f-s-p

Seinäjoki 58 team pic! Juha Mäkelä 3332 11 Joni Keskinen F222 6 Rene Lehtinen 33333 15 Aarni Heikkilä 1012 4 Tero Aarnio 3333R 12 Petteri Koivunen 3101 5 Niko Siltaniemi 1112 5 jj. Tarja Koivunen Kauhajoki 31 team pic! Markku Autio 1111 4 Jani Eerikäinen 2232R 9 Tero Villanen R010 1 Kalle Katajisto 22032 9 Timo Villanen 2120 5 J-E Korkeamäki 2001 3 Juho Ruuska 0000 0 jj. Anssi Hautala Heat by heat: 1. Mäkelä, Eerikäinen, Autio, Keskinen F.rem 66,61 2. Koivunen, KOrkeamäki, Siltaniemi, Ruuska 69,19 3. Lehtinen, Katajisto, Heikkilä, Villanen R 4. Aarnio, Villanen, Siltaniemi, Ruuska 65,89 5. Lehtinen, Eerikäinen, Autio, Heikkilä 64,85 6. Mäkelä, Keskinen, Villanen, Korkeamäki 66,96 7. Aarnio, Katajisto, Koivunen, Villanen 68,50 8. Eerikäinen, Keskinen, Siltaniemi, Ruuska 66,16 9. Lehtinen, Villanen, Heikkilä, Korkeamäki 66,26 10. Mäkelä, Keskinen, Villanen, Katajisto 67,34 11. Aarnio, Eerikäinen, Autio, Koivunen 64,94 12. Lehtinen, Siltaniemi, Korkeamäki, Villanen 65,45 13. Aarnio, Mäkelä, Autio, Villanen 65,63 14. Katajisto, Heikkilä, Koivunen, Ruuska 67,68 15. Lehtinen, Katajisto, Eerikäinen R, Aarnio R 65,45 I didn't count bonus points, because I dont think they pay for them... Might keep track of them anyway... EDIT: Video clips from the meeting here, last 6 heats. A pretty good meeting at Seinäjoki today, well worth the 5 € it was to get in. Track prep was either a disaster or a perfect success, depends how you look at it. The new material put on the track is between 0-12 mm crushed granite, awful stuff! Track was very soft and it showed as the meeting progressed. But it suited the homeboys, since they had 3 members of the Finnish SWC squad and Joni Keskinen who will ride in the U21 qualifier in Sweden next week... Which brings up the question why they were taking part in a meeting, that is supposed to be organized to let the riders have a chance that cant cut it in the Extraleague. Lehtinen, Mäkelä, Aarnio did as they should, rode well. Keskinen lost twice to Eerikäinen, BIG surprise as Eerikäinen (rode better than I've seen him ever!) passed him in the first one. I hurt my jaw quite badly as it hit my chest when I saw it happen... He was about to pass Mäkelä on the same lap too, but Mäkelä saw it coming and blocked it well. Katajisto was fantastic. Think about K. Bjerre and take half of him off and you get the idea how KK looked on the bike! But he kept it on and attacked the track. He did admit that his arms werent quite strong enough, but he managed to hold on. Went afterwards and had a chat with him as he was changing his gear. His right thigh was deep blue all around... Siltaniemi rode less aggressively but managed also well. Autio didn't impress and Korkeamäki who is supposed to be in the Longtrack qualifier next weekend only stood out because of a new white MX- racing shirt. Awful pic's I know, I'm off to the store this week!

Here's some! This was his first time on a speedway bike this season. He did some "ice road racing", a bit like motoGP but on ice during the winter, and last summer he did some some road racing too. He had a very clear goal what he wanted to achieve in speedway before the end 2004, but since then he's been splitting his effort's (stands for finances too) between the ice, road and speedway. That doesn't add up too well I'm afraid. ForssaLahti 48 Kalle Kivistö 3211 7 Markku Weckman 2120 5 Aarni Heikkilä 33232 13 Ari Tuomisto 011M 2 Janne Nyman N332 8 Esa Yrjölä 32022R 9 Heikki Tapani 21100 4 Pori 45 Marko Suojanen 1N6^RR 7 Mika Suojanen 00NN 0 Appe Mustonen 22223 12 Roope Mattsson 12131 8 Petri Koskela 33333 15 Mika Vuoristo N001 1 Johan Ahponen 1RR1N 2 Heat by heat: 1. Kivistö, Weckman, Suojanen, M.Suojanen 73,01 2. Yrjölä, Tapani, Ahponen, Vuoristo R 73,53 3. Heikkilä, Mustonen, Mattsson, Tuomisto 69,53 4. Koskela, Yrjölä, Tapani, Ahponen R 68,09 5. Heikkilä, Mattsson, Tuomisto, M.Suojanen 69,44 6. Koskela, Kivistö, Weckman, Vuoristo 68,53 7. Nyman, Mustonen, Mattsson, Yrjölä 70,56 8. Suojanen, Weckman, Tapani, Ahponen R 72,81 9. Koskela, Heikkilä, Tuomisto, Vuoristo 67,39 10. Mattsson, Mustonen, Kivistö, Weckman 71,90 11. Nyman, Yrjölä, Ahponen, Suojanen R 70,44 12. Heikkilä, Mustonen, Vuoristo, Tapani 69,08 13. Koskela, Nyman, Kivistö, Suojanen R 79,49 14. Mustonen, Yrjölä, Mattsson, Tapani 73,62 15. Koskela, Heikkilä, Mustonen, Yrjölä R 68,86

I think Kylmäkörpi is not riding, not sure about Laukkanen.

From piraterna.se via jarimakinen.fi, held at Platenstadion, Motala, Sweden. Start time 15.00 local 12th of May 2007 Riders: 1. Ricky Kling, SWE 2. Nicolai Klindt, DEN 3. Viktor Bergström, SWE 4. Carl-Johan Raugstad, NOR 5. Patrick Hougaard, DEN 6. Klaus Jakobsen, DEN 7. Robin Törnqvist, SWE 8. Joni Keskinen, FIN 9. Thomas H Jonasson, SWE 10. Kenneth Hansen, DEN 11. Jari Mäkinen 12. Dannie Söderholm, DEN 13. Billy Forsberg SWE 14. Teemu Lahti, FIN 15. Morten Risager, DEN 16. Simon Gustafsson, SWE 17. Andreas Messing, SWE 18. Linus Eklöf, SWE I'm going...

I must have missed something big, since I most certainly did not expect Ulamek to be the wild card. Same goes for Gapinski and Jerdezejks.

Teemu Lahti was happy with his performance at the P&P and will make the trip to Sweden again next week, when Gävle's season start's in the Swedish 1st division. At the P&P he rode alongside Kolodziej and admitted he was fast! He also crashed once into the fences in practise, didn't hurt himself though. He also had some mechanical gremlins in his #1 bike. Jari Mäkinen has taken the cast of his hand and is healing well, I just hope he has the head to keep away from the bike as long as possible. His season would have started this coming weekend here in Finland, but he's not coming over. I have been asking this from him for around 2 months now, but it's still not sure how he will be treated in the Swedish speedway system. When a rider is riding on a Swedish license, he'll be able to ride in all the leagues. For example Tomas H. Jonasson, who rides tuesdays in Elitserien, wednesdays in the 1st division and Thursday's in the Allsvenskan. All this is possible if the partner club contracts are there. Now Jari is a part of the MSF club that has a team in both the Allsvenskan and the 1st division. If he had a Swedish license he'd ride both leagues (if good enough of course), but he's on a Finnish license, so it's unclear if it's possible. It would be great if he could do it. His dad has been doing his bikes over here for a week or two now and heads to Sweden this friday. He's gonna be there for 2 weeks, over the U21 qualifier and the league meeting after that. But read more about him from his own site! A training camp was finally held here at Seinäjoki. Candidates for the SWC team and the U19 qualifier were invited to take part, but decisions were made only about the SWC team. Some time ago there was a press release about the squad from which the team would be picked with Laukkanen, Nieminen and Kylmäkorpi all certain of their places in the team. Only eight riders were present, some protesting, some just unable to take part. For the record this day had been moved around, too many times if you ask me. By a series of heats four riders took part in a final deciding the last two places in the team that will ride in Abensberg. Hautamäki and Aarnio (he was not in the squad) took the slots with Lehtinen getting the reserve place. 1. Laukkanen, Aarnio, Lehtinen, Petteri Koivunen 61.69 2. Hautamäki, Lahti, Joni Keskinen, Markku Autio 63.20 Final: Hautamäki, Aarnio, Lehtinen, Lahti 64.78 Note that the time by Laukkanen in the first one is actually very good. His track record is 61,23 from 2004 when the track was an absolute disaster in the Finnish final. From the top of my head I'd say no one has been that close to it since then. The local club has done a lot of work with the track during the winter. 25 loads of new material have been driven to the track, and it was packed hard last week. How hard it actually is, I'll see that next sunday. The track at Lahti has also been receiving some treatment, they've had a few soft spots appearing every time it rains, so they have improved the plumbing (??) a lot. Pori has also received new material as the people there have been re-doing the banking. All in all I'd say I'm hopefull/worried/excited how all the tracks will cope this season. The Finnish season kicks of with the Kaupunki Cup next weekend. Rounds are staged at Hyvinkää on saturday and Seinäjoki on sunday. This "league" will be ridden by 4 teams with Elite league format of seven riders and 15 heats? The teams will consist mostly of the same riders that are in the Extraleague. For what I've seen about the teams listed, all riders are able to take part. So this summer we'll have two leagues with the same riders with different formats. Jan-Erik Korkeamäki will replace Ilmo Suutari in one of the longtrack qualifiers and Juha Hautamäki will travel to the EC pairs qualifier with Laukkanen and Kylmäkorpi.

For what I know, it keeps the pressure in the absorber. So when the front lifts, it's pushes the fork down, so that the front wheel stays on the track longer. So for giving more/longer steering as the bike would otherwise lose control regarding the front wheel. Excatcly the same that AJ was after with his black carbon fork. Only cheaper...

Anyone have any idea where Kaj Laukkanen was from Gniezno's team last sunday. He was supposed to ride last sunday?

Jari Mäkinen will stay out of the action for at least one week more, hopefully two. Normal time for his fingers to heal is around 4 weeks, thats about exactly the time between the crash and the U21 qualifier. Teemu Lahti is in Sweden today riding in Rospiggarna's press and practise session. The current Finnish U21 Champion has been thrown head first in to the deep end lining up with the likes of Janusz Kolodziej against Greg Hancock and co. We'll see tomorrow how it went!

I know he's in the FIM track racing commission and was the coach for the finnish national team in the late 90's. I'll know more tomorrow. EDIT: sorry I forgot, I'll try to find something out soon...

Kemppi Speedway 16.6.1980 Lahti, SsMK Ari Koponen 33333 15 Olli Turkia 33332 14 Olli Tyrväinen 22333 13 Heimo Kaikko 31232 11 Hannu Lehtonen 33122 11 Ossi Henriksson 22321 10 Pekka Turkia 23210 8 Matti Hyyryläinen 02113 7 Markku Helminen 21220 7 Timo Kiansten 120R3 6 Ari Heinonen 20F12 5 Markku Haapala 112N1 5 V-P Kunelius 0F121 4 Harri Lankinen 10100 2 Gunnar Eriksen SWE 0100 1 Asko Sorvo 1 1 Risto Flink 1 1 Riku Helminen F 0 Esa Jämsäläinen 00000 0 Erä erältä: 1. Lehtonen, P.Turkia, Helminen, Kunelius 2. O.Turkia, Henriksson, Kiansten, Hyyryläinen 3. Kaikko, Heinonen, Haapala, Jämsäläinen 4. Koponen, Tyrväinen, Lankinen, Eriksen 5. P.Turkia, Kiansten, Eriksen, Jämsäläinen 6. Lehtonen, Hyyryläinen, Haapala, Lankinen 7. Koponen, Henriksson, Helminen, Heinonen 8. O.Turkia, Tyrväinen, Kaikko, Kunelius F 9. Tyrväinen, P.Turkia, Hyyryläinen, Heinonen F 10. Koponen, Kaikko, Lehtonen, Kiansten 11. O.Turkia, Helminen, Lankinen, Jämsäläinen 12. Henriksson, Haapala, Kunelius, Eriksen 13. Kaikko, Henriksson, P.Turkia, Lankinen 14. O.Turkia, Lehtonen, Heinonen, Eriksen 15. Tyrväinen, Helminen, R.Helminen F, Kiansten R 16. Koponen, Kunelius, Hyyryläinen, Jämsäläinen 17. Koponen, O.Turkia, Sorvo, P.Turkia 18. Tyrväinen, Lehtonen, Henriksson, Jämsäläinen 19. Hyyryläinen, Kaikko, Flink, Helminen 20. Kiansten, Heinonen, Kunelius, Lankinen I heard that Timo Laine keeps a bee farm somewhere near Turku.

In case Anders wants he can go and have a chat with Jari in Vetlanda, since he'll be there with Örnarna. Today for sure I think, dont know about tomorrow. Jari has also commented his crash in his blog on his website. On another note he told that the guys at this class (at the speedway gymnasium) have been wrecking bikes this week like there's no tomorrow! Few crashes here and there! I dont really know how much that is but Jari for example has ridden so much this spring already that they have to change the piston to his engine. Some say that makes 60-70 heats, some say 100.

Jari Mäkinen crashed heavily in Målilla, Sweden at a training session last sunday. He lost control of his bike as it lifted, and was thrown back first in to the fence. His right hand got between the fence and the bikes handlebar, which caused a bad fracture of his thumb and another finger. His hand is now in plaster, and he will nurse himself back from a concussion as well, which he got himself at the same incident. He plans to return on the 28th of April at Seinäjoki. Let's all hope for a speedy recovery for Jari!

Tero Aarnio is now taking the anticipated step back. He is selling some of his equipment in order to get new one's and also changing carburettors. You can go and check out www.teroaarnio.net from his gallery, there is a video clip from Sweden from 2005 when he beats Juha Hautamäki easily. After that it's been hard for Aarnio, he has struggled badly and both 2006 and 2007 seasons have started very expensively with 2-3 blown engines in the first weeks of the season. Hope he gets things sorted.

Loads of riders were at Hyvinkää training today. At the same time the Extraliiga "conference" was held here in Tampere. A lot of confusion was surrounding the Extraliiga and hence all speedway, since nothing had been heard after the conference in November. Then all of a sudden there was a calender out a month ago that went against most of the decisions made. Then on top of that, there was a point when there were five different calendars out, yet the man in charge of the calender had not sent but one, and that was supposed to be just an early draft! Today, after an hour of "we thought - you said - he said - they said - it said - I heard" a decision was made, that the Finnish Extraliiga Championship will be decided by a 12 round series. No finals will be ridden. This was in practice already decided in November, but somehow things werent clear anymore yesterday. the Joker-rule will apply as in SWC. No guest's, 4 man teams with 4 teams a meeting, pretty much as it was last year. GOOD! Extraliiga Calendar for 2007 Spring round 19.5. Pori................ Paholaiset - Jokerit - Kotkat - Haukat 20.5. Kauhajoki....... Jokerit - Kopparberg - Paholaiset - Keittiöpiste 3.6. Seinäjoki.......... Kotkat - Keittiöpiste - Kopparberg - Haukat 26.6. Vaasa............. Kopparberg - Paholaiset - Jokerit - Kotkat 1.7. Lahti................. Haukat - Paholaiset - Kopparberg - Keittiöpiste 21.7. Kuusankoski.... Keittiöpiste - Jokerit - Kotkat - Haukat Autumn round 22.7. Seinäjoki......... Kotkat - Keittiöpiste - Paholaiset - Jokerit 27.7. Pori................. Paholaiset - Kopparberg - Keittiöpiste - Kotkat 28.7. Kauhajoki........ Jokerit - Paholaiset - Kotkat - Haukat 3.8. Vaasa............... Kopparberg - Keittiöpiste - Jokerit - Haukat 12.8. Lahti............... Haukat - Jokerit - Kotkat - Kopparberg 19.8. Kuusankoski.... Keittiöpiste - Kopparberg - Paholaiset - Haukat Haukat stands for Hawk's from Lahti, Kotkat/Eagles-Seinäjoki, Paholaiset/Devils-Pori, Jokerit/Joker's-Kauhajoki, Kopparberg (-Vaasa) is a cider brand (bought the name) and Keittiöpiste (-Kuusankoski) sell's kitchen furniture (bought the name). The (actual) team names are traditional, only the Jokers are new since they've only had their track since last year. Finnish Individual final at Kuusankoski 17.6.2007 Pairs Championship at Lahti 4.8.2007 Kemppi Speedway at Lahti 10.6.2007 (traditional Finnish meeting, winner takes home a welding machine for the 30th time this year. Kemppi also sponsors in F1 this year!) 2nd Kauhajoki Speedway at Kauhajoki 30.6.2007 Finnish Individual Longtrack Final 25.8.2007 Kauniskangas Open at Haapajärvi 2.6.2007 (50 year Anniversary meeting for the local club) U21 Finnish final at Seinäjoki 7.7.2007 Seinäjoki Speedway 18.7.2007

Just want to comment this European policy about pollution. My friend told me about the TV show Amazing Race which he follows frequently. Anyway the race was going on in India, and they were in Delhi. As a sidenote the announcer told that in Delhi alone they have FIVE million two stroke scooters! Whats the point in banning two stroke motorcycle sport disciplines in Europe alone... This just to give perspective, I'm all enviroenmental-mental...

Antti Aakko and Tommy Flyktman are currently training in the North of Sweden. probably Arjeplog.

Not in any way. Hautamäki is a common surname in that area. Pekka Hautamäki is a firefighter in the Seinäjoki region nowadays.

The fact that the Germans are riding at their hometrack in Abensberg is well reqocnised over here. But if we have Kylmäkorpi and Laukkanen both healthy, I think they will score around 25 between them. Nieminen will take around ten (have you been checking his scores lately? WOW!) and that leaves another ten for the two from Hautamäki/Reima/Palomäki. Thats 45 and we're easily through! Last year it was FIN 42 - GER 39+3 - RUS 39+2 - LAT 30 with Laukkanen 11, Joonas 12, Nemo 8, Hautamäki 5 and Reima 6.

I know Reima and Hautamäki have been offered a team place in the Premiere league. For Reima it was maybe 5 years ago and for Hautamäki maybe 2-3 years ago. They decided not to try, thats why I'm not sending them to a tour of your description. Only way I'd see it beneficial for Finnish speedway is to send a U21 team. But honestly we cant send a team with 7 riders. - Mäkinen and Lahti are the sort of riders I'd send. Young with ambition and goals. - Keskinen sometimes, but cant see him adjusting quick enough. He also still has issues with crash he did a few years ago. - Heikkilä.. cant see him making an impression. - Mustonen is no longer making the effort's he did in 80 cc. - Autio might make an impression, but isn't that well equipped and is totally lost on new tracks at first. He needs some guidance, but dont know if he's getting it. - Kalle Kivistö is someone who surprised me last year. He faded a bit as the season went ahead. But showed some move's that indicated he might be worth following. Dont know how well he's equipped, but needs someone to guide him. They have guys like that in his club, but it's not up to me to check. I might seem a bit harsh, but cant see any good in telling these guys everything is fine if they if things clearly arent.

Jari Mäkinen, Joni Keskinen and Teemu Lahti will take part in the U21 World's qualifying round in Motala May 12th. Reima is born in the mid 70's, Hautamäki and Mäkelä are both from early 80's?? I think Hautamäki won the U21 Championhip here in his last year as a U21 2003. So he would be the only one of the three I'd send to get "educated" in the UK. Finnish riders in Sweden 2007: Elit: Laukkanen - Kumla, Kylmäkorpi - Bajen, Nieminen - Kaparna* Allsvenskan: Nieminen - Solkatterna*, Mäkinen - Örnarna* 1st division: Teemu Lahti - Gävle, Reima/Palomäki/Mäkelä - Filbyterna, Joni Keskinen - Kumla, Mäkinen - MSF* Doesn't that add up to 9? * stands for unknown... Situations yet to develope in to confirmations.

Something similar was supposed to happen, but didn't. Infact the Finns have been on training camps in the UK in the 80's and 90's, but havent heard of anything like that in the past 5 years. Regarding how competiteve Finns would be compared to the Americans, dont know since I have not seen them ride. But just from the top of my head I'd say most of our U21 TOP7 would be laughed off the island. But maybe I'm just too negative, it's been known to happen.

Mikko Rahko and Markus Helin will take part in the Longtrack qualifier at Marianske Lazne and Rene Lehtinen ja Ilmo Suutari will go to Artiques Lussac. Janne Koivula was offered a place but declined because this will be his last season and the qualifiers are for next year. The Extraleague conference will be held here in Tampere next saturday, report here late saturday/early sunday. A training camp scheduled to take place in Motala for all riders in the squad for different national teams was first moved forward by a week because of the Vetlanda Cup (4-6 Finns present) held around 20th-22nd of April. Then on the 7th of April there was an email spreading about the camp asking for riders to take part. The very next day it the camp was cancelled due to lack of riders. You make your own mind up about it...

Didn't go to Neuenknick. We were a group of six and they werent interested enough and I c/wouldnt do it alone. Spoke to Aarnio about the Osterpokal. He had mechanical problems, if I remember correct he blew two engines to start with. Now there's a guy who need's to get his act together. This is the 2nd season in a row when his racing starts with engine failure's. Maybe something should be done differently? Because if he does get it together, he might even make it someday as a pro in the UK. At the moment his mind is already there and his "racing package" suffers from it. He thinks too much about how he's gonna be a pro and it slows him down. He can do it if he could just unwind a bit.