f-s-p

Turned 16 last summer and was the number one points scorer in the Finnish league. Only rider he did not win was Juha Hautamäki and thats only because he let him pass. When comparing to the other new Finnish talents in the past few years (Mäkinen in -06, Katajisto/Siltaniemi -07, Timo -08) the speed is already there and he outgates the rest on regular basis. A skill that Mäkinen declines to master even after three years on 500cc. He's good and will become even better... They all will...

Finnish ice racing riders got together last week at Rovaniemi for a training camp organised by "Team Hopeapiikit". The plan was to get some action and the camp apparently was a success. Antti Aakko, Kai Lehtinen, Joni Kontoniemi, Jussi Hytönen, Jouni Seppänen, Janne Vilponen and Tommy Flyktman are the Finns for the World's qualifiers. Henri Malinen will ride in the EC semi and the U21 EC final. Team for the team final will be announced later and I'm not mistaken, we also had a seede place in the EC final.

The cat's out of the bag now, you do the math. More to follow.

Hope your project got a good start...

After following the debacle since last week through swedish press, he was dumped. He still wants to ride and Rospiggarna/Getingarna/Stjärnorna will be a good place for him hopefully.

...and you dare writing to me at home asking why I'm ignoring you... Is the whole EC lot now cancelled or what? isracing.net doesn't even give it a mention at all...

Cant see Henka quitting, ever It's always wrong to dump a club legend like this, good thing the Gustavsson name stays. For one more season...

and the news itself is OLD!

Living today at Hallstavik. Works for the local trade school co-ordinating students "worklife-practising" or whatever the English word is. Also heavily involded in developing speedway in Finland through a training group targeted to the U21's.

Well he's Swedish and I'm Finnish, but "her"... Like I said, I'm working on it.

Nadating on anywhere I've looked regarding qualifier #2.

Another positive alltough not as positive news is the info on Timo Villanen. Villanen crashed badly in the season opener at Seinäjoki in -08. In the crash three of his vertebra's on his spine (online translation) were crushed and a three ribs were broken with one of them puncturing his lung. Villanen was kept in sleep for two weeks after the surgery the day after the crash. After that he was moved to Vaasa where he stayed at the hospital for six weeks. Four months in a nursing home (online translation again) in Helsinki helped him to adjust to his new life in a wheelchair. It also gave him a lot of mental strenght, as there were alot of people that had it worse. Villanen has now spent the last two weeks back home in Vaasa with his girlfriend and the couple is planning on buying a home of their own. Villanen is also looking forward to going back to work as plateblacksmithwelder (online trlor again), the job he had before his accident. Villanen's message to people is, that these things happen in other sports too: "If I were to stand up again on my own feet, you'd most likely see me on a bike again." This from the latest issue of Speedwaysanomat, out today. I for one wish him all the best...

I'm working on it. Appe Mustonen has been selected as the 2nd ever Speedwaysanomat U21 rider of the year. Mustonen won the national qualifier at Pori with maximum points earlier in the season and then lead the final after the preliminary heats with his 13 points. Congratulations Appe!

Holta will probably do well for Indianerna, specially at home. Hefe to get the boot by the first transfer window... Vargarna will be a much better hometrack for Kennett.

Rumour has it that Svemo/swedes would be willing to ease the financial burden as it's originally their cöckup. Oulu that would be my favourite for taking the chance arent allowed to use Raatti anymore, this year anyway. Dont know why but there have been talks with the local club and the city and it's not gonna happen. So they are left without a track. Finland has two artificial speed skating circuits. One at Oulunkylä, Helsinki and one at Seinäjoki. The cost of either of them to build the necessary thickness in to the ice is recently said to be around 30 000 €. On top of that they won't do it "during the season" as it's expensive to keep it and the ice comes too slow for the skaters... LMAO, but true. Doing it mid march is a no go for either venues, as they are both built in the 70's and arent powerful enough alone. Extra powerplants are of course possible, but that would about double the electricity bill for the project. When I went to Oulu last time, they asked 20 € for a ticket to the Finnish final and I thought it was a rip off. Quick maths would give me a ticket price of 58 €, when dividing a possible electricity bill between 1200 sold tickets for a qualifier on an artificial track. A crowd that isn't impossible to get with tickets at 12 €, but on the top end of the scale.

Tampere is set to organize a test match between Finland and Sweden on the 22nd of February with the Nordic final a day earlier at Seinäjoki. So book your flights now. Or dont...

Looks like the Mustonen move is real after all. Good luck to him! Finland had its own track racing conference last saturday. As a result it looks like this "Finnish News" thread will continue next year too, making it the 4th on the trot. Same people are running the show next year for the federation with practically the same rules in the leagues (4TT in Extraliiga). Pori will host the individual final and Haapajärvi got the U21's. Seinäjoki will try to organize the qualifier again for the individual title (I think it'll come good this time), they also got the pairs. Forssa has the Nordic longtrack final and Vaasa got the national lt final. Petri Meritähti is introducing microspeedway here for next year. The same model will be applied here that has apparently saved danish speedway. A package will be offered for interested people available for purchase on a "road tour" for kids above 3 years of age for around 400 €. Thats targeted to include everything from bike to boots. More info later, as all the details will emerge. Sounded good with people getting behind the program too. Jyri Palomäki and Mikael Teurnberg will continue coaching the youngsters. They have their first camp next weekend. I will once again say that the boys willing to take their views and work to improve themselves are the ones that come good in a couple of years. In my opinion.

Tuesday is the deadline for the qualifier #2 to get a new venue. If it doesn't happen, tough luck and there will only be two. It wont happen in Finland.

It shows that the first Swedish final was at Göteborg, where? I thought Gislaved was the first track in Sweden back in -36 with Hallstavik a good second in -38...

The has been plenty of writing about ice hockey recently, as the Russian hockey league KHL is expanding like mad and paying players bigger money than they do in the NHL. The Finnish hockey people are a bit worried what will happen, but one thing that has been mentioned in many places is that the Russian goverment is "in " on the KHL with a target to make Russia once again a dominant force in world ice hockey. While doing that they are giving the nation something to cheer and talk about. In the process (which has gone pretty far as players like Aleksei Jashin and Jaromir Jagr are already there making the big bucks) someone has to keep paying for it, and looks like we are on the short end of the stick...

WOW! So a rider that has complained the most about money and how it should be spent makes a move like this... I have no problems believing it, though it wasnt at the Eagles website when I looked a minute a go. Mustonen has strong connections with both Tyrväinen family and Joonas Kylmäkorpi so "it's/it was all there" for him to make a move like this. This meaning accommondation and such. Appe will turn 19 next year and did well this year in Finland. Has no experience outside Finland in 500cc, since EC pairs isn't excatly noted within BSPA. From the other thread I found a link to an article that says: "Eighteen-year-old Finn Appe Mustonen has been identified as the young Scandinavian prospect Eagles intend to bring in at the No. 7 spot next season." Cant read that as confirmation.

Why replace it when it clearly aint broken...

Your expecting 11 Gelsenkirchen's for next year then...

Which also is showed by the attitude of some of the passengers using budget airlines, when they think they'll get the same service from Ryanair or easyjet as they get from the "big" ones. That is of course what makes the easyjet's "airport"-tv show excellent entertainment. "I was on time at the car park..." and all that...

That comment is just not allowed. If you dont know where your plane is landing when you book your ticket, thats your problem. My last Ryanair experience was last weekend between Tampere-Dublin-Tampere. So we payed 20 Euros for a bag full of whisky as we checked it in at the airport, but we could have done it cheaper and we knew it. What really got to me AGAIN was the people back at Tampere when we entered the terminal. Tampere2 which is the one Ryanair uses is one of the poorest there is to my limited knowledge, but I cant stand it that people in designer clothing fly Ryanair to save money and then mock the premises the airline uses.