f-s-p

Three Finns in the GP last year, only Aakko this year after qualifying from the easiest quali at Saalfelden. Well, if you are #1 you get to choose and thats only right! He's not ridden all that bad this season either. Lehtinen was a disappointment yesterday, that can't be argued. Järf had ridden over Posch in his first ride and damaged his bike enough to be forced to switch to his spare bike. He couldn't keep up with the others with that one (probably not with his #1 either, but now we'll never know).

It's unlikely that Knapp will qualify from Sanok and will take a mandatory PZM slot in the series that is taken from the St Johan qualifier.

One of the main headlines in my morning paper was that 20 to 30 years of "mini" ice age is upon us! Our capital Helsinki is a mess because of winter that actually is a proper winter after many years. Real snow (20-30cm) and below zero temperatures. National rail (VR) is cancelling trains like kids eat candy because the trains are frozen... And now meetings are called off because of too cold and too much snow! I actually quite like winter, had forgotten how nice it can be!

Did this go ahead? Aakko is quoted saying he was heading home after Saalfelden and I found this from spwa-z.cz "Paradoxy Paní Zimy zrušily další české ledy" and have NO idea what it means but paradox never sounds good...

...as mud!

Info on the qualifiers would be appreciated... How many qualify from where? Everyone has it different and I consider all realiable! Saalfelden (speedway.org has 4+1, isracing.net has 5, Conkers has 5+2 and FIM site has 6) St JOhan ? Sanok ?

OK. I guess my ROM was working only when he was talking about Swiss Championship... (or was it RAM... )

Weather stats on TV now... Finnish record was at Kittilä (-99) with -51,5 celsius! This week had -37,? at Kuusamo that appears to have been the 2nd lowest of the stats available. -50 is pretty cold I thought Seppänen was supposed to ride in Switzerland.

Who is Anton Zmaga? And how could he have scored 13 from 5 rides with that lot!

Just got back home from Jyväskylä where it was 45 cm of snow on the backyard of the inlaws. +17,3 celsius in the living room at home now We're fine, some red wine is on it's way!

It's a real winter in Finland. At Tampere we've had -15 to -25 for weeks now and more to come, 30cm of snow! First rounds of both Allsvenskan and Elitserien have been postponed in Sweden because of winter (the other one was gonna be too cold and the other had something to do with snow).

Almost 52 vpp this season with a good last lap blast of increase after Katajisto came over! I'm happy with that. Not so many Finns this season in the UK but Kauko and Kalle did OK/great. Joonas was injured, again and alltough Tero was all but happy with his performance he managed to hang on to his averages. Saw his meeting against the Monarchs from Berwick where he scored freely, so hopefully he'll get a place after the season starts. Mäkinen came over in July(?) and according to the averages he was even poorer than the year before. Saw one of his meetings from Somerset (with his heat win) which give's me no reason to doubt his average. Hopefully Joonas gets a clean run next year! Finnish season was a success with some great racing. The federation has backed up the riders willing to take part in the training group and it has really paid off. Katajisto is set up for a year abroad next season and Timo Lahti has now signed a deal with Rospiggarna (Sweden) for three years. HE'S ONLY 17 NOW! Micke Teurnberg will guide him through the rough spots having known Timo personally since Timo was a kid. It looks really good. A downside to everything is the lack of riders that we'll see in a couple of years with not enough kids coming through. Microspeedway has now been started and will bring new riders, but that takes about 10 years. 80cc has struggled but some co-operation with Sweden is in the pipeline. Extraliiga deadline for teams to announce they will take part is 31st of December and the last of January they have to have the teams ready too. Four teams will take part again according to my knowledge. Some changes next year as speedwaysanomat.fi will be re-launched and include a news service which will most likely become my main internet "service". The same news will be shown at speedway.fi. speedwaysuomi.com will continue as my partner with meeting photos. A pretty good service that was started a few years ago and to which I jumped along last season. I guess I'll have to do the reports in english here, but we'll see how it all goes. Some uncertainties in the air... So this was it, the 6th year of Finnish results by f-s-p. Have a safe New Year!

It was practically common knowledge in Finland that he would miss the season alltogether. Then it was only to miss wc qualis and ride domestic meetings. Now it seems he's just changing his license and is (I'm told) nominated for the U25 EC as a swede... This is not a joke. Harri Saari has presented an invitation through Yamaha's Finnish importer to Valentino Rossi to arrive to Finland for an ice racing test session. Everything is sorted and ready, The Doctor only needs to arrive for the test. World's-level equipment is waiting for him. If you want to do something for the sport you love, why not do it BIG! Merry Christmas to all, over and out!

Currently it seems Katajisto will give Sweden a miss next season. Had a chat with him yesterday.

I did not see this coming... Could Katajisto be next? Nice to see Teurnberg really dishing it out towards Getingarna, those morons. That Peter Norden fellow has written a nice article about the brothers, alltough it is probably four years old already.

Just got back from Kuortane where a training camp was starting up. Only -15. Rene Stellingwerf was there and said the last day he was riding in Russia it was -35...

Henri Malinen with an itchy foot at Rovaniemi last weekend. Check the lower photograph.

It wasn't me, it was the other guy! You are missing from the official press release too, and after I'd hunted the result sheet I only went through the names on the list and moved on to other things. I did now you were going to be/ and were there, was just asleep apparently I got a picture of Henri Malinen into my mailbox today and will post it to speedway.fi tomorrow. He had his leg caught up between the fender and the tire as he fell and it does not look good...

Better results from Rovaniemi: Mats Järf VaMK 33333 15 Kai Lehtinen IRR 33323 14 Gregorz Knapp PL 32332 13 Jouni Seppänen PirMM 32322 12 Matti Hanninen OMK 23231 11 Jussi Nyrönen P-KMMK 23113 10 Timo Kankkunen P-KMK 12231 9 Janne Vilponen A-SMP 01223 8 Miroslav Danizewski PL 10221 6 Mark Uzzell GB 11112 6 Piotr Hejnowski PL 21110 5 Harri Saari IRR 02002 4 Sami Hassinen 20NNN 2 Mike Widera PL 01NN0 1 Finnish nominations: WC quali's: Saalfelden: Antti Aakko Sanok: Henri Malinen, Jouni Seppänen St.Johan: Mats Järf, Kai Lehtinen Team final: Antti Aakko, Kai Lehtinen, Jouni Seppänen and tm Jyri Palomäki EC Ufa, semifinaali: Jussi Nyrönen Ufa, finaali: Kai Lehtinen EC-U25 finaali Kamensk-Uralsk: Henri Malinen The training camp was a success according to the people "ordering" and organising it. The weather had been a bit iffy but Pekka Karttunen had his hand on the pulse and knew exactly what was going on with the ice. There where plenty of tracks for everyday and even a slight banking was managed from the 3cm of snow that had fallen. The poles where very happy with the camp also and a return visit for the Finns to Poland is expected.

To finish off a couple of days training a meeting was held at Rovaniemi today. Mats Järf won with max points, Kai Lehtinen 14, Gregorzz Knapp PL 13, Jouni Seppänen 12, Hanninen? 11 and Jussi Nyrönen 10. I'm hoping to get full results during monday. This meeting helped to decide the international qualifier places. Aakko was in Sweden as he had requested a permission to do so and it was given to him. So instead of beating Finns by a mile he was getting regularly beaten by Zorn and co . Hopefully not but he was better off in Sweden.

You do know of course that GB needs that home track to get to the race off!!?? Havent seen even pictures from the KL track for a while but I understand it's a stadium, not just a track. That SHOULD be rewarded with a meeting like this.

As I mentioned before about Tommy Flyktman's off season, there now seems to be a minor twist in the proceedings. It appears that his "offseason" has now turned in to a switch of national license and he will continue his career as a Swede.

KALLE KATAJISTO Was selected as the third "U21 Rider of the year" by Speedwaysanomat, the Finnish track racing magazine. Katajisto made Finnish speedway history by reaching the U19 European final, was fastest at the opening training camp in April and finished his season with a spectacular show for Edinburgh Monarchs in the Premier league. In between he also came third in the Finnish final and was the top scorer in the pairs final. His only slump was the U21 final where he was eliminated in the semifinal. The editor for Speedwaysanomat told f-s-p: "Kalle was the fastest this season, but the competition for this trophy was very hard this time. It wasn't a given as it has been for the first two years of it's history. An online poll was organised and more than 200 votes were given. The top3 received 78 % of the total votes with two riders in 30 %. Even the all knowing Finnish fans (with a couple of European votes in the mix) couldn't achieve an unanimous winner. It was very awarding to let Kalle know of his win as he sounded genuinely surprised, impressed and glad of winning this award. I hope he keeps on working hard and improving himself in the future." He continues: "I would also like to add, that my picture of world #1 Jason Crump in the back cover of Speedwaysanomat 10/2009 was so much better than Jarek Fabijan's 13 in a dozen back lean by the WC in the week 48 edition of the Spar, that I find it surprising that I have not yet received the call to become MP's #1 back up for next season." You can laugh now, the last one was not so serious. Though it was true...

This is a thread about ice racing D1LLHOLE! STAY AWAY!

Just back from the congress at Pori. Surprisingly very positive and constructive day behind me. Next year's Extraliiga will see (according to today's provisional approvals) the same teams as this year + Pori. The meeting format will remain 4tt but Meritähti as our track racing supremo has come up with a meeting format for 4tt that will see all the teams meeting each other 3 times during 18 heats with two teams/two each/1 heat. Havent met a proposition so well received in these gatherings in the five years I've attended! Kaupunki Cup will remain as last season. Finnish final: Kauhajoki, U21: Lahti, Pairs: Kuusankoski, Ice racing final: Kuusankoski 27th February, Ice racing Nordic final: Lahti (Pipo) 28th February.