f-s-p

Finnish riders in the World's qualifiers: 11.-12.1. Stockholm, Sweden: Antti Aakko and Jouni Seppänen 13.1. Saalfelden, Austria: Kai Lehtinen and Joni Kontoniemi 26.-27.1. Inzell, Germany: Tommy Flyktman 26.1. EC-semifinal Sanok, Poland: Antti Aakko Joni Kontoniemi is a find by Kaj Lehtinen I understand. In his first ever ice racing meeting last year in Forssa he scored 14 from his five rides. Has trained a lot with Lehtinen and took part in the training camp in Sweden a couple of weeks ago. According to Seppänen he has improved a lot in the past year, he even admitted to being surprised how good JK had became. I'd interepret this in a way that him going through is a possibility? He used to ride MX but found it too expensive to get further up in the rankings. The desire to race still excisted so he swapped in to ice racing. Other stories... Tomi Kirilov wont ride this season, Aki Ala-Riihimäki is also out I'd suspect because he had a serious illness a couple of months ago and Raimo Henriksson is apparently not riding either. It's a real shame that our ice racing season looks like crap again. There wont be many meetings this year either.

He said something about the ticket price, but 25 €

What is the current situation in Denmark regarding the publicity of the sport. 1. Press in every meeting? 2. Reports with pics in the paper the next day? 3. TV coverage? They all seem to have a decent website and the league even has it's own website but how are things going at the moment in print...

Drastic changes in the Finnish camp as the role of Yrjö Laukkanen has became free for applicants. Laukkanen has stepped down from his position as the chairman of the track racing committee (still looking for the right translation ). Personal reasons are quoted as the reason for this. Clubs have until January 15th to propose new applicants. Laukkanen had just finished his first two year commitment and the role was decleared free for applications. Then the announcement disappeared from the federation website and Laukkanen decleared that he would continue only to step down two months later. The situation in Finnish speedway is pretty much the same as it was 12 months ago. Nobody knows whats gonna happen next summer...

No wonder there was no press release from the Aarnio camp after Schwerin... There was one after Neustadt! And there arent many per year... What I understood from my old drinking buddy Peter P's post on the German forum it was a good setup and well organized... As for the riders in these meetings I said to one that dont go. It has nothing to do with speedway and the risk of an injury is very high.

The fact is I'm seriously thinking about asking for it! At the moment I cant see myself getting in to a situation where I could get pics of ice racing until February...

Really cant remember for sure but I thought it was given to Vaasa IF the danes dont want it (it's their turn). Plenty of the local riders have even bought new equipment to make a good impression in front of their home fans. The rumour is out that only two teams wanted to take part in the Extraliiga with 5 man teams. I'm expecting an official statement tomorrow on the subject.

cheat!

Under control or not..?

Why not keep up with the multiple threads on this subject?

It dropped below zero saturday evening and is around -1 here in Tampere. I've been following the forecasts a little for Oulu and they've been saying no more than -8 in the nighttime for the whole of December. Usually only a few minus grades. I heard yesterday that a ski resort called Tahko, near Kuopio (half way up the country) has no snow. We have this christmas tradition to go and play some ice hockey before sauna in the afternoon. The were a few years with no ice so we made other stuff, but last christmas was the first when we went and played football on sand...

Ice racers for the World's qualifiers will be announced early this week by the federation. A training camp similar to the Swedish one was cancelled last weekend because of the weather. Our very own Bernie Ecclestone of track racing, Yrjö Laukkanen is now left with a difficult task to determine which riders will get the nod for the five places we have. Decisions will be pretty much based on past experience... from 2005/-06 since we only had one meeting last year! The 2007 Finnish final taking place at Oulu on the 29th of December will be a do or die this wednesday. Locals have managed to create some ice to the Raatti Stadion, but there's no snow at all. Ice racing at Seinäjoki is supposed to happen on a frozen lake on January 5th, but as I visited Seinäjoki last saturday there was no snow in sight with steady drizzle of rain. Nummen kenttä at Forssa, the place for the league meeting on the 6th of January is without ice or snow yestarday as I'm informed last night. Test match between Finland and Sweden taking place at Tampere on the 9th of February looks bad too. No snow, no ice.

You got it right... Only team missing is Kopparberg Speedway ( Vaasan Moottorikerho) from last years line up and like you said Leijonat (Helsingin Moottorikerho) didn't take part last season. As for next season, nobody knows yet, even if there is a league or not!?

www.popula.tv is showing a rerun of the Finnish 2007 Longtrack Final next saturday at 9 pm Finnish time. Unlike I said before you could only see it live in Finland when it was broadcasted live. Now it's free for worldwide viewing. Deadline for taking part in the the Finnish Extraliiga 2008 with new rules and five man teams runs out next sunday. Havent heard anything new... A training camp is supposed to take place next weekend at Kuortane with training on saturday and a meeting on sunday to determine the participants for the WC qualifiers. I'm not 100 % sure but the weather hasn't been all that great lately... cancelled Jari Mäkinen has signed to ride for Outrup in the Danish Superliiga next season and Rene Lehtinen has a contract to ride in the Swedish Allsvenskan for Solkatterna. I've subscribed myself the Speedway Star because it's such an excellent magazine! Also a picture I've taken was in the last issue of Bahnsport so thats a pretty good magazine too...

The 2007 Finnish final at Oulu has been confirmed and is staged on the 29th of December starting at 6 pm. 2008 final will be held sometime in the spring at Seinäjoki. The individual meeting at Kokkola has been cancelled. Not really sure why but it's cancelled.

Its 650 km from Tampere to Oulu. A few more to Ruka where they were jumping around... It has now been raining for 36 hours straight and currently it's +6,5... Pitch black outside...

To quote the famous KC: "It's pi$$ing down in Finland..." + 5 c

Eleven! Wow!! All the riders on a swedish license too...

I do believe Bysarna and Eldarna are both without a track and their season is finished already.

Thank you! EDIT: actually it was 7500 £, just found it...

Hopefully all of them but dont know. I'm told they have 2 C riders and the better one (each week?) will get to ride... No quarantees... I really hope it turns out to be a good move, it's not like there weren't options to choose from.

Anyone remember the amount in the cheque for the winner of Poole's last "big one" about five years ago, the golden jubilee in honour of the Queen or something... Was it 7k £?

Danish speedway rules

You need to?

Only 1 A-rider per meeting, max 3 B-riders, max 3 C riders, max 3 D-riders with at least 3 of all of them must be on a Danish license. A-riders are 8 poinst and so on, and in total the upper limit for the team is 25 points. Correct? Nearly even...