f-s-p

Joni Kontoniemi dislocated his shoulder in his fall and is apparently done for the weekend? Vilponen had problems with his machinery and had to miss his last heat because of it. Flyktman still in the battle for the GP, thanks to Simon's 0 in his last. This Harald Simon fellow looks to have passed both the top Finns in the world ranking...

We stayed at the Express by Holiday Inn just on the north of Udine. Brand new hotel in the middle a business park. A few km's from the city and about 15 km from the track. I was told there are many smaller hotels near the track.

One of the Germans has dropped out from the EC final and Jussi Nyrönen from Finland will take his place.

Finnish team for Inzell is Aakko, Flyktman and Lehtinen.

Aakko has said that he lost the first heat mainly due to a poor start. Thought it looked ok, but he was a bit soft entering the corner... ???

Nope. But the federation should hear about this for sure.

License is always good to be considered the same as insurance. Joni Kontoniemi has been changed in place of Aakko for the EC final at Lukhovitsy.

This one gives the impression that he's heading for Rzeszow...

That all of course depends on the view you take. If the federation decides that the meeting wont get a permission, then all licenses for the riders and officials and void and if anything happens, all heII breaks loose. Then again, if they give a permission for a track thats unsafe and something happens, all heII breaks loose.

What is this about Hans Andersen and Joonas Kylmäkorpi?

I've heard this Jean-Paul fellow is a very interesting chap! Now with a couple of injuries he might hit double figures with the revisions...

So this meeting was abandoned after 18 heats after someone went through the ice in to the lake? Something like that anyway... Anyone know better?

Thats it for 2008! This time Finnish News got over 35% more views compared to last year (I'm now logging off at 49 views per post), so perhaps this was worth doing again. We also had an alltime high of Finnish riders in the British leagues. Some of them were just tourists but still it tells us that there are riders willing to give it a go. Thats nice. Please remember to wear goggles while doing it and have an injury free New Years Eve, please. Over and out...

All three of the Finns now clear for Getingarna. Timo, Kalle Katajisto and Niko Siltaniemi. If they all continue to work as they have it'll be a nice purse for Getingarna in a few years time... Edit Its allways important to get the fact's straight right from the start. Otherwise you'll end up saying that Tero Aarnio was the Finnish team manager in the SWC in 2007, like PW did. Timo Lahti is the best Finland has to offer at the moment. Other than that, they are all VERY good prospects, the best we have on offer.

Heard yesterday that Posa might have taken a knock this winter already and has hurt himself? Anyone heard similar or was this just talk to keep warm...

Kylmäkorpi to Gdansk

The ones that deserve it do, of course. I wonder where this info is coming from... Specifically the part about Bajen and Getingarna.

Why would they? The authorities have their hands full organising the Finnish leagues and the riders are good enough to get places in Allsvenskan more or less on their own. Why should Finnish federation or any association pay for the team when we can have the Swedes paying to our riders?

Tero Aarnio says on his website he's with Bajen next season. Rumours are placing another Finn there too. There'll be a full teams worth of Finns in Allsvenksan at this rate next season...

This is the stuff that legends are made of. I wonder what they'll do if they cant get the moisture out of the surface in time? Will they get the asphalt rollers on borad this time?!

Well... Leszno has just renewed the deal for the SGP. Three years more me thinks...

Jus saw the thread... He's a live and kicking and currently live's in Helsinki here in Finland. I met him briefly last June in the Finnish U21 final, just to introduce myself, said hi and forwarded the best wishes sent to him from the Shears family three years earlier... Dont really know what he's up to currently, he said something about being involded in motorsports still. A friend paid a visit to him a few weeks ago and said he's doing OK, not gone senil or anything... EDIT: Adding that in the late 90's he had a pub and a motorcycle repair business in the Canary Islands.

Finnish nominations. Surprised to see that Kontoniemi and Lehtinen have different qualifiers, but I gues they've talked it all through with the authorities. Lehtinen is the man behind Kontoniemi's interest in the sport and more or less of a mentor to him. Saalfelden: Antti Aakko ja Jussi Hytönen Togliat: Joni Kontoniemi, Janne Vilponen ja Tommy Flyktman Sanok: Kai Lehtinen ja Jouni Seppänen EC Lukovitshy semi: Henri Malinen EC final, tba: Antti Aakko EC juniors Saransk: Henri Malinen

Cant see either of them at Daugavpils purely because of logistics. Nieminen wants to concentrate to UK (possibly double down) and has already a contract for thursdays in Sweden too. Hautamäki will probably want to ride in any of the polish leagues, but also has a deal for thursdays and will probably ride all the Finnish meetings too.

Just popped in to my email that Henri Malinen is nominated anyway... Antti Aakko surprisingly got the nod for the EC final.