f-s-p

For what I know and read from Aarnio's blog he's had a nightmare start to the season. Daugavpils is traditionally a very slick track with no banking on the curves. So not really a track for Aarnio. He was doing fine when Berwick was still a mx-track last season, but it's been hard for him to get things going this year. Katajisto on the other is considered to be the next big one in Finnish speedway. His problem on the other hand is gating, but if he gates, he's very fast. He has a very unique yet fast style to ride a bike. If I'm honest, I dont really understand how he's so fast. In my opion he should fall off more often, since he look's like a boiled string of spaghetti on his bike... Even with the heat win in Workington he only got 4 or something from his four rides (didn't even check). There are plenty of places in the Finnish camp to be filled during the season in international meetings still... Qualifier for the Finnish U19 and U21 places in Elgane and Hallstavik will be ridden on saturday. The riders will start with practise on friday. On sunday there's once again a test match between the Finns and Stjärnorna.

One of the big issues is of course that the current 2-stroke 80cc engines will be banned in the near future and a replacement has to be found. Hey Anders! You know of any other finns in the Swedish 80cc league than Jooa Partanen and Vili Hautala, Smederna Mika Loppi, Elit Vetlanda Jiri Nieminen, Västervik ?????????????

Even with the smiley you're ... EDIT:... actually only a year late...

Rules of the said tournament from the UEM rulebook. 16.1 General Competition for national teams. The competition will be run according to the FIM Track Racing Appendices of 2009 (Appendix 070 and Appendix 072b). Teams from different nations will compete in each meeting. The participating teams are divided into Semi Final and a Final according to the decision of the UEM TRC. If the situation arises where a team is missing, the FMNR will provide an additional team. The points scored by the additional team will be counted towards the results of the race. However the additional team will not be classified in the final championship result . The organiser of a meeting of this championship is guaranteed to have its national team compete in this meeting. Semi Final is made up of 4 teams. The organiser of the meeting, the winning team from the Semi-Final and two teams will be allocated a place in the Final. After heat 16, the points scored will be taken into account for riders nominated for heats 17, 18, 19 and 20. In case of riders of the same team tied on points the Team Manager will determine which rider in which heat will ride. The rider nominated as substitute will be the substitute rider for the whole meeting. He is not classified after 16 heats but he is ntitled to race in a maximum of 5 heats (+ 1 additional heat as a tactical substitution) in the meeting.

I was there in 2004 and read somewhere that the club was gonna get some funding from the city to make the place a tad more attractive and high profile for the future. Has it happen... Sullivan there speaks volumes (regarding past history of the meeting and Sullivans stature at the mo), of somethimg... and I'm a BIG fan of him!

The 6 weeks I'm on about is from the time BEFORE he went in to the surgery and BEFORE he gave his own statement to the BSPA website. I'm told (sorry m8 ) that he doesn't even need a cast for the problem he has. Wonders of the current medical world! To my knowledge, and thats underlined because I havent found any info on the internet (anywhere, any country, any club, any rider site) to state otherwise. Is... that Laukkanen is only set to ride for his hometown club Kotkat, eight meetings of speedway in total. He has a few longtrack contracts on the continent though, which that seems to be his main ambition currently... And thats why I mentioned his name in the mystery concerning Latvia. To all my Finnish readers, and you've multiplied like rabbits recently... (LBC included ), Hyvää pääsiäistä, JYPPI RULAA!!!

I just checked it last week from the new UEM website (have the print right here, but cant find it anymore on the website , which is too complicated anyway...)and the final is at Holsted, Denmark on the 23rd of August. The semi at Moorwinkelsdamm will be on the 18th (NOT 19th, like said also on the moorwmm website) and Finland will ride there instead of Russia. Finnish riders for the team will be nominated later, there will be no qualifier and there's also no qualifier for the team places at Pardubice. Eligible U19 riders include Timo Lahti, Kalle Katajisto, Niko Siltaniemi, Appe Mustonen, Jarkko Palmi (his 1st season) and Jari Mäkinen. EDIT: Markku Autio is born in -89 so I think he's too old.

I saw a picture from last weekend today from Poland. It showed Ashley Holloway, Carl Blomfeldt and Suzy the mechanic all in the same team colours. With the knowledge that Trick has also his fingers on Emils teams buttons, there might be a tiny chance that Emil might shake a few feathers...

Indeed...

The injury to Joonas Kylmäkorpi rules him out for six weeks, and that will include the SWC qualifier in Daugavpils, Latvia on May 2nd. Hopefully he'll be in one piece again for the SGP qualifier in Divisov on June 7th. It's a BIG dent on the Finnish dream to get back in to the "real" SWC. EDIT: Luckily we have Kalle Katajisto and he will replace Kylmäkorpi as our #1 in Daugavpils. Full Finnish team for the SWC qualifier on May 2nd is: 1. Kalle Katajisto, 2. Tomi Reima, 3. Juha Hautamäki, 4. Kaj Laukkanen and 5. Kauko Nieminen. Finland will be riding with white helmet colour against the Yanks in red, CZ in blue and Latvia in yellow. It's no secret that with Kylmäkorpi we lost 10 points from our total, but hopefully Hautamäki can up his came after winning the triple in Finland for two seasons in a row now. Kake looks to be in a good form but Laukkanen is a mystery that wont be solved until the last heat is done in Latvia.

That hasn't been said anywhere, it's more that they are preparing for the future and actually realising whats going on before the cash run's out. This talk has been ongoing for almost a month now. Thats dated March 13th.

Havent followed this saga anywhere else, but is the company in question this Cognor something? I saw pictures of Hancock from this season and that company was all over his kevlars. Even that Nicki doesn't need the money and could still ride in Denmark and the GP's, being on 30 meetings less for a season compared to many others will DEFINATELY affect his form in the GP.

A friend has sometimes told a story how he was riding "down there" in the eighties. The neighboring country was Azerbaijan and the track was in tserkesk or something. They flew to an airport that had a name that meant "mineral water". The catch to this all was that he crashed in the meeting (like he so often did, it seems ) and broke his wrist. He then found himself at an operating room in a local hospital. The room had gravel floor!

New and final/confirmed Finnish calendar came out yesterday, April 2nd. Good thing it was kept for an extra day! 21.5. ... TO ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 1/6 ... Pori 14.6. ... SU ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 2/6 ... Lahti 23.6. ... TI ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 3/6 ... Kuusankoski 5.7. ... SU ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 4/6 ... Haapajärvi 5.9. ... LA ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 5/6 ... Kauhajoki 13.9. ... SU ... 80 cc Suomen Cup 6/6 ... Lahti 25.7. ... LA ... 80 cc Suomen Cup, team final ... Kuusankoski 31.5. ... SU ... Extraliiga 1/8 ... Kauhajoki 13.6. ... LA ... Extraliiga 2/8 ... Seinäjoki 14.6. ... SU ... Extraliiga 3/8 ... Lahti 23.6. ... TI ... Extraliiga 4/8 ... Kuusankoski 11.7. ... LA ... Extraliiga 5/8 ... Seinäjoki 12.7. ... SU ... Extraliiga 6/8 ... Kauhajoki 22.8. ... LA ... Extraliiga 7/8 ... Kuusankoski 13.9. ... SU ... Extraliiga 8/8 ... Lahti 17.5. ... SU ... Kaupunki Cup 1/6 ... Seinäjoki 5.7. ... SU ... Kaupunki Cup 2/6 ... Haapajärvi 18.7. ... LA ... Kaupunki Cup 3/6 ... Lahti 5.9. ... LA ... Kaupunki Cup 4/6 ... Kauhajoki 6.9. ... SU ... Kaupunki Cup 5/6 ... Lahti 19.9. ... LA ... Kaupunki Cup 6/6 ... Pori 21.5. ... TO ... Yyteri speedway ... Pori, 30.5. ... LA ... Seinäjoki speedway ... Seinäjoki 6.6. ... LA ... Kauhajoki speedway ... Kauhajoki 27.6. ... LA ... Pariajo SM-finaali ... Seinäjoki 4.7. ... LA ... Kemppi speedway ... Lahti 7.7. ... TI ... U21 FINLAND vs. Swedish select ... Kuusankoski 19.7. ... SU ... SM-qualifier ... Seinäjoki 25.7. ... LA ... U21 SM-finaali ... Kuusankoski 1.8. ... LA ... SM-finaali ... Pori 12.9. ... LA ... Individual ... Kuusankoski 8.8. ... LA ... LT ... Nordic final ... Forssa 24.5. ... SU ... LT ... Individual ... Heinola 29.8. ... LA ... LT ... SM-Finaali ... Vaasa EDIT: Couple of notes from the calendar that are no good for Finnish riders. - Qualifier for the Finnish final was put on the same weekend as the U19 team semi in Germany. Thats five riders out from the qualifier, not too good. - Finnish longtrack final at Vaasa is on the same weekend as the European final at Berghaupten. Thats a shame, but I do think that the Vaasa weekend is a set date by the city and the horse racing people and can't be changed. Finnish riders in the EC grasstrack are (nominations to be confirmed) K.Laukkanen, R.Lehtinen and A.Mustonen.

We went to Riga a few weeks back. Dont know about their speedway history, but there was a perfect location for a track right in the city centre next to the Via Baltica?. Here, on the left of the arrow. It's not a secret that the Swedes have pumped Latvia full of money and with the big CC now on Latvia is facing bankrupcy. So there might be a chance (if the money is there) to get the permissions and build a stadia on a very good location! All a dream of course, but still!

Just to keep this going I'm just reading one of your reports, and would like to point out that Krasnikov's history has a Finnish twist in it. His first ever appearance on a world stage was at Oulu on January 12th 2003.

Couldn't wait so sod it. I'm going with this one, compiled from the info available. Not really worth spending two hours... Örebro - 18.3.2009 r. Stanislav Arkhipov RU 33333 15 Edward Krysov RU 32333 14 Rene Stellingwerf NL 33123 12 Antonin Klatovsky CZ 23322 12 Peter Koij SE 32301 9 Per Bruhn SE 23210 8 Sven Holstein NL 12032 8 Patrik Sohlberg SE 22220 8 Fredrik Johansson SE 21212 8 P-A Lindström SE dd223 7 Tommy Flyktman FI T2131 7 Hans Olov Olsen SE 11F02 4 Peter Jansson SE 10111 4 Andrej Divis CZ 10001 2 Heinz Göldi CH 01100 2 Andreas Forsell SE 00010 1 Erä erältä: 1. Krysov, Klatovsky, Jansson, Lindström d 2. Koij, Johansson, Holstein, Göldi 3. Arkhipov, Sohlberg, Olsen, Flyktman T 4. Stellingwerf, Bruhn, Divis, Forsell 5. Arkhipov, Krysov, Koij, Divis 6. Stellingwerf, Flyktman, Göldi, Jansson 7. Bruhn, Sohlberg, Johansson, Lindström d 8. Klatovsky, Holstein, Olsen, Forsell 9. Krysov, Sohlberg, Göldi, Forsell 10. Koij, Bruhn, Jansson, Olsen F 11. Arkhipov, Lindström, Stellingwerf, Holstein 12. Klatovsky, Johansson, Flyktman, Divis 13. Krysov, Stellingwerf, Johansson, Olsen 14. Holstein, Sohlberg, Jansson, Divis 15. Flyktman, Lindström, Forsell, Koij 16. Arkhipov, Klatovsky, Bruhn, Göldi 17. Krysov, Holstein, Flyktman, Bruhn 18. Arkhipov, Johansson, Jansson, Forsell 19.Lindström, Olsen, Divis, Göldi 20. Stellingwerf, Klatovsky, Koij, Sohlberg Katsojia 1915

Starting to fancy the finnish blondes too? There are plenty of them up in Oulu...

I must have been blind not to see that one, but it's not good enough... I need heat by heat details to complete the ice racing record in the mag. And I mean complete. EDIt: I'll ask Vikingarna direct.

Huhuu!!! Anyone with results from the ice racing meeting held at Örebro, Sweden on March 18th. This is what I have, but it's not good enough. Örebro - 18.3.2009 r. Wyniki: 1. Antonin Klatovsky - Czechy - 12 +1 m. finał "B", +1 m. finał "A" 2. Edward Krysow - Rosja - 14 +2 m. finał "A" 3. Rene Stellingwerf - Holandia - 12 +3 m. finał "A" 4. Stanisław Archipow - Rosja - 15 +4 m. finał "A" 5. Per Bruhn - Szwecja - 8 +2 m. finał "B" 6. Sven Hollstein - Holandia - 8 +3 m. finał "B" 7. Peter Koij - Szwecja - 9 +4 m. finał "B" 8. Patrik Sohlberg - Szwecja - 8 9. Fredrik Johansson - Szwecja - 8 10. P-A Lindström - Szwecja - 7 11. Tommy Flyktman - Finlandia - 7 12. Hans Olov Olsen - Szwecja - 4 13. Peter Jansson - Szwecja - 3 14. Heinz Göldi - Szwajcaria - 2 15. Andrej Divis - Czechy - 2 16. Andreas Forsell - Szwecja - 1 Erä erältä: B-finaali: A.Klatovsky, 2. P.Bruhn, 3. S.Holstein, 4. P.Koij A-finaali: A.Klatovsky 2. E.Krysow,3. R.Stellingwerf(u/w), 4. S.Archipow(w) Katsojia 1915

WTF

I dont see any reason why they would have messed with Yyteri speedway. Thats on thursday, 21st of May.

Noticed that the Finnish calendar had also made it to the Spar's season preview. Well the word from the spring conference is that practically the whole calendar was re-written and also Haapajärvi lost the U21 final to Kuusankoski. Also the foreigner rule has been changed for this coming season in the Extraliiga. We'll wait for the official press release on the subject. It took almost eight weeks to produce one from the last conference, but hopefully they'll get one done in half the time this time, since the season kick's of in three weeks with a U21 training camp in Hallstavik, Sweden. Jari Mäkinen has signed to ride for Kotkat in the Extraliiga this season.

Because he's still so good, that he treats the qualifiers as a good pay day? Maybe also its important to his sponsors...

Indeed they did. Without FIM releasing intermediate standings during the week too for us to check things out!