f-s-p

For this to be completely fair to everyone, you have to forget about the 24 rider format with the eliminators. If someone takes his 1st heat after others have already been eliminated, how can it be fair? So it's practicly useless. Dont expect any feedback from BSI, most unlikely.

Yeah I thought about it, but Gröndal is WAY different than Ullevi or OS. They did have a "ticnet" booth at Ullevi last year, or at least they sold tickets by the stadion. Maybe they'll have something similar this year. waiting confirmation...

Just bought tickets via ticnet. Is there a place in Eskilstuna where I can pick them up? Or is it better to wait in Stockholm on saturday morning for one to open up? Ola..?

Maybe I could start running Reading for him next year, if he finds the money...

I went trough the book for a story, and found out that every rider has a chance to be in it, because every federation can offer riders for a wildcard. If enough riders are unavailable, "everyone" could be in it. Maybe I should apply for the race director-position. Hotel for three night's for FREE in every Grand Prix. And the meeting ref can overrule you during practise and the meeting itself, which means he can also run the practise and meeting himself... But seriously it says that the ref can overrule race director, dont know how it was in the old book, but maybe there's a cut in RD's rights?

Why!!! I dont get it... You better start getting the feel for the cap's, it's only few weeks time until the tapes go up again...

More yes than no!? Didn't get a good answer from a friend who followed the sport 15 years ago. He makes Antti Aakkos bikes at the moment, for a couple of seasons already. I think I should redefine the borrowed machinery in Flyktmans case, VT has provided them with equipment (as in sponsored), not borrowed them. Guess who asked "Who's he?" when heard the name Erik Stenlund, and found out five seconds later he was sitting next to him in a minibus... happened in Poland after the Bydgoszxs GP

Friend of mine who I was staying with, had moved and I had no access to internet. Sorry about the delay. results: Tommy Flyktman 33333 15 Antti Aakko 33233 14 Kai Lehtinen 33133 13 Jouni Seppänen 12332 11 Mika Kastren 23311 10 Sami Räsänen 22222 10 Pekka Karttunen 32220 9 Jussi Hytönen 22221 9 Teppo Toivola 11320 7 Christer Biskop 01113 Jaakko Mäki 20012 5 Jani Ahola 01102 4 Tomi Kirilov 11101 4 Tommi Suolammi 0k011 2 Ville Koskivähälä 10000 1 Timo Kankkunen h 000h 0 Ari Nevala 1. Flyktman, Räsänen, Seppänen, Biskop 58,86 2. Aakko, Hytönen, Kirilov, Ahola 61,82 3. Lehtinen, Kastren, Koskivähälä, Kankkunen (XT) 61,34 4. Karttunen, Toivola, Mäki, Suolammi 61,60 5. Kastren, Räsänen, Kirilov, Suolammi (R/engine) 62,80 6. Lehtinen, Seppänen, Ahola, Mäki 61,28 7. Aakko, Karttunen, Biskop, Koskivähälä 62,50 8. Flyktman, Hytönen, Toivola, Kankkunen 61,80 9. Toivola, Räsänen, Ahola, Koskivähälä 63,63 10. Seppänen, Karttunen Kirilov, Kankkunen 64,10 11. Kastren, Hytönen, Biskop, Mäki 65,41 12. Flyktman, Aakko, Lehtinen, Suolammi 62,11 13. Aakko, Räsänen, Mäki, Kankkunen 63,91 14. Seppänen, Hytönen, Suolammi Koskivähälä 66,01 15. Lehtinen, Toivola, Biskop, Kirilov 60,53 16. Flyktman, Karttunen, Kastren, Ahola 63,70 17. (re-run) Lehtinen, Räsänen, Hytönen, Karttunen 64,62 18. Aakko, Seppänen, Kastren, Toivola 64,68 19. Biskop, Ahola, Suolammi, Kankkunen (XT) 70,00 20. Flyktman, Mäki, Kirilov, Koskivähälä 64,76 Better meeting than I expected. -25 weather the night before made the ice very hard, and the racing suffered as the meeting progressed. Aakko made two mistakes that cost him the championship. In heats 7 and 12 he was left spinnig at the tapes, and in heat 12 he couldnt challenge Flycktman, who looked extremely fast. Flyckman was riding bikes and motors from Veijo Tuoriniemi, and especially in heat 1 when Räsänen took the start it looked he could've won even further from the back. Kai Lehtinen took his 1st medal after 20 years in the sport, riding with Aki Ala-Riihimäkis equipment. Being family and all. Raimo Henriksson has left the door open for a comeback next year, cant remeber what Aki said to the same question. Jimmy was on his feet helping his brother. After the accident he stayed in hospital for 12 weeks, before checking himself out before total boredom. He's been training, and expects to make a comeback in ice racing in 2006. Doctors gave him a riding ban for 18 months, and the metalwork in his back will be taken of later this year.

Jimmy had a bad crash in a longtrack meeting last summer in Finland. In fact there was a bad crash in practicly every longtrack meeting last year. He broke a lot of bones, and I think he's still in hospital, not sure. He was entering 1 bend when he collided with someone, and went straight on trough where there was no fence... It's an open meeting, because there's not so many riders. Winter here is practically non-excistent, Aakko has had the most practise = most meetings in Austria and Sweden. I think only one training session has been organised, that was last weekend.

Riders in the meeting are: 1. Sami Räsänen P-KMK 2. Jouni Seppänen FMS 3. Christer Biskop 4. Tommy Flyktman Ruotsi 5. Tomi Kirilov PirMM 6. Q 1. 7. Antti Aakko OMK 8. Jussi Hytönen KMMK 9. Mika Kastren KRT 10. Kai Lehtinen Vähämäki & Toivola Motorsport 11. Q 2. 12. Timo Kankkunen P-KMK 13. Q 3. 14. Jaakko Mäki FMS 15. Pekka Karttunen P-KMK 16. Teppo Toivola Vähämäki & Toivola Motorsport 17. Q 4. (reserve) Qualifying heat: Ville Koski-Vähälä KRT Ari Nevala PirMM Tommi Suolammi HäMK Jani Ahola KRT Riders from the qualifying heat will ride in the meeting as it indicates in the roster. Antti Aakko is the only favourite, and expects Tommy Flyktman to be his main threat. Raimo Henriksson, Seppo Klemettilä and Aki Ala-Riihimäki have (to my knowledge) all retired, so the gap between Aakko and the next one is most likely to be more than half a straight. I dont really have any expectations about the meeting, but I'm going, and I'll post the results sometime next weekend.

OK, so they rode yesterday as well. Vielen Danke!!

Yes I know they are, I've seen the icemania.at advert on it. But to me it says practise on Saturday and the meeting on Sunday. Or are they riding 40 heats today..? Dont think that the track could take that..? Thanks anyway...

Whats going on here? They are riding in Bollnäs and in Russia: two days and two meetings combining the points, and in Saalfelden one day with one meeting?!? Yet everybody is in the same competition... I must be missing something!

Assume that this position is adjacent to a bar. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I didn't even bother to check ! But I think that issue will sort it self out...

Row 17 at L32 here we come!

When you think what a football player earns for booting a bag of wind up & down a field for 90 mins,i'm sorry but in my opinion,ice racer's are more talented & professional!!!!!!! That's what I thought, not PRO pro, 1/3 pro to be more exact. But I dont agree what you're saying on ice racer's, sure it take's a man to be an ice racer, but not as much talent as it takes to be a footballer.

It felt good to read that A. Aakko had rode so well, and had beaten Frank Zorn. Last year if I remember correctly he not once beat N. Krasnikov, and since FZ seems like the man man to beat this year, it's good to get it over with this early in the season. I sincereally hope that AA makes his mark in the world champ's this year, and cant wait to see in the national champ's on 29. of January. On other issues, how on earth can Zorn really be professional ice racer???? Season is 4 months with less than 20 meetings... Doesnt add up in my head!

We sat near the tapes last time on the bottom tier, I felt they were the best in the house. Only minus was the big screens that we didn't see at all, instead we had our own tv monitor a couple of meters in front of us. Last time I found a sketch of the stadium, cut from the side and I was able to count the rows that were gonna be on, but I've lost it by now. Think it was 22 or something. Wouldn't mind taking the Methanol Club ticket with the overnight stay, but I think I'll get a better value for my money (37£) from L33... "Nobody would be able to see if you did." You are so right! And sitting back row would also make it easier to get seconds and going to the toilet. The long wait for the beer was the reason why my friend missed the "naked runner" the last time.

Can anyone remember how far up are the seats covered on the lower level? At the moment the on-line ticket service is giving me row 17 as the best possible... Wouldn't want to sit on the 1st row =(

Anyone have any better info on the crash that ended Tero Aarnios night of indoor speedway on friday. The word is that Smolinski ran into him exiting a corner or something..? Anyway Tero woke up in the hospital wondering why doctors speak german. He hit the fence so hard that the last thing he remembers is going out for the heat.

You can always get a taxi from Riga to Wroclaw. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Leaving Torun to get to Warsaw this year we decided to take taxi also, it sort of became the theme of the trip. So of to the taxi stand and to get a price. I walked along the street looking for a better car of the lot, and decided on a MB station wagon from the pack of some mailboxes on wheels . Got a good deal and put the gear in the back. Tallest of us all I sit in the front and as I open the front door I notice that someone has hit the front end of the car earlier... Doing some 80-120 km/h the whole 200+km, everytime the car hit a rut, the tire touched the body of the car, made a nasty sound and burned rubber started to smell! Not very funny!! And try to imagine the road from torun to warsaw, its not like the M1. Especially since we had no idea about the condition of the tire. And in the middle nowhere, but still in Poland, we stopped for gas, as in propane, and the driver lights up and heads for the pump... Sorry, but a taxi ride from Riga to Wroclaw is out of the question.

I think I'm booked for a weekend in Riga, Latvia with the ms's and the inlaws for the Wroclaw weekend. Since no Rye House, it's off to Swindon and Somerset. Alltough if Oxford decide to race on thursdays we are going there, since Swindon is already on the beentheredonethat-list. Somerset was great on our last visit, looking forward to being there again, and keeping my fingers crossed that there's a bar open this time! We are flying to stansted on a wednesday evening, and back on sunday afternoon. That limits the amount of "afterspeedway" in Cardiff, but I think we'll have enough time for a chat anyway.

I'm coming to Cardiff as well, hoping to add some other meetings as well. Thursday and friday racing are open to offers, remember Splatty praising Rye House speedway, anyone know whats their racenight and where's it at? Eskilstuna is also confirmed, Målilla is on the table at the moment. Copenhagen is too expensive, Prague has too much tourists and I dont want to add the number, Krsko and Lonigo both seem too far away. Bydgoszs was fun and would very much like to see it again.

We stayed at the Europejski near the train station. Double room for 3 nights was around 90€, with good breakfast. Like the Krystal in Prague, Europejski is a relic from the 70's, but for the occasional speedway traveller who's more interested in the "after speedway" then the wallpapers in the room its the perfect place for the 4 hrs of sleep every night. Also practicly all the trams stop 100m from the hotel entrance and the main square is on a walking distance. Tip for anyone whos interested, check out "Jahrhundert-halle" in Wroclaw, and the park area surrounding it. They are a couple of miles southeast from the stadium, amazing site. No big surprise that we found it while trying to get to the stadium. I wont admit that we were lost...

We stayed at the Krystal last year. I remember there was some swedes also, and of course the germans we went there with. We walked to the stadium from the hotel. Would have been a 20 minute trek if we wouldnt have got sort of lost. Ended up making a nice number 8 on nearby streets of the stadium. Theres a tram stop 100m from the hotel entrance, so thats covered. I think a double room would have been around 40€ with breakfast, which by the way was practically non-excistent!