f-s-p

The Finns won the local team in Hallstavik today with the score 45-51. Three days of intense gating practice was a success. It was almost embarrassing to hear the praise that Mikael Teurnberg was giving the riders about their effort and enthusiasm and riders thanking Micke for what he had done. A local "nobody" was present on friday talking about the importance of preparation and giving general tips regarding the sport. His name was Greg Hancock. Kalle was very good. Would have sored a max in the meeting today but fell while leading his first and shed a chainb in his last from the lead. In fact there were no bad riders practising. Better report might appear later...

I'm hoping to see him on a bike too this weekend. Dont really know what to expect. He's 17 this year and has grown over 4 inches during the winter. We'll see...

It doesn't say. There's an individual meeting at Pori on the 17th of May that plays a major part in the nominations for both of the junior events. Teemu Lahti was born in 1988 so he's out from Fjelsted. That leaves Mäkinen, Katajisto, Mustonen, Siltaniemi, Autio and possibly younger of the Lahti brothers in the equation. I might be missing a name here...

No major surprises in the nominations for this seasons qualifiers. Kauko Nieminen will ride in the SGP qualifier in Poland and Kaj Laukkanen and Joonas Kylmäkorpi are travelling to Lonigo. I was quite surprised that Laukkanen has turned his coat on this. There was an interview in the Speedway Star regarding Gelsenkirchen where he stated that no more GP's for him. But he's back at it again... Nieminen, Laukkanen, Kylmäkorpi and Hautamäki will ride in the SWC qualifier, with a 5th rider nominated later. Hautamäki is also the next in line when it comes to the SGP qualifiers. Rene Lehtinen will ride in the longtrack qualifier in A de L with another Finn who will be nominated later on. Lehtinen will also take on the EC-semifinal in Mulmshorm. Jarkko Palmi, Mika Loppi, Vili Hautala, Miikka Hyyryläinen and Jiri Nieminen are the nominees for the YTG with Loppi and Palmi travelling for EC too. Joni Keskinen has been nominated for the EC qualifier in Hungary and Juha Hautamäki is in the Terenzano semifinal. 5th rider for the SWC will be interesting. Jari Mäkinen, Tero Aarnio and Rene Lehtinen (in this order) being my personal favourites at this stage of the season. Haven't seen any of them even ride this year though. I'm hoping to be a bit wiser next week, after seeing most of the Finnish TOP15 riders on track.

I'm quite impressed by the new stadium in Gorzow. Is it only for speedway, or do they play football there too?

A car booked through travelsupermarket.com. Europcar is providing us a Ford (naturally ) alltough only Fiesta (or similar ) for three days including CDW for 180 €. We are taking it from Verona and returning it to Bergamo so I think there's a bit extra in it. But h¤¤z was quoting 250 € for the same deal so I owe someone a beer or two . Hopefully we'll see Kauko there!

Jari Mäkinen will become the third Finnish rider of the season in the Premiere league this sunday, when he rides for Mildenhall against Rye House at home. About a week later he's booked to ride in the Vetlanda team cup on friday, while other Finnish youngsters are practising at Hallstavik for the weekend. The training camp organized by Mikael Teurnberg as the coach will include challenge match on sunday against the local junior team.

Looking at the pre-season pictures and some of the press releases they do need something extra. With Kevin Doolan as the #1 they wont be challenging for much...

The racing question was compulsory... I had a good idea about the answer. Flights were booked today. Thank's for the car tip. He##z was giving a quote for 200 €/3 days and the waiver was for +17 € a day. Got to look them through. I've been to Italy once before, not this north though. We were wondering about the start time of the meeting... It'll probably be like Lonigo? Starting after sunset at around 6-9 pm? Then staying in Udine for the night.

Hi! I'm planning on being there. We are gonna hire a car from Bergamo and drive there, so I want to know whats it like to hire a car in Italy. Insurance being the main question. Do I need a "Super waiwer" in Italy? Anything else I should know? I've seen the track from google maps and it looks big. Whats the racing usually like there?

Jari Mäkinen has a new look on his site at www.jarimakinen.fi

Hhmmm...

Home made sounds about right. crankcase is indeed Finnish design from the fifties, only two made ever. This particular bike was used as a spare bike in the Helsinki based team Pääskyset (a bird that was used to carry notes, cant remember the word). The owner himself has tried to search for some info of the bike but havent found anything. What I wrote is based on the knowledge of Paavo Mikkola, a fifties rider from the Pääskyset team. PM me for an email adress for the owner...

I was talking to a few riders yesterday and it seems that local federations are not enforcing this new rule? Svemo I'm told for example hasn't done anything to make it's riders aware of the situation.

Another view on the subject was from a friend who was watching the ice racing team championhips in Krasnogorsk. I think he had payed for the train and visa before hand and in the end the four days cost him 250 € (including hotel, meals, drinks and tickets). By the sound of his voice I'd say he had the time of his life... I've only been to Russia once, in St Petersburg for a couple of days so that doesn't really count when talking about a GP in Togliatti. I'd say that would be a pretty wild excursion...

Kaupunki Cup calendar 2008 May 18th.......Kaupunki Cup round 1 at Pori May 24th.......Kaupunki Cup round 2, at Hyvinkää June 8th........Kaupunki Cup round 3, at Kauhajoki June 29th......Kaupunki Cup round 4, at Lahti July 6th.........Kaupunki Cup round 5, at Kauhajoki August 24th...Kaupunki Cup round 6, at Haapajärvi August 30th...Kaupunki Cup round 7, at Hyvinkää Teams: LAHTI (Jukka Nieminen, Markku Weckman, Vesa Hyyryläinen, Janne Nyman, Joni Kitala, Hannu Hietamäki, jj Kalevi Reijo) FORSSA I (Aarni Heikkilä, Esa Yrjölä, Reima Heikkilä, jj Harri Heikkilä) FORSSA II (Johan Ahponen, Heikki Tapani, Markus Helin, jj ?) KAUHAJOKI (Jan-Eric Korkeamäki, Jere Mattila, Olli Heikkilä, jj Jarkko Mattila) HAAPAJÄRVI (Juho Ruuska, Niko Siltaniemi, Petteri Koivunen, Raimo Ilmonen, jj Jukka Ruuska) VAASA (Tero Villanen, Timo Villanen, Markku Autio, jj Markku Uuttu) PORI (Jouni Viljanen, Tomi Kauppi, Marko Suojanen, Petri Koskela, jj Petri Meritähti)

Just seen this. Now if it was all like that I might like it.

They will be broadcasted in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. I'd say there's a nerd or two to hack the systems in that amount of people. Hopefully one of them is a speedway fan

Ah,i know who i can ask to send me a recordable dvd set then I'm actually really looking forward to the first meeting. Canal+ has an offer that's 150 € for six monts when it's usually just over 200€. The catch in this crap is that the deal on offer is valid until the end of September but the last Elitserien final is on the 2nd of October. Leaving me without the match of the season. Got to go and do some negotiations this saturday... Or then I could just become the commentator for the Finnish channel and make them send me to every meeting in Sweden...

Swedish EL will be on Finnish Canal+

Yes. Seven teams are taking part in the Kaupunki Cup (1st division). It will be ridden like the pairs with 2-3 rider teams and seven teams per match. Combined average of the team cannot exceed 6.00 according to last years averages.

Finnish calendar is finally out. National events 2008 July 5th.........Individual qualifier, Seinäjoki July 12th........U21 final, Hyvinkää July 26th........Individual final, Haapajärvi August 9th......Longtrack final, Forssa August 16th....Pairs final, Kauhajoki Here's the Championship league. Extraliiga calendar 2008 May 9th...............Extraliiga 1: KOT – JOK – PAH – HAU/ROY, Seinäjoki June 14th............Extraliiga 2: KEI – KOT – JOK – PAH, Kuusankoski June 15th............Extraliiga 3: HAU/ROY – KEI – KOT – JOK, Lahti June 28th............Extraliiga 4: JOK – PAH – HAU/ROY – KEI, Kauhajoki July 19th.............Extraliiga 5: PAH – HAU/ROY – KEI – KOT, Pori August 2nd..........Extraliiga 6: KOT – JOK – KEI – PAH, Seinäjoki August 3rd..........Extraliiga 7: JOK – KEI – PAH – HAU/ROY, Kauhajoki August 10th........ Extraliiga 8: HAU/ROY – KOT – JOK – KEI, Lahti September 13th...Extraliiga 9: KEI – PAH – HAU/ROY – KOT, Kuusankoski September 20th...Extraliiga 10: PAH – HAU/ROY – KOT – JOK, Pori Teams JOKERIT (Kalle Katajisto, Jani Eerikäinen, Timo Villanen, Markku Autio, jj Anssi Hautala) KEITTIÖPISTE (Tero Aarnio, Toni Stenberg, Teemu Lahti, Timo Lahti, jj Asko Sorvo) HAUKAT-ROYALS (Aarni Heikkilä, Tomi Reima, Juha Mäkelä, Janne Nyman, Joni Kitala, Joonas Kylmäkorpi, jj Harri Heikkilä) PAHOLAISET (Jari Mäkinen, Marko Suojanen, Petri Koskela, Aki-Pekka Mustonen, Alexander Edberg, Cesary Owizyc, jj Tomi Kauppi) KOTKAT (Kaj Laukkanen, Juha Hautamäki, Rene Lehtinen, Joni Keskinen, Petteri Koivunen, Niko Siltaniemi, jj Mikko Koskinen) Judging by these team Kotkat is the hot favourite. Every team will use foreign riders this season, there's no doubt so no one knows what will really happen. Jokerit is clearly the weakest and wont get saved by even the best foreigner. Keittiöpiste looks pretty poor too with only Teemu Lahti going to score from this list. I'd go as far as to place the combined Haukat-Royals as a title favourite with Kotkat. Paholaiset are relying on Mäkinen, but will Mäkinen be there? Nobody knows. Dont know how official it is but the Finnish youngsters have booked a Swedish track in April and are having a three day training session between 18th and 20th of April.

Did you not see Joonas Kylmäkorpi on that list!?! This is the meeting I was supposed to attend last year, instead found myself in the Botanical garden of Bremen. Beer was nice there also so no regrets. Especially since the meeting dragged with poor track and injuries. Whats the story regarding the German league, can you add foreign riders to the team all season?

You managed to get a few good ones. Were you on rented help again?

Are you planning a career switch to the tabloids? Did you receive the blue thing?