f-s-p

No real surprises there...

I'm currently recovering from a serious hangover, had the flu for a week and my temp has been rising all day (currently around 38+) so I'm not really on my best behaviour Why on earth would I know anything about Norway...

Try the norwegian thread for news from Norway Finnish Extraliiga will be ridden with 5 or 6 teams with 4 riders each/4 teams a match in 18 heats with one joker-ride each. Two home matches each and 6-8 matches in total.

och så vidare? and so on...

What you're on about... This one just for the extraview.. Didn't know it was a two day deal.

This is a bummer I first saw Raun in 2004 in the Euro Champs at Elgane. Seemed very down to earth fellow with down to earth people behind him (his dad as the prime example), this compared to some chin-up rain-trough the nose-people never to be heard since. (EDIT: Just to add that that Raun was the (my) favourite to win. Did well too, but if I remember correctly the Swedes played it better.) I think I've even seen his first ever meeting in the UK (cheers pugwash) when he had a very unfortunate tumble all by himself. But this highlights the very situation the sport is in right now. I personally am in the support group of a Finnish rider (facing a MUCH tougher circumstances) and the money and effort to be put in before the season is... huge. EDIT2 a fraction later: A year off at this (his) stage of the career doesnt sound good.

For some reason I just went through my outside thermometer and realised that the lowest temp so far in Tampere - Finland has been -9,3 Celsius... Thats for the whole this winter, and January is about to finish! Oopsss... Hope this is the right thread...

Polish speedway is on Polish Canal+, isn't it?

The local club from Oulu is now saying on it's website that they will be hosting the Finnish Championship final 200? on the 9th of February and the Nordic final on the sunday. This will probably be confirmed soon. Or not.

I just turned down a deal for TV1000 alltough I could have afforded it. I knew there was a reason to do it...

I've got Jouni Seppänen trackside as a rider and a representative of the Finnish federation confirming it's artificial.

nope...

Speedwaysanomat says it's artificial, which do you believe? You think this is

I think he'll do well. He doesnt have the same sort of backing that Laukkanen had in his day, but he's well set-up for the coming season. One thing he has to learn this season is gating. If he does that, I think it will save him a lot of broken bones in the next few years and sets him up nicely as the Finnish rider of the coming decade. EDIT: Could anyone translate some of the comments here for me.

League and Cup calendar will be published around mid march.

They have pretty much given up on the hope to organize the Nordic final at Forssa on February 10th. They might get some ice done but there's no snow. Nobody's cancelling anything yet. The un-official word is that they are trying to stage it in Oulu on the same day. What ever happens with Oulu will be confirmed with in a week. Jari Mäkinen has signed for Stal Gorzow in the Polish Ekstraleague, Juha Hautamäki for the 2nd division Opole. Mäkinen is looking forward to a very busy season. He's contracted to Sweden (Allsvenskan), Denmark (Superleague), Finland (Extraleague) and now Poland. The plan apparently is to start the season in the Polish 1st division. So far Mäkinen has turned down chances of entering the British Premier league, but if an opportunity arises during the season, he's ready to grab it. I just wonder how he'll do it, they've just managed to clone a sheep, nobody's talking about humans yet!

Jari Mäkinen reports in his blog that he's signed for Stal Gorzow.

Pawel "I do what I want, when I want" Hlib! (use Cartman voice for the extraname...) He's a legend EDIT: And according to my polish skills he's on factory sponsored JRM's next season.

Dates for the Finnish Individual and Pairs finals have been released. July 5th Individual qualifier, Seinäjoki (provisional, if needed) July 12th U21 final, Hyvinkää July 19th Best pairs, Kauhajoki July 26th Individual final, Haapajärvi August 9th Longtrack final, Forssa Next weekend a training camp will be organized by our federation for the selected group of Finnish riders at Pajulahti. Physical training with interviews and theory lessons are on the agenda. Mikael Teurnberg will be present. EDIT: A pretty good story in a smaller Finnish newspaper from Kouvola sheds some light in to the some what confusing puzzle that currently is the situation regarding Finnish speedway scene in the cabinets. Mikael Teurnberg says he has a three year deal to coach the Finnish juniors. His main goal is to plant some professionalism in to their heads starting from the basic skills such as the English language. This is something I personally am really looking forward to. Now I just need to wait a few weeks so I can get a clarification to the role of Jyri Palomäki. Of course I thought everything was clear when he was chosen for the job, but rumours are circulating...

I spoke with Seppänen about a week ago regarding the Sanok Cup. I believe it's ridden on thursday? Anyway, Seppänen has a ferry ticket for today (monday) from Helsinki to Tallinn. That gives him 2,5 half days to get to Sanok, about 150 km south of Tarnow next to the southern border of Poland. The chances are he will only get 2 or 3 rides to compensate his week worth of travels. As a very reasonble person he just said that there's absolutely no sense in making the trip, but sense has had nothing to do with anything for quite a while in his ice racing hobby. How ever it goes for him, hopefully the EC will be a treat to watch.

I had a brief chat with A.Aakko yesterday. He currently has only one bike, updated from last year. He's bought one new frame for this season, but it's not race ready yet. Too expensive... Realities of ice racing/track racing in Finland/worldwide.

Petri Meritähti has been appointed as the chairman of the track racing committee. Meritähti steps in for Yrjö Laukkanen. Lately he has been one of the driving forces, if not the driving force behind the new coming of the Pori club. He is also a former rider, but had a bad crash a couple of years ago at Seinäjoki. He hasn't ridden since and alltough he's made a comeback to working life he still feels the consiquenses time to time. At the same time Jyri Palomäki has been appointed as the trainer/manager for track racing. The idea originating to the un-official meeting a couple of weeks ago says that while Meritähti take's care of the administrative side of things, Palomäki will take care of the national team and rider selections as well as all the possible training sessions there might be. The intention here is to share some of the workload. And like previously reported, Mikael Teurnberg is the trainer/manager for the youngsters. So Finland is following the likes of Germany by appointing some new blood in to the manager department. There are the same pro's here as with the others. Palomäki has been around and knows people left wide and centre. He also reads this forum so I'm not saying anything else. EDIT: There's no snow or ice at Forssa either.

Trying to read my email here as the rain is hitting to the windows... The test match between Finland and Sweden on the 9th of February has been cancelled.

Thats not even far if they are all home matches...

Yes, I saw just about half of the sunday meeting. It was OK