f-s-p

Mikko Rahko, once in the longtrack GP, makes a comeback this season. He's been listed for the Vaasan MK team in the speedway City series (1st division). He's also taking part in the longtrack finnish final to be held at Vaasa (his hometrack) later this summer.

None detected... I checked their (Forssa club) website before posting just to make sure. One reason I can think of is the fact that this meeting is most likely going to be crap. We have maybe 20-25 riders in this country for longtrack. TOP3 has Karger, Graversen, Lausch, Lantenhammer.... top motors, and the rest have what they get. If the meeting is going to be held in a final format, then the A-final might be a good one with close racing. So they dont want to tell people in advance that they only have the bottom 15 finnish riders. Regarding the finnish league the situation is the same. Teams are obligated to announce their lineup about a week before the round, but not once in past 3 years have I seen them publicly announced. For it to being a secret sport over here, well maybe it is. But we currently have some good people working on it, with stamina to improve on all areas...

No. The clubs in Finland dont usually give the names of the riders until you buy the program and read it there when it happens. Clearly this is something that could be done differently.

Some resuffling in the finnish league... I read yesterday that Cesary Owizyc has withdrawn from the Pori team, and also they are having some difficulties with another foreigner. Well they have 3 weeks to get things going again... There's a longtrack meet in Forssa next sunday, saturday is reserved for practise. I was on the phone to Forssa about an hour ago, not much riders to race with but they should have enough to make a couple of full heats.

FIM, no link to give.

Wild card 16. Fredrik Lindgren Track reserves 17. Jonas Davidsson 18. Eric Andersson

SM-liiga, 29.4 Daugavpils/Latvia 1) Kotkat, SeMK 30 Kaj Laukkanen 18 S.Drevjatnikov 7 Rene Lehtinen 4 Joni Keskinen 1 2) Speedway-Centrs 29 D. Saifutdinov 13 V. Girutskij 8 E. Karavatskij 3 E. Petuhov 5 3) KeittiöPiste, KMMK 28 A. Kazionnyi 11 Juha Hautamäki 8 Juha Mäkelä 6 Teemu Lahti 3 4)Leijona-Haukat 24 Tomi Reima 10 S.Lazarenko 5 N. Kaminskii 8 Joni Kitala 1 SM-liiga, tilanne 29.4 1/12 Kotkat, SeMK 1 - 30 - 5 Speedway-Centrs,Daugavpils 1 - 29 - 4 KeittiöPiste, KMMK 1 - 28 - 3 Leijona-Haukat, HMK-SsMK 1 - 24 - 2 Paholaiset, PMK 0 - 0 - 0 Snails, VRT 0 - 0 - 0 Rene Lehtinen was 7. at the longtrack meet in Berin yesterday. He blew up his FGM GM in his second ride, and managed to qualify for the A-final with his VT Jawa. FINAALI: 1. Gerd Riss Saksa 2. Robert Eibl Saksa 3. Matthias Kröger Saksa 4. Jörg Tebbe Saksa 5. Enrico Janoschka Saksa 6. Nynke De Jong Hollanti 7. Rene Lehtinen Suomi 8. Jaroslav Ptak Tshekki Ryhmä A: 1. Gerd Riss Saksa 7 7 7 7 28 2. Matthias Kröger Saksa 6 6 6 4 22 3. Jörg Tebbe Saksa 3 4 5 6 18 4. Enrico Janoschka Saksa 4 5 4 5 18 5. Markus Eibl Saksa 5 R 3 3 11 6. Christian Hülshorst Saksa 1 3 2 R 6 7. Kenneth Borgenhaug Norja 2 1 R 2 5 8. Zdenek Schneiderwind Tshekki 0 2 1 1 4 Ryhmä B: 1. Nybke de Jong Hollanti 7 6 5 6 24 2. Jaroslav Ptak Tshekki 5 7 7 R 19 3. Rene Lehtinen Suomi 6 R 4 7 17 4. Sjoerd Rozenbereg Hollanti 4 5 3 5 17 5. Ronny Stüdemann Saksa 2 4 6 4 16 6. Klaus-Peter Gerdemann Saksa 3 2 2 R 7 7. Stefan Bromberg Saksa 0 1 1 3 5 8. John Hartley Englanti 1 3 0 - 4 9. Paul Evitts Englanti - - - 2 2

Well... If I tell you it's his second season on longtrack and he has one monoshock (+1 older) bike and one FGM tuned GM to take to the qualifier... He's riding in Berlin next sunday, maybe you'll go and check him out and tell me! And he's only 21. Janne Koivula was overlooked because he was unable to take part after being nominated on a 4 day notice last year. Markus Helin declined as well, but he is in this years qualifier's. The nominations were an absolute farce, and since then Koivula tried to argue his case were ever possible in the SML. No luck, and he's called it a day.

This was HOT off the press, I'm not sure even the people at SML knew it yet when I wrote it (or do they even care ). But it is as accurate info as a man who makes the decisions can give! (it wasn't me)

I think he's on a 6,5 to 7 point average. So when enough riders are hurt, and all other's from under different size of rocks are used I'm sure he'll be contacted. He's ready and willing, but needs a riding berth to come over. His finances do not allow him to just come over for a few weeks and beg for 2nd half rides.

No, thats not what I mean. If you go to a FIM rule book you wont find ice speedway but ice racing. They do speedway on ice at Telford. Here in Finland we call it "jääspeedway - icespeedway" but thats not english is it. And if you type speedway in to google you'll find loads of American car racing track's that are infact speedway's. Like Arlington, Daytona, Laguna Seca and track's like that. I pointed this out because I've never heard of American motor speedway, the sport. They ride speedway though in the states. Then again I didn' even bother to check... EDIT: checked

There is no ice speedway, but there's speedway on ice. Ice racing is probably what you're after. As for American motor speedway, I'm sure thats a track, not a sport.

Finnish riders for the U21 World qualifier @ Holsted are Rene Lehtinen, Joni Keskinen and Aarni Heikkilä. Aarni Heikkilä will also ride in the U19 European semifinal, where ever that'll be. I'm not expecting any success.

Please prove me wrong, but the only place to get heat times for the GP's is the Speedway Star and the official result sheet given to media directly after the meeting in the media room of the GP in question. I just cant understand why it is so!?

The finnish league starts next saturday at Daugavpils Latvia, with the locals Daugavpils, KeittiöPiste KMMK, Leijonat Helsinki and Kotkat Seinäjoki. I dont know the riders to the meeting yet, but I do know that Kauko Nieminen (Kotkat) isn't there, Toni Salmela (Leijonat) isn't there and Jyri Palomäki (Keittiöpiste) isn't there. Infact my sources have informed me that Toni Salmela isn't riding at all this season, because of an foot injury from last year. For the opening round Salmela will be replaced by a "local" rider, whoever it's gonna be... lol A training camp that was supposed to be organized at Latvia during easter was moved to Sweden, and apparently was a success, since I got a call to say "it's been a long time since something this good has happened!" In a SML meeting yesterday the spokesman for track racing, Matti Pöysä was unable to retain his spot in the board, so it's a bit uncertain times ahead for "us". On a lighter note he has received the highest possible status from the FIM in organising meetings, and is the sole person in any motorsport in Finland to have such a status. He's also a qualified FIM referee.

Did anyone try and get the DK4 to show as a last minute effort? Did you succeed or does it need a few days to start itself?

YIPPIII!!! Both my riders from the forum game are through...!!!!!!!!!!!

Malcolm Holloway has highly recommended the pub right across the main entrance, "Arm's something?" Having met and spoken with Mr. H a trust him with every speedway info he gives. And It's of no coincidence that I have traded my basic outlet T-shirt for a Ryan Fisher team-shirt in that same bar for a pint of beer from... Mr Ryan Fisher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not know you could do such distances in Denmark!

160 DK would that be around 15-20 Euros? Last year it was annual fee. I wasn't a subscriber, but a friend of mine was. It was also free for a while, but apparently all the speedwayworld without Sky started watching it... I think it took a few days to get activated.

KRZYSZTOF Kasprzak scored only three points in Monday's meeting with Polonia Bydgoszcz. His father blames his club – Unia Leszno – for that. "Just before the meeting Krzysztof was informed that he would start from a reserve position. He was stunned," says Zenon Kasprzak, one of Poland's best speedway riders in the past. "If he had started in the main body, he would have scored many more points, that is sure. But the club's bosses wanted to make places for two foreign riders. It happened at the cost of Krzysztof," blasted Zenon. Unia Leszno coach Zbigniew Jader decided not to comment on this attack. But Krzysztof Kasprzak is disappointed, just as his father. "During the last five years I saved Leszno many times. And how am I treated now?" asks Kasprzak, who has just been given a wild card for Speedway Grand Prix in Wroclaw (6 May). This is from speedwayworld.tv, and makes no sense to me.

Reigning finnish ice racing champion Pekka Karttunen has called it a day, and finished his career. This because the authorities decided that the finnish final was ridden wrongly and the results do not stand. Apparently there was a protest from Oulu MK, because Raimo Henrikkson was disqualied from one heat, because he was in the wrong heat (read earlier post). Karttunen quitting is no good. Also one other career has finished, one of ref J. Lindström because of the same reason. He thought it was a stupid decision and called it a day. There's one other ref that could call it a day as well... Janne Koivula is quitting longtrack because of problems with nominations for the WC. The SML (governing body) is back to it's old self, and a speedway training camp to be held at Latvia during easter is under threat. After everything was sorted, it now seems that the riders have to pay for participating after all. There a lot weird s""t going on at the moment in speedway. I hope I wake up next week and it's all been april fool's... ps. sorry Puma, cant help you at the mo, maybe in the future

source the same as above Update: 27.3.2006 "The firefighting efforts have now been suspended as there are no flames, although there is still smoke and some fires may still be burning inside containers. Salvors are concerned about the amount of water in hold no 5, as this gives rise to concerns about stability and are they investigating pumping out the hold. Salvors also obtained a local salvage permit from the local authorities. As yet, it is too early to say what level the salvage security will be set at. It is also not yet known which port the vessel can be taken to. We suspect the vessel may be towed to Dubai however we expect that this is likely to become clearer towards the end of this week. Regarding the cause of the fire, our fire expert has started preliminary investigations pending being able to attend on board. Interesting and valuable information has already been obtained." Apparently the cause of the fire were the seven containers full of fireworks that were stacked somewhere in the middle of the rear end of the ship. When they lit up, some containers were thrown overboard. Funny thing is, a similar incident caused by containers full of fireworks occurred some 5 years ago, on a "Hanjin Something", pretty well covered on the interet. Saw a few pictures of the fire, the BSI still have a lot to learn about organizing fireworks... http://www.cargolaw.com/2002nightmare_penn.html

I've been advised to say "Never heard!" when somebody ask's. He paints car's with his dad here in Tampere area. Stories vary, but thats what they try to do.

http://dolphin-maritime.com/casualty567.html Hyundai Fortune - Explosion and fire - LOF Casualty type: Fire - containers lost overboard Voyage from/to: Far East ports to Europe Casualty Date: 21.3.2006 Vessel Type: Container vessel Grt: 64054 Built: 1996 Cargo: Containers UPDATE 23.03.2006 The vessel is still burning fiercely in position 12.40.3 N 046.55.4E Tug WADI HASSAN is alongside firefighting, having arrived at 15.00 UTC. The salvors’ firefighting tug RAKHYUT is expected on site at 0.300 hrs tomorrow. Salvors’ ocean going tug SMITWIJS ROTTERDAM is expected at Aden 0.800 local time tomorrow. Local tug RAS ISA is going to start fitment of firefighting equipment tomorrow in Aden with a view to assisting in the firefighting. 7 men are already on site, with another 10 en route. An aircraft is being chartered to fly in additional equipment. On site at the moment, salvors are concentrating on containing the spread of the fire, which is already one stack of containers ahead of the accommodation deck. The heading of the casualty has been controlled to try to reduce the spread of the fire. It appears that some fuel tanks are very hot and possibly are on fire. At the aft end of the ship the hole is such that one can see right through the ship. There are also local regulatory hurdles which salvors will need to overcome as a permit must be obtained from the Yemeni authorities. --------------------------------------------------- 22.3.2006 - Update We are already instructed by a number of cargo interests. Rumours of the vessel sinking are, we understand, untrue. Salvors are still en route but the fire has now spread from the stern to forward of the accomodation block. More cargoes will be a CTL as a result. The vessel has 5100 TEU on board and it appears the fire and explosion started in the cargo space to the stern of the vessel. There is currently a gaping hole in the hull above the waterline. It appears early reports of a possible terrorist attack are unlikely to be true. We have retained an experienced fire expert to attend on site once the vessel has been salved. This will be important in order to determine the risks and dangers endured by salvage services (with a view to challenging salvors’ demands if appropriate) and also to confirm the cause of the fire and the effectiveness of the fire fighting operations in respect of the recovery claim. We remain ready to assist you if you have insured cargo on board the vessel.