f-s-p

I received an e-mail saying Kaj and Mari Laukkanen got a baby girl today.

Every morning this week we've had -30 celsius or lower. The sun is shining right now and it's a perfect winter day. Only -22 celsius.

This one is fairly recent, but in any case it has to have been THE meeting in Finland for the past 15 years. SPEEDWAY U21 World Final Tampere 4.8.1995 Jason Crump 33232 13+3 Daniel Andersson 32323 13+0 Ryan Sullivan 23322 12+3 Tomas Topinka 23331 12+2 Kaj Laukkanen 32331 12+1 Ben Howe 22233 12+0 Piotr Protasiewicz 33220 10 Ronni Pedersen 20113 7 Jiri Stancl 11212 7 Savalas Clouting 02103 6 Rafal Dobrucki 11112 6 Antonin Svab 11101 4 Nicki Pedersen 11001 3 Mirko Wolter 00020 2 Norbert Magosi 00010 1 Waldemar Walczak OR0F0 0 Heat by heat: 1. Crump, Howe, Dobrucki, Clouting 66,25 2. Laukkanen, Topinka, Svab, Magosi 66,42 3. Andersson, Sullivan, Stancl, Walczak 65,39 4. Protasiewicz, Pedersen, N Pedersen, Wolter 66,40 5. Protasiewicz, Andersson, Dobrucki, Magosi 65,66 6. Crump, Laukkanen, N.Pedersen, Walczak R 66,63 7. Topinka, Howe, Stancl, R.Pedersen 66.46 8. Sullivan, Clouting, Svab, Wolter 67,93 9. Laukkanen, Stancl, Dobrucki, Wolter 66.72 10. Sullivan, Crump, R.Pedersen, Magosi 65,64 11. Andersson, Howe, Svab, N.Pedersen 66,61 12. Topinka, Protasiewicz,Clouting, Walczak 66,60 13. Topinka, Sullivan, Dobrucki, N.Pedersen 66,26 14. Crump, Protasiewicz, Stancl, Svab 66.89 15. Howe, Wolter, Magosi, Walczak F 68,32 16. Laukkanen, Andersson, Pedersen, Clouting 66,64 17. Pedersen, Dobrucki, Svab, Walczak 66,90 18. Andersson, Crump, Topinka, Wolter 66,80 19. Howe, Sullivan, Laukkanen, Protasiewicz 67,17 20. Clouting, Stancl, N.Pedersen, Magosi 67,60 re-run for 3rd: Sullivan, Topinka, Laukkanen, Howe 66,3 re-run for 1st: Crump, Andersson F 66,40 The track record before the meeting was 66,45 by Hans Nielsen from 4.6.1989 (Must have been the Scandinavian Final ). Anyway Ryan Sullivan rode 65,64 in heat 10. Kaj Laukkanen rode 65,08 in the Finnish final 22.8.1999 in the A-final beating Tomi Reima and Vesa Ylinen for the championship.

Juha Hautamäki sets the current track record in a new clip here. Ice racing Eurochamps in Uchaly will see Kai Lehtinen in the semi and Antti Aakko seeded straight in the final. The Finnish final keeps moving back and forth all the time. It's currently scheduled for 31st of March if the weather allows it to happen. The all new Jari Mäkinen website is close to being ready for everyone to see. Just a week or two to go!

Put something blue&white on, from what I've counted there will be around 100 Finnish fans at the track!

This is a bit younger.... Finnish Individual Qualifier 17.5.1983 Eteläpuisto, Tampere Ari Koponen 333333 15 Hannu Lehtonen 32333 14 Isto Maja 23332 13 Markku Haapala 33222 12 Esa Mattila 22223 11 Ossi Henriksson 31132 10 Jorma Fräntilä 21321 9 Ari Heikkilä 13003 7 Pentti Kallio 10222 7 Kari Yrjänäinen 12111 6 Ari Heinonen 2021R 5 Risto Jokinen 12000 3 Ari Nevala 011F1 3 Tapio Suutari 0101 2 Timo Virtanen 011 2 Antti Aalto 0000R 0 Jyrki Suutari F 0 Heat by heat: 1. Koponen, Maja, Jokinen, Aalto 63,10 2. Lehtonen, Fräntilä, Heikkilä, Nevala 64,45 3. Haapala, Mattila, Kallio, T Suutari 66,20 4. Henriksson, Heinonen, Yrjänäinen, J Suutari F 66,55 5. Koponen, Lehtonen, Henriksson, Kallio 62,90 6. Haapala, Yrjänäinen, Nevala, Aalto 66,30 7. Heikkilä, Jokinen, T Suutari, Virtanen 68,15 8. Maja, Mattila, Fräntilä, Heinonen 65,40 9. Koponen, Heinonen, Nevala, T Suutari 65,20 10. Lehtonen, Mattila, Virtanen, Aalto 64,90 11. Fräntilä, Kallio, Yrjänäinen, Jokinen 67,10 12. Maja, Haapala, Henriksson, Heikkilä 66,15 13. Koponen, Mattila, Yrjänäinen, Heikkilä 65,10 14. Henriksson, Fräntilä, Häyrinen, Aalto F 67,20 15. Lehtonen, Haapala, Heinonen, Jokinen 65,90 16. Maja, Kallio, Virtanen, Nevala F 66,65 17. Koponen, Haapala, Fräntilä, Virtanen 67,20 18. Heikkilä, Kallio, Aalto R, Heinonen R 69,75 19. Mattila, Henriksson, Nevala, Jokinen 66,25 20. Lehtonen, Maja, Yrjänäinen, Häyrinen 65,??

http://www.sheffield-tigers.co.uk/Canterburyko20051978.html I also remember him being accused for being the main reason of the low times of Sheffield speedway in the late 70's in some website...

Not speedway but Heather Mills took 1600 € (7200+ PLN?) per hour from Paul McCartney in their marriage.

He was really good at Kauhajoki. But the best of Jari are yet to come. He's gonna fall of a couple of times and also makes a really good pass (better than clip 6)... The guy keeping the site should have the rest uploaded in a week maybe. Thats about the time it took him to upload the other clips.

This is the guy www.speedway.fi that taped some of the meetings. He's a pro in multimedia, but he's had difficulties with his hard- and software. So he decided to distribute them via his site. Dont know about any others.

Clips from the 1st Kauhajoki Speedway here. Some good crashes there...

He was a good longtrack rider, yes. His 16 year old son Jari is now one of the biggest prospects in Finnish speedway. My enquiry on Timo Laine has not been succesful yet.

I just got my hands on a stack of old programs starting from the late 50's and ending around 1995. This is the first I re-wrote, here you go! Plenty of 'big names' to appear. The Eteläpuisto track in the heart of the city saw all the greats: Mauger, Michanek, Gundersen , Andersen, Nielsen and loads of other before my time Speedway National Championship Qualifier, Eteläpuisto, Tampere 7.6.1978 Rauli Mäkinen...33333...15 Olli Turkia...32333...14 Pekka Hautamäki...33223...13 Pentti Mattila...21333...12 Ari Turkia...32212...10 Martti Väyrynen...21322...10 Keijo Mylläri...12222...9 Esa Mattila...13202...8 Jarmo Puttonen...23111...8 Pekka Turkia...12111...6 Teuvo Sirenius...00130...4 Harry Schofeldt...01021...4 Hannu Larronmaa...2R...2 Seppo Santala...10010...2 Jouko Naskali...01100...2 Aki Kokko...01...1 Veikko Laihanen...00...0 Markku Haapala...00...0 Jorma Turppa...F0...0 Heat by heat: 1. Hautamäki, P Mattila, Mylläri, Sirenius 2. Mäkinen, Väyrynen, E Mattila, Schofeldt 3. O Turkia, Larronmaa, Santala, Naskali 4. A Turkia, Puttonen, P Turkia, Laihanen 5. Hautamäki, A. Turkia, Väyrynen, Santala 6. Puttonen, Mylläri, Schofeldt, Larronmaa R 7. Mäkinen, O Turkia, P Mattila, Laihanen 8. E Mattila, P Turkia, Naskali, Sirenius 9. O Turkia, Hautamäki, P Turkia, Schofeldt 10. Väyrynen, Mylläri, Naskali, Haapala 11. P Mattila, E Mattila, Puttonen, Santala 12. Mäkinen, A Turkia, Sirenius, Turppa F 13. Mäkinen, Hautamäki, Puttonen, Naskali 14. O Turkia, Mylläri, A Turkia, E Mattila F 15. P Mattila, Väyrynen, P Turkia, Kokko 16. Sirenius, Schofeldt, Santala, Haapala 17. Hautamäki, E Mattila, Kokko, Turppa 18. Mäkinen, Mylläri, P Turkia, Santala 19. P Mattila, A Turkia, Schofeldt, Naskali 20. O Turkia, Väyrynen, Puttonen, Sirenius

LAGUTA Grigory LaMSF LAT Is this the same guy who was a reserve in SGP Daugavpils? Is he any good on ice?

Peter Timm who keeps the german forum also keeps the German equalent of your Travel Plus Tours. When ever I've met him after spring 2004 I've had a chat. He usually takes 1-2 busses full of people to every GP.

Ala-Riihimäki, Henriksson and Flyktman confirmed for Inzell.

Saalfelden will host their qualifier on the 3rd-4th of February. isracing.net

Tommy Flyktman has crashed yesterday in Bollnäs loosing a few teeth and having a bad concussion. He's now back home having a rest. Take care EDIT: He hit a hole while leading, then hit his head to the handlebars a flew 3 meters in the air and landed on his head crashing the helmet. Apart from his teeth nothing is broken and he should be fine after at least 10 days of rest. This info is from the Flyktman family.

http://www.isracing.net/ is now taking back what was written in the Östersund Posten, a local mag. Decisions will be made (according to the site in question) by tuesday the 23rd reagrding the organizer. This site is reliable, at least it has been

There's a link in masarna.nu that the Saalfelden qualifier will be held in Östersund, Sweden on the last sunday of January. Suit's me fine The team final that was supposed to be in Saransk a week from now will now take Aakko, Flyktman and Lehtinen away from the finnish final scheduled on 3rd of March in Oulu. Thats not good. Think they will have problems tracking a full field now. And the standard of racing just dropped a lot.

No I did not. But I havent walked around after midnight there though... I wont be going this year, there's a longtrack meeting in Pori the same day. It's the finnish final.

Last years Individual Finnish final is now fully online. Check out this one! Heats 13 and 23 are the treats.

I think Saalfelden has now completely given up organizing the qualifier. I phoned to Oulu yesterday, they didn't confirm anything except that they are aware of the situation have had a look if they could do it.

Very interesting day yesterday! Went to see the training camp in Alavus and missed all the action it started snowing yesterday and the weather was pretty bad for driving. Anyway saw all the riders to see and had a chat. Regarding the places for the qualifiers Seppänen drew himself out of the running saying he has enough in the GS and the "official"-work he took up. He said the that from the times clocked Ala-Riihimäki and Henriksson were the two fastest and deserve their places. During the heats A-R and Kaj Lehtinen had a pileup which led to a few spike marks in Lehtinen's lower leg, but he returned to the track with crutches and was pretty up-beat about it all. He's been lucky enough to ride practically every weekend since late October alltough most of his time has gone in to adjusting his new bike. A-R said you can call this a comeback. His back is fine when it comes to riding but all the knocks have taken their toll and no more of them wanted. Henrikkson was also ready to take on the qualifiers, he's along with only one bike but said it's as fast as ever. Both Henriksson and Kirilov had their first weekend on ice. Afterwards I went and paid a visit to Kauko Nieminen at his place in Seinäjoki. Kauko had an operation on his shoulder after the season and is on the mend. He said that if he had to, he'd ride tomorrow alltough the movement of the arm is not 100%. He's keeping up with his fysio and doing the "homework". He seemed very confident about 2007.

The train station and the bus station are right next to each other on the eastern? edge of the old town. Next to the market square. I've been to Riga twice and been in the "Radi un Draugi" hotel both times. 5 min walk to the stations, inside the old town.