f-s-p

As stated in other threads Tero Aarnio and Joni Keskinen will hit the track in the UK this weekend. They are in Scunthorpe for the David Nix memorial and on the Isle for the Pete Redfern meeting. I believe that this will be their first meetings in the UK, but I honestly believe that Aarnio should be challenging for the win in Scunthorpe. I also know that he's probably put so much pressure on himself to do well that he might under perform big time. Hopefully there wont be any R's marked to the scorecharts because that would be just terrible for him. A week from now they have a third meeting scheduled for friday, but I wont go in to greater detail regarding that one before someone else opens the discussion. Jari Mäkinen will fly to the UK next wednesday to ride in two meetings during the weekend. One of them being the Cumberland Classic/Northern Championship. Almost a full team of Finnish riders in the UK then next week... They could ride as a team using f-s-p R/R for #5.

The oneoff final of the Kaupunki Cup was staged yesterday at Haapajärvi. I'm waiting with great interest will I ever get the full results. There's hope... Seinäjoki 61 Joni Keskinen 133333 16 Niko Siltaniemi 32222 11 Rene Lehtinen 33333 15 Mikko Koskinen 22FN 4 Petteri Koivunen 23312 11 Pasi Mattila 3001 4 Kauhajoki 28 Markku Autio 21T2221 10 Jere Mattila 01013 5 Juho Ruuska 12110 5 Olli Heikkilä 01002 3 Reino Koivuluoma 2N120 5 Niko Siltaniemi has improved a lot since May. I wrote that he looked impressive then and he looked a lot better and more in control in the Extraliiga round at Lahti a few weeks ago. Now he scored 11 on his hometrack. The opposition was weak though... Neither team has been full! Reino Koivuluoma is aged 65+... Pasi Mattila has won a heat! He had 11 heats with 00000000000 before this one... Never seen him ride but I think I could beat him!

"The top 8 riders of the Final Overall Grand Prix Classification of that year shall be directly qualified for the following year’s Grand Prix Series. The top 3 riders from the FIM Speedway Grand Prix qualification system shall be directly qualified for the following year’s Grand Prix Series. To make up the 16 riders for the following year's Speedway Grand Prix Championship, the remaining 4 riders, plus 1 Wild Card rider, will be decided by the Speedway Grand Prix Promoter and the SGP Commission." What if someone decides to retire in January? I thought this would be clearer...

inspeed.de has someone saying he has pulled out of some meetings early in the week. The track was awful I was told, in Wittstock that is. Prepared for grown men Jampe said but got better as the meeting progressed.

Word from Sweden is that a Finnish team will take part in the Swedish ice racing series this coming winter. I updated my gallery, link in my signature.

Yes

As the season is now about to finish, it's time for a review. Part 1/3 Extraliiga teams and our pro's Keittiöpiste The champions! There were some rumours a year ago that their main sponsor was going to pull out, but fortunately that never happened. What happened was that they won practically everything there was to win this season by taking home the league, pairs and individual titles. The backer seemed happy too ! Keittiöpiste had a good lineup entering the league and they knew the flaws in the system and took advantage of them like no other. Hautamäki was good and improved, Mäkelä did his job but wasnt great (had a broken collarbone in May), Aarnio despite all his misfortunes and my badmouthing him gathered a serious amount of points, Lahti did OK but didn't improve as much as I hoped and they were good in picking up the right foreigners to strenghten them. I'd give them 9/10 Kotkat Seinäjoki is the place where everything happens when it comes to governing the sport nowadays. They had a good lineup entering, but relied on Laukkanen and Nieminen heavily. Big mistake, since they both had full calendars before our calendar was even out. Lehtinen was a solid scorer, Keskinen did what was expected but Kotkat failed big time with their foreigners and lacked some tactical knowledge. Thats why they only got silver. With all they had going for them and seeing the results, I'd give them only 7/10. Kopparberg There was a man a year ago who decided lets give it a go and put a team in to the league. He gathered the money, contacted the riders and presented a strong team with team kevlars and bike covers and the possibility to have home meetings in the very centre of a large city for a garanteed crowd of 1000+ each. 8 months later he was ready to pull the plug because of the way he was treated by the club he was doing all this for. Their two home meetings were taken to Seinäjoki and were witnessed by 110 combined. The team rode at Seinäjoki alltough they wanted to ride at Pori because of the track conditions. In the end they were 3rd alltough they could have won because of the strong team and all the hard work. For the man behind it all I'd give 10/10 because he did something I'd like to do someday, but for the results and the club I'd only give 6/10. Paholaiset Relied heavily on their own local riders and did very well considered. New and younger people have taken over the running of things at Pori and they seem to have a lot of positive going on. Facilities at Pori are as good as they come in Finland and they know what to do with their track too. I'd give them 8,5/10 Haukat A young team entered the league and they rode as good as they could. In the end they were rewarded with a 5th place in the standings. I was hoping for their riders to develope more during the season, but for some reason nothing happened? The club itself did very well. They too have new people running the show and the atmosphere at the track was great, even better than great! For everything they did this season (even with the team finishing 5th), I'd give them 9/10 Jokerit New team with a new track in the society that we live in, 10/10 for that. On track they were crap and failed. Our pro riders abroad Kauko Nieminen has managed to avoid injury and been taking points all season and is finishing it with an average of 9+ in the Premiere. He was supposed to step up in to Elitserien in Sweden but it didn't happen. Things havent gone according to plane in Poland either, but the fact that he has stayed healthy and improved his averages both in Allsvenskan and Premiere gives him the status of our #1. 9+/10 Kaj Laukkanen has been a serious letdown this season. F Joonas Kylmäkorpi had everything going for him until he once again suffered an injury season early on in the season. That sucks. He is now recoving from surgery and hopefully will be 100% or even more when the season starts again in March. For what I know he has a really pro setup behind him, just needs that injury free season. He also seems to have something superiour to Laukkanen when it comes to mental strenght and the way he sees the sport. Everything combined I'd give him 8/10.

I wont

I thought he's polish judging from the help he's given me

Tero Aarnio and Joni Keskinen will be touring the UK in the very near future for two weeks scouting for team places for next season. I just heard this so I have no idea when it happens, probably next week since Aarnio is booked to ride at Wittstock next saturday so it would make sense to carry on to Uk from Germany. Jari Mäkinen will also fly over for a little less than a week and has booked himself plenty of meetings surrounding the Northern Championship at Worky on the 29th of this month. Looking forward for comments by LakeBC, I think he has grasped how big I think Mäkinen has been over here this season, so it's time to go and judge for yourself. I might have some time to spare this saturday, so part one of the season ending raport might appear on here.

I believe Mika Loppi broke his hand when he crashed in a practise session early June? Miikka and Marko -> No relation apparently, EDITED info!

80 cc Stats from this season. 80 cc Suomen Cup loppupisteet 6/6 Jarkko Palmi.........16....(-)....20....25....25....25....111 Timo Lahti.............20....25....25....(-)....16....20....106 Vili Hautala..............13....10....(9)....16....20....16....75 Tomi Lahti...............(11)....16....16....13....13....13....71 Jiri Nieminen.............-....-....13....20....11....11....55 Vikke Kuhanen........(6)....13....10....11....10....9....53 Mika Loppi..............25....20....-....-....-....-....45 Vili Mattila................7....-....11....10....7....10....45 Eetu Neuvonen.........9....9....8....9....6....-....41 Toni Hemmila.............8....11....-....-....8....-....27 Miikka Hyyryläinen...10....-....-....-....-....8....18 Jari Tapani................-....-....-....-....9....-....9 Rider.....................M....P....H....P/H Jarkko Palmi.........5....69....25....2,76 Mika Loppi.............2....27....10....2,70 Timo Lahti.............5....67....25....2,68 Tomi Lahti..............6....58....29....2,00 Jiri Nieminen...........5....39....22....1,77 Vili Hautala.............6....48....28....1,71 Vikke Kuhanen.......6....36....25....1,44 Vili Mattila..............4....23....16....1,44 Toni Hemmilä..........2....16....12....1,33 Eetu Neuvonen.......5....24....18....1,33 Miikka Hyyryläinen..2....10....8....1,25 Jari Tapani.............1....4....4....1,00 This isn't shown anywhere else. Or put in better words, this info is not online anywhere else.

Last regular season Kaupunki Cup match was staged last saturday at Pori. Pori 49 Marko Suojanen 23322 12 Markku Autio d 0 Appe Mustonen 12131 8 Tomi Kauppi 001 1 Jari Mäkinen 23333 14 Alexander Edberg 1303dr3 10 Jouni Viljanen d0121 4 Seinäjoki 41 Juha Mäkelä 3110 5 Petteri Koivunen 03R 3 Niko Siltaniemi 2122 7 Dennis Dahlborg 321220 10 Joni Keskinen 32213 11 Jere Mattila 1000 1 Toni Stenberg 2110 4 Erä erältä: 1. Mäkelä, Suojanen, Edberg, Koivunen 68,62 2. Edberg, Stenberg, Mattila, Viljanen d 69,69 3. Dahlborg, Siltaniemi, Mustonen, Kauppi 69,28 4. Keskinen, Mäkinen, Stenberg, Viljanen 67,28 5. Koivunen, Mustonen, Mäkelä, Kauppi 68,60 6. Suojanen, Keskinen, Viljanen, Mattila 66,59 7. Mäkinen, Dahlborg, Siltaniemi, Edberg 66,28 8. Edberg, Viljanen, Stenberg, Koivunen R 67,58 9. Mäkinen, Keskinen, Mustonen, Mattila 67,53 10. Suojanen, Siltaniemi, Dahlboerg, Edberg d 66,53 11. Mäkinen, Dahlborg, Mäkelä, Edberg R 66,44 12. Mustonen, Siltaniemi, Viljanen, Mattila 68,16 13. Mäkinen, Suojanen, Keskinen, Mäkelä 66,03 14. Edberg, Dahlborg, Kauppi, Stenberg 68,31 15. Keskinen, Suojanen, Mustonen, Dahlborg 65,68 The KC final at Haapajärvi was a rainoff and will be restaged on the 16th of this month. Pori won the KC regular season with Seinäjoki 2nd and Kauhajoki 3rd and both riding in the final since Pori decided that they wont bother because of how the Haapajärvi meeting was organized without consulting them. Jarkko Palmi won the finnish 80 cc Championship after beating Timo Lahti in the final of the last round. They were tied in Cup points before the last round at Pori last weekend. I'll post full results later. I've only seen a few heats of this years 80 cc racing. But I think Timo Lahti looks great and his transission to the bigger bikes will go well. He has this style riding the smaller bike from the saddle, something I havent seen anyone else having? And he's practised the whole of this season on a 500 cc machine. Palmi has a very different style, dont know how he will develope in the bigger bikes. He has one already but I dont know how much he's ridden on it. His 80 cc bikes this year were really good. I think he had two new bikes for the season, atleast they looked new. He put many Finnish riders in to shame with his bike's. Jari Mäkinen and Joni Keskinen will ride at Tarnow in a some sort of a "come-and-show-us-what-your-made-of" meeting this saturday.

I've heard the story of where he's come to this point. Like I said, all the best for him. EDIT: I'd be surprised if he beats Simon in a run-off EDIT2: Oops, this is a UK style semi/final style thingie... EDIT3: Raining and delayed/postponed?

Robert Petterson... He was completely lost at Seinäjoki earlier this season. All the best for him!

Like the first score's show, Simon G is doing well and is one of the favourites in my opinion. Not that he'd be good in other tracks too, but this is the place where he's the next from GOD. Thats his dad!

Couldn't have done a better one myself. After seeing this I just wonder why we always took a taxi from City to the track...

Thank you very much Mama. You can now add Jari Mäkinen and Joni Keskinen to that list.

What U21 meeting is on the same weekend as the GP, even the same day? I'm not meaning the U21 final either....

Extraliiga yesterday at Lahti Kotkat 36 Joni Keskinen 22332 12 Mikko Koskinen 1122 6 Petteri Koivunen 1311 6 Rene Lehtinen 33321 12 Kopparberg 31 Tomi Reima 33333 15 Jyri Palomäki 33223 13 Timo Villanen 21F 3 Haukat 29 Markku Weckman 011 2 Kalle Kivistö 022F 4 Joni Kitala 31311 9 Niko Siltaniemi 222332 14 Jokerit 9 Jukka Nieminen 1010 2 Jani Eerikäinen 22100 5 Vesa Hyyryläinen 02 2 Erä erältä: 1. Reima, Keskinen, Nieminen, Weckman 64,50 2. Palomäki, Eerikäinen, Koskinen, Kivistö 66,78 3. Kitala, Villanen, Koivunen 68,38 4. Lehtinen, Siltaniemi 66,66 5. Reima, Siltaniemi, Koskinen 65,22 6. Lehtinen, Kivistö, Villanen, Nieminen 67,44 7. Koivunen, Eerikäinen, Weckman 69,69 8. Palomäki, Keskinen, Kitala 67,19 9. Lehtinen, Palomäki, Weckman, Hyyryläinen 66,78 10. Keskinen, Siltaniemi, Eerikäinen, Villanen F 67,19 11. Reima, Kivistö, Koivunen 65,71 12. Kitala, Koskinen, Nieminen 66,18 13. Reima, Lehtinen, Kitala, Eerikäinen 65,44 14. Siltaniemi, Palomäki, KOivunen, Nieminen 67,25 15. Siltaniemi, Koskinen 69,03 16. Keskinen, Hyyryläinen, Kivistö F 65,35 17. Palomäki, Keskinen, Kitala, Eerikäinen 67,12 18. Reima, Siltaniemi, Lehtinen 67,84 Katsojia 125 Final Extraliiga table Team...........M...+......P Keittiöpiste...8...349...39 Kotkat.........8...287...34 Kopparberg..8...278...30 Paholaiset....8...222...26 Haukat........8...107...20 Jokerit.........8...91....16 Keittiöpiste, Kotkat and Kopparberg Extraliiga averages (3 matches to qualify) Rider...................Team..............M....P.....R.....AVG Juha Hautamäki….KEITTIÖPISTE...8...133...47...11,32 Andreas Messing...KEITTIÖPISTE...3...37...15...9,87 Tero Aarnio………KEITTIÖPISTE...7...75...31...9,68 Rene Lehtinen…….KOTKAT...6...67...28...9,57 Tomi Reima……….KOPPARBERG...7...79...37...8,54 Benny Johansson….KOTKAT...6...64...30...8,53 Jyri Palomäki……..KOPPARBERG...7...68...33...8,24 Juha Mäkelä……….KEITTIÖPISTE...6...41...20...8,20 Teemu Lahti……...KEITTIÖPISTE...6...44...22...8,00 Jari Mäkinen……...PAHOLAISET...8...88...48...7,33 Joni Keskinen…….KOTKAT...7...53...34...6,24 Marko Suojanen…..PAHOLAISET...7...34...24...5,67 Kalle Katajisto…...JOKERIT...3...21...16...5,25 Aki-Pekka Mustonen...PAHOLAISET...6...30...23...5,22 Petri Koskela……..PAHOLAISET...8...47...37...5,08 Jani Eerikäinen…...JOKERIT...4...19...16...4,75 Timo Villanen…….KOPPARBERG...4...15...13...4,62 Petteri Koivunen….KOTKAT...4...15...14...4,29 Joni Kitala………...HAUKAT...3...16...15...4,27 Markku Autio……..JOKERIT...6...31...30...4,13 Mikko Rahko……..KOPPARBERG...5...14...14...4,00 Niko Siltaniemi…...HAUKAT...8...37...39...3,79 Mikko Koskinen…..KOTKAT...3...7...8...3,50 Aarni Heikkilä…….HAUKAT...6...21...28...3,00 Kalle Kivistö………HAUKAT...8...16...31...2,06 Janne Nyman……...HAUKAT...5...9...23...1,57 Juho Ruuska……….JOKERIT...6...6...28...0,86 Jan-Eric Korkeamäki...JOKERIT...4...3...17...0,71 Olli Heikkilä………..JOKERIT...3...1...12...0,33 Not qualified Kaj Laukkanen……..KOTKAT...2...27...9...12,00 Kalle Lindgren….….KOTKAT...1...11...4...11,00 Emil Lindqvist……..KOPPARBERG...2...38...14...10,86 Andreas Lekander...KOPPARBERG...2...34...13...10,46 Linus Sundström…..KOPPARBERG...1...13...5...10,40 Kenny Olsson……...KEITTIÖPISTE...1...13...5...10,40 Daniel Davidsson.…KOTKAT...2...24...11...8,73 Robert Eriksson…....KOTKAT...1...14...7...8,00 Thomas Ljung……...KOPPARBERG...1...8...6...5,33 Alexander Edberg.…PAHOLAISET...2...9...9...4,00 Vesa Hyyryläinen…..JOKERIT...1...2...2...4,00 Markku Weckman....HAUKAT...2...4...7...2,29 Jukka Nieminen…….JOKERIT...1...2...4...2,00 Jonny Korpela………JOKERIT...1...1...4...1,00 Tero Villanen…….KOPPARBERG...2...1...5...0,80 Jouni Viljanen…....PAHOLAISET...1...0...2...0,00 Toni Stenberg……..KEITTIÖPISTE...1...0...1...0,00 Jonne Perälä………..JOKERIT...1...0...4...0,00

I spoke with Aarni Heikkilä's parents yesterday and they said Aarni has started healing and will be back next year. Damage to his back wasn't as bad as thought after the crash. It wasn't all good news form this couple, since they said that a week after the Heikkilä incident Janne Nyman crashed at the same track a badly damaged his wrist and hand. Several broke bones and the surgery to make things better wasn't a 100% success. EDIT: Both Nyman and Heikkilä were in the pits yesterday at Lahti. I guess the hits they took werent that hard since they remembered well how they happened. But both are out for the season and will comeback next year. Heikkiläs incident happened in the same meeting where Kylmäkorpi hurt his elbow and Nyman crashed in a practise session. Juha Moksunen was there helping the youngsters and Nyman's father said that the riders were told very clearly what to do and how to ride the track resulting in much faster racing speed as the day went on.

Rene Lehtinen won the Finnish long track championship of 2007 before Mikko Rahko and Markus Helin. Final was from the tapes but distances were in metres, not hundreds of metres. Kröger won all his heats but had to leave to catch the plane to UK for the EC final somewhere so missed the A-final. Mikko Rahko challenged him well in one heat! Lead for 2,5 laps... The meeting dragged a bit, mainly thanks to Anssi Lehtinen who never made it further than the first bend. On his third outing the crash was bad enough for him to be carried out in an ambulance. Matthias Kröger 5555 20 Mikko Rahko 5545 19 Janne Koivula 5345 17 Raimo Juntunen 4553 17 Rene Lehtinen 4454 17 Ilmo Suutari N444 12 Markus Helin 4332 12 Tommi Ahlgren 3432 12 Tapio Leppämäki d324 9 Jan-Eric Korkeamäki 3123 9 Tomi Kauppi 3212 8 Joel Nyström 2131 7 Markku Weckman 2221 7 Simo Pulli 2d13 6 Jonne Perälä 1211 5 Anssi Lehtinen dddN 0 C-finaali: Pulli, Kauppi, Weckman, Nyström, Perälä, Lehtinen N B-finaali: Helin, Suutari, Ahlgren, Korkeamäki, Leppämäki, Pulli A-finaali: Lehtinen, Rahko, Helin, Juntunen, Koivula, Kröger N Did anyone watch it online? Feedback would be appreciated!!!

Interesting... Last year they had problems with the rain and packed it to concrete. Matti Pöysä from Finland is the second in command at Daugavpils for the GP.

After an interesting week of weather forecasting, everything looked good yesterday.

I'd say plenty but it's wiser to shut up. Thanks for the info. Depending what goggles I'll wear I'll understand each party. EDIT: Just read the topic at inspeed. Talk about stealing news!!! The thing is there is no "promoter". The club at Pori has paid our federation to get the chance to organize the Finnish final. In these kind of meetings starting money is unheard of to the best of my knowledge. Just ask KPG if he got paid by the organizer last year? Or is this just the case of " if he gets, I must get too". BUT, we've had all the best here this season so I think it's nice that Pori tries to add to the pile and trying to get Kröger over here. But like I said above, depending on the goggles... I know the people at Pori personally and have nothing bad to say about them.