karvonen. Keittiöpiste (KMMK): 1) Timo Lahti, 2) Tero Aarnio, 3) David Hillborg SE, 4) Marko Hyyryläinen, 5) Teemu Lahti ja joukkueenjohtaja Jorma Mäkikunnas. Sand Blowers (HyMK): 1) Jari Mäkinen, 2) Niko Siltaniemi, 3) Pasi Pulliainen, 4) Aarni Heikkilä, 5) Kalle Katajisto ja joukkueenjohtaja Jari ”Vikke” Virtanen.

Finns for the nordic final at Målilla, January 28th: Henri Malinen, Mats Järf, Harri Saari, Janne Vilponen, Markku Weckmann, Jussi Hytönen, Jouni Seppänen.

Bad looking crash for Ebner..

Aki-Pekka Mustonen who was recently announced as a JRM factory rider for 2011 (i assume mainly LT) has listed himself in the roster thats gonna compete for the Finnish individual ice racing championship on February 20th.

Mats Järf says in his interview that Klatovsky was disqualified from the rerun afterwards. So does sportowefakty. Great to see that Järf made it. I think it's his second or third season in the sport.

Now official, Aakko is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Teppo Toivola will replace him at Saalfelden and Sami Hassinen at Togliatti.

Hope it turns out better than it did for Kauko Nieminen, who did not get to ride at all last season.

Kai Lehtinen (hurt his back in the Finnish final -09) hurt it again in the Finnish training camp before christmas and is ruled out (waiting for surgery) for the rest of the season. Antti Aakko fell on sunday in the Elitserien match and hurt his hand. The "jury" wont come out until early next week regarding his season... It looks kind of bad for competiteve ice racing in Finland. EDIT: Changes to Togliatti: Timo Kankkunen and Antti Aakko for the EC semi and Jussi Nyrönen for the final.

Can this be classified as the season's biggest shocker, Krasnikov not winning?

You did miss a couple of heat times but I did wait for you...

Says on a website that Jason Crump was present at Poznan and has said he's not gonna ride ice racing. What a wuss! According to urbandictionary.com that means "Often a male person with low courage factor."