f-s-p

The word over yesterday was that the Saalfelden people had a meeting sunday evening to make the decision.

A few videoclips from the 2006 Finnish final from Seinäjoki here. Some pics below... Sounds like two trips two Oulu this spring then.. My credit card wont like that EDIT: I bet you havent seen Laukkanen gate like that EVER!!!! (clip4) EDIT2: Heats 5-8 now online EDIT3: Heats 9-12 now!

I heard about this yesterday, but thought that Oulu was only second or third on the list? I take it that Oulu is first then and the qualifier is in Oulu on the same day as the other qualifiers...

Aki Ala-Riihimäki, Jouni Seppänen, Tomi Kirilov and Raimo Henrikkson are the four riders competing for the last two places in in the World qualifier in Inzell. There will be a training session this sunday where they will decide who's going. There has been enough ice to practise during the last month, but all meetings scheduled have been postponed. I did hear that Oulu has enough ice in Raatti Stadion to host a meeting staight away, but not enough snow for the barriers. Practice is not allowed there. Also Saalfelden postponed their qualifier by a week, and the weather reports aren't promising anything better. I understood that they are looking into giving the qualifier away...

Thank you very much to Steve Turner. And to Leliwa also for the offer. The site will be online in a few weeks. I'll make sure everyone knows about it when the time comes.

We are preparing to launch a website for a 16 year old finnish prospect Jari Mäkinen. The language of the website will be finnish with some english and swedish material. All languages mentioned are well understood already, but polish isn't all that big over here. But it is a speedway language, and I was hoping someone (polish?) would help me in translating Jari's basic info into polish? Its about 200 words including loads of names. Any takers? No money promised, but favours are returned 100%.

There was supposed to be an ice racing meeting in Seinäjoki on the 14th of January, but that was postponed due to no ice. There have been enough - degrees though, and they did speed skating in Seinäjoki yesterday, they had the national championhips. So someone might even have practised ice racing even! But because there still are two places up for grabs for the Inzell qualifier, there will be a "unformal" scouting event in Alavus next sunday, the 14th. I know Ala-Riihimäki and Seppänen are seriously wanting to go, dont know about others. Kirilov? Henriksson?..

We had it when Laukkanen was in it, but BSI didn't make an offer for our Channel4 to continue. We would have had it in 2005 if BSI had only offered it.

I went against all the odds... the finnish post combined with roayl mail. I havent lost my hope yet, two weeks + a day or two with the holidays is not that bad from experience. The UK tour is gonna be based around Liverpool (north) or then I might fly to REALLY south UK via Stansted, maybe Bournemouth or whatever that one airport was. What ever Ryanair provides.

Ok, been to Prague. Alltough a lovely city with plenty to see this will make me say no. And I'll bet you can count the locals from that with just one hand. Also not so cheap to get to from here. There was the Sterling company who did budget flights from Helsinki to Prague and probably about 50 people had booked their flights for last years event. Well Sterling pulled the plug just a few weeks prior. Now it's 250-300€ for just the flights when using SAS or Finnair. Daugavpils didn't have enough to offer apart from speedway. Might make other arrangements if going there. And that reminded me that I have a friend living in Hultsfred now, so might go to Målilla.

Just two weeks ago I paid off my hotels from Copenhagen 2004. Still have to worry about a couple, but the limit on my cc might allow a couple of trips next summer. The German one might be nice, especially since I can fly direct from Tampere to Bremen (250km away) by Ryanair. The DB service is always reliable and frequent. Looks like I'll give Eskilstuna a miss next year. I really want to get to UK to watch the leagues and visit friends. If only Laukkanen could get his things sorted I could figure out a plan. Not going to Cardiff though, I'll probably do a northern tour this time... The polish one's are always tempting, if only had I landed the job for Scanclimber. They have a production plant in Gniezno. It would have been 60-40 between Tampere and Poland. A trip to Vienna is planned around 1st of May, the couple we're travelling with are coming over for new years tomorrow. We've been talking about going to Lonigo on the same go. We'll see how the negotiations between the guy's and girl's go after dinner. Slovenia is out, but if they ever get GP's in Gorican - Millenium, I'll do my best to get there. It always rains in Målilla and the Danish one is too expensive as well. Any left??

Through a somewhat awkward and funny chain of events I ended up on the phone with Aki Ala-Riihimäki yesterday. He's making a real comeback this season in ice racing, and plans to challenge for a place in the World qualifiers. Unlike I had led myself to believe, there are still 2 more places up for grabs in Inzell. Merry Christmas for everyone!

Finnish riders for 2007 European and World rounds in ice racing: Team WC, Saransk: Antti Aakko, Tommy Flyktman and Kai Lehtinen. EC semifinal, Lukhovisty: Tommy Flyktman EC final, Lukhovisty: Antti Aakko. WC quali, Penza: Antti Aakko and Kai Lehtinen. WC quali, Inzell: Tommy Flyktman.

Forssan Moottoriseura turned 50 last saturday. The club is one of (if not the one) the most active clubs in the country when it comes to longtrack and ice racing. They also have a very active speedway-section, and they currently also have a ongoing project to build a new track in Forssa. Unfortunately the first site was planned as a industrial zone after the club spent 3000 € to measure the noise effects. Another site has been given and planning is in progress. More importantly a friend of mine has been visited by Antti Aakko. Whats the story you might think? He had lost so much weight that my friend almost didn't reqognize him at first. Thats good news in my opinion, it clearly states that Aakko has made huge improvements in his summer training (I think it means he's started it). Well done Antti!

Can you shed some more light to his argument with his club, Vargarna. He's been accused of "picking/choosing" his meetings, one in particular. The club made such a noise of the matter, that Zagar was kicked out and all the other clubs were told about the situation. Apparently when signing him, another Swedish club would have to pay something for Vargarna. This is all from Swedish press from the time when it happened last August/October.

Alltough my sources are reliable, I hope your's are right. Main thing for me is that Kake Nieminen gets his chance to prove himself right from the start.

I was told that there is no track at Arendal at the mo, at least the fences have been taken down?

And Kaparna is on it's way to getting the track situation sorted.

Go to youtube and search finnish speedway or similar. There's a clip from Seinäjoki where Jarmo Hirvasoja rides an ice bike on a regular track... Not nice, someone should have told him that when he falls he doesn't slide...

I have no idea where Östersund is in Sweden, but SMHI, the swedish weather service is promising +2 to +7 celsius for the next week all over Sweden. As I left to pick up my girlfriend last saturday from the Christmas party of her job, it's was +7,5 celsius at Tampere. We had one week of winter here, 1st to 4th of November. Thats when I was in the UK. Its been raining almost all the time ever since. Tommy Flyktman is currently in Arjeplog, have no idea where that is but there is ice. He's been riding alot I heard.

I never thought the Danish league as one of the big one's. Attendances around 500-1000, no brits riding, mostly danes, poles, occasional swede... No matter how important for the danish youngsters, has it really been one of the big ones during this millenium (thats how long I've been REALLY following the sport).

This is the last post to this thread. Here are the detailed results from the 19th Seinäjoki Speedway 16.9.2006. Kaj Laukkanen 33333 15 Rene Lehtinen 33233 14 Marko Suojanen 32332 13 Tero Aarnio 23322 12 Petri Koskela 32231 11 Markku Autio 13113 9 Janne Nyman 21222 9 Aki-Pekka Mustonen 12320 8 Kalle Kivistö 22211 8 Jan-Erk Korkeamäki 21120 6 Toni Stenberg 01013 5 Juho Ruuska 10111 4 Pasi Mattila 10002 3 Reino Koivuluoma 0R101 2 Erä erältä: 1. Suojanen, Nyman, Mustonen, Stenberg 66,42 2. Laukkanen, Korkeamäki, Ruuska, Koivuluoma 64,47 3. Koskela, Kivistö, Autio 66,16 4. Lehtinen, Aarnio, Mattila 65,70 5. Autio, Mustonen, Korkeamäki, Mattila 67,99 6. Lehtinen, Koskela, Nyman, Koivuluoma R 65,76 7. Aarnio, Kivistö, Stenberg, Ruuska 66,39 8. Laukkanen, Suojanen 65,06 9. Mustonen, Kivistö, Koivuluoma 70,34 10. Aarnio, Nyman, Korkeamäki, 66,54 11. Laukkanen, Lehtinen, Autio, Stenberg 65,11 12. Suojanen, Koskela, Ruuska, Mattila 67,26 13. Lehtinen, Mustonen, Ruuska 65,31 14. Laukkanen, Nyman, Kivistö 65,31 15. Koskela, Korkeamäki, Stenberg 67,71 16. Suojanen, Aarnio, Autio, Koivuluoma 66,71 17. Laukkanen, Aarnio, Koskela, Mustonen 64,73 18. Autio, Nyman, Ruuska 69,06 19. Stenberg, Mattila, Koivuluoma 72,06 20. Lehtinen, Suojanen, Kivistö, Korkeamäki 65,09 Semifinaali: Suojanen, Aarnio, Autio, Koskela T 65,90 Finaali: Laukkanen, Lehtinen, Aarnio, Suojanen 63,63 Here is the detailed results from the 2006 Kemppi Speedway. Tomi Reima 3333 12 Tero Aarnio 2233 10 Jyri Palomäki 3322 10 Teemu Lahti 3321 9 Aarni Heikkilä 2113 7 Ilmo Suutari 1222 7 Kalle Kivistö 1132 7 Toni Stenberg 0210 3 Janne Nyman 0011 2 Erä erältä: 1. Lahti, Heikkilä, Suutari, Stenberg 2. Palomäki 3. Reima, Aarnio, Kivistö, Nyman 4. Palomäki, Suutari, Kivistö, Nyman 5. Reima, Stenberg 6. Lahti, Aarnio, Heikkilä 7. Kivistö, Suutari, Stenberg 8. Reima, Palomäki, Heikkilä 9. Aarnio, Lahti, Nyman 10. Aarnio, Suutari 11. Heikkilä, Kivistö, Nyman 12. Reima, Palomäki, Lahti, Stenberg Semifinaali: Aarnio, Lahti, Heikkilä, Suutari Finaali: Reima, Aarnio, Palomäki, Lahti Kauniskangas Open from Haapajärvi is the only 500cc competition that hasn't been posted on here. I'm trying all the time to get the results, and if I get them, they will be posted here and here.. See You in Finnish News for 2007!

you people... Heard plenty again, most of it unfit to print but....

Heard yesterday that Toni Salmela has quit speedway. He had a bad leg injury in 2005 which ruled him out for the whole 2006 season. Another source has confirmed that he will be Kauko Nieminen's #1 in Sweden next season. Salmela will look after Nemo's bikes and keep them in top condition for Nemo's tuesday visits to Sweden. We'll see what there is to be heard tonight....