f-s-p

Seen the stadium, very nice. Problem is the road leading there, cant see 5000 cars getting in / out of there saturday night . Now is that capacity with the extra stands probably fitted for the gp, or the capacity now? (Would be..?) No finnish calendar this year Ola, didn't have the time to get anyone to pay for it with school and work taking their toll on me... I'll get back on it next year

Thats the only way Finland is ever going to make it in football. We played against Albania or Romania, and won 2-0 or something. Goals scored for Finland Shefki Kugi, originally from Kosovo, and Alexei Eremenko jr, from somewhere. His father came to Finland in the 80's to play, and his son got finnish passport.

Great Britain won the Olympics twice? in the thirties in ice hockey, thats not bad =) What comes to british hockey being third rate in world ice hockey, now that would give me every right to say finnish speedway is second only to SGP! 4th rate and 40 year old hasbeen's finnish players come to UK to play... and get pretty good money. I think Manhcester Storm played in the now dead and buried European Hockey League. If I remember right they played in a 15000+ capacity ice rink, for reasonable crowds. The current European Cup for ice hockey isn't too respected in ice hockey countries. I'm also quite proud to say that Finland is currently number two in world ice hockey after losing against Canada in the World Cup final a month ago.

I was told earlier today that the big guns actually liked the track at Hamar. This means Leigh, Trick and the lot. Why wouldn't they, because the watering and hardening (whats the word for making the track harder?) started when their heats were coming. Point was that it wasn't as slick as in Bydgos and Krsko. Too small though with tight bends. Bjarne ended his GP career on a pile of talcum powder in the middle of the track, Joonas suffered from the yellow gate and the soft material as did the others. It was the worst GP I've ever seen live or on tv.

As you probably remember, last year Crump & co were always saying that in the long run the draw will make justice, no complaints. This year the s#¤t has landed on tRick, and like the business with the airfence after Wroclaw, tRick has made his opinions heard, and the draw of gates will disappear. Next year the rider will get his rewards of riding well in the prelis. Now this is a reliable source, but then again Rune Holta himself told me after Bydgoz that his season is over, and went on to win the Swedish league a week after...

Scotty Lee Hans Andersen A czheck, maybe Lukas because U21 champ Rune Holta if they are, which they probably are, riding in Hamar No way they'll give it to Bjarne and Hans both. Check your SS front pages and think which one would be better for speedway, Bjarne or Hans? Which gives better topics?

Well, I dont... Wonder why??? My head was so full of new spw info, that it seemed long into sunday afternoon that any beer found its place. During the weekend I had the chance of speaking about speedway under influence for 72hrs, which is about the same that I get this "quality time" in Finland for a year. I made an interview with Olli Tyrväinen, spoke with all you people, Middlo, Mr. Posselw, Scotty, Havvy (thanks to someone for sorting it out!), Rune, Kaj and his mechanics and dad, and my own friends also, who gave loads to remember for B&T Briggs!!! Thanks again! EDIT: forgot Tony Steele

I watched a video yesterday, where Förland took a couple of heat wins, needed to win his last one but became second, so missing the grand final. The meeting was the Ullevi Open, back in 1987... I think one WC should have gone to Joonas like it did last year. If Sola really is some youngster on his way up, fine, but this other one is just !!

Mine either, anymore... Got back to Finland late monday evening, home today afternoon. Just like our SAS from Copenhagen friday morning We started getting the facts straight the minute we came back to Finland, and I was actually a little bit disappointed not (really) seeing our group in it, because Splatty was on it every five minutes with his RH flag, and Papa with his wig. Good for you! It was really nice to meet you all, see you again next year!

no s##t m8. still going strong.........

Thanks, seems like I had S insted of Z. Alltough it was copied from a fax that was written on City hotel stationery. Like you said, all very strange...

How did you find this out? Because I cant find an email adress to City that works. And by the way, you are already paying for the first night...

We are eating at Spinx, they have menu in English. At Wroclaw we had to draw what we wanted at our hotels restaurant, not this time...

Now that I'm almost ready sorting out our travels, one last question remains. Do they have sell out meetings in Poland? Meaning is it 100% sure that we can get tickets for the Torun -Tarnow match on sunday..?

The speedway party is on friday night, starting at 18pm, in somesort of indoor arena called "Luscnizja" or something. The brochure from Gothenburg says there will be disco with fireworks, famous dj's, rider parade, autographs... Dont mean to dampen the party at Brda, but what about your fireworks...? We'll see what the weekend has to offer for the occasional speedway traveller, probably loads of Zywieczs and Piast!

It's settled then!! My "man" came trough, and we are booked in the City as well. I thought the hotels would be full, so I gave the task to someone who has connections. Apparently they are not, but at least we have a place to stay (a bit more high profile than the Europejski in Wroclaw though ...) We are arriving friday evening, on sunday morning we'll leave for the Torun meeting, and stay there overnight. Compensation tickets are arriving late this or early next week, we'll know about seats better by then. Probably backstraight...

I have a couple of tips for everyone who's going to stay in Berlin. 1. Pickers Sports bar, in Schlosstrasse. Take the U9 towards Rathaus Stegliz (south), and get of at Schlosstrasse, Pickers is directly above in the funny looking red building. Good food with a view over Berlin. Portions are big! It also has about 30 tv's that show whats on Premiere-sports channel. Dont know why, but I always thought Warsteiner tasted better at Pickers... We were suppose to come there, but we decided to fly via Warsaw instead. 2. Safe bet for nightlife is the Irish pub in the Europa-Center, which is next to the Zoo. Between U-Ku'damm and U-Wittenbergplatz. Live music every night, alltough the staff is usually not so nice. 3. To see Berlin from above, go to Pickers, TV-tower@Alexanderplatz (expensive+waiting in line), Reichstag (free but usually long wait), or something totally different (+free). Take what ever S- or U-bahn it may be, that takes you to Gesundbrunnen. That is situated at 12 o'clock on the Berlin ring. Get to street level and head for the hill inside the ring. You will have to walk thru a Rose Garden (looked very promising early summer)´, and some steps to get to the top, but it's worth it. You can see all the planes landing to Tegel, and if youve been to Pickers or Reichstag the day before, you realise that Berlin is not so big after all. More on request... Anyone who's tried it, can I make it from Poznan airport to Poznan Glowny, buy a ticket and get on the train in 40min? It says it's 7km...

I think there will be 2 GP's in Sweden and Poland in the future. Cant remember the population of Denmark at the moment, but speedway is very big in Denmark (you should have seen the setup of some of the U16 riders in the EC recently), but not big enough to support two meetings. Some countries have to stage two meetings. It is though in Sweden and Poland, and the reason for this years low number of spectators, is the f##kup with the Ullevi track last year. So harder work next year...

from http://www.sr.se/radiosporten/nyheter/arti...?artikel=466651 "Speedway: Nya svenska GP-arenor De två svenska arenor som haft GP-tävlingar de senaste säsongerna, Stockholm Stadion och Ullevi är inte aktuella längre. De engelska arrangörerna har ledsnat på banornas regnkänslighet och söker nya. Båda arenorna är regnkänsliga. Ullevi fick ställa in förra året då banorna inte höll för regnvädret dagarna innan och i år fick träningen före tävlingsdagen ställas in - också den gången var ett regn boven. De engelska arrangörerna Benfield sports BSI, chansar inte en gång till med Ullevi och på Stadion ska man dessutom lägga om löparbanorna. Cardiff, Köpenhamn och Hamar, andra icke permanenta speedwaybanor, har tak som skydd och därför söker BSI nu redan färdiga speedwaybanor i Sverige som klarar ett ev regn bättre. Avesta motorstadion ligger mycket bra till – Masarnas hemmarena har ju varit GP-värd förr, 2003 då strejken satte stopp för tävlingar på Stadion. Och där jobbar man nu hårt för att få ett bli en permanent GP-arena. Planer finns för att förbättra arenan ytterligare – mycket gjordes till GP-tävlingen 2003. Nu väntar man bara på ett positivt svar från de engelska arrangörerna. En annan arena i Sverige som kan bli aktuell, med stor publikkapacitet, närhet till flygplats och god hotellkapacitet, är Eskilstunas nybyggda stadion." Basically it says that due to the fact that these venues have no roof, and a temp track is vulnerable to hard rain, they are thinking/decided to move the GP's to permanent track's. Eskilstuna and Avesta are likely to stage these meetings next year.

Thanks Rico for the advice. I dont know yet about our hotel, but I have "a man" working on it. We'we booked flight's and all, we'll be there. I'll study them more closely, when I'm recovered from my trip to SGP Gothenburg. Actually it was a lot more than that, 11 days, 7 meetings, 3700km sitting in a car+ 2*11h ferry rides. Gotta love it...

It was actually quite heavy, but I didn't get any spills on my jacket. 45 minutes after the final heat, I heard Hans say, that he had received 48 text messages, so he has friends, still. I honestly dont know yet, what to make of him. Nice to see pugwash that you are still going strong, I've been waiting for a reply on my e-mail, and the floods in Cornwall made the news in Finland, so I didnt know what to think.

Well done Hans indeed, for winning the trophy, Which I had the the rare opportunity to embrace after the meeting (the trophy I mean )

How do you pronounce the "thank you" in polish? I had read it from here before the wroclaw gp, tried it a couple of times, usually I got a funny looking smile back! Personally I think polish and checz people are good with their english, and the fact that the security persons at the track dont speak it, is because when they were at school, they were told russian is the language to learn. Anyway, we are going to bydgosz on friday to sunday, seeing and staying in Torun on sunday, then flying home from Warsaw on monday. Every little detail on getting to the track and back in torun and bydgosz would be greatly appreciated. Especially because I cant speak or read polish, and we got lost on the tram in Wroclaw and missed the practise.

Now that would be stupid with a capital S!

I was absolutely devastated in Copenhagen, because none of the organizers spoke finnish!! Can you believe that?? Also in Copenhagen, on the backstraight, in front of me (3people) and besides me (2), all danish and pissed as hell by heat 16. I almost got the rubbish beaten out of me, when they started arguing. I was the one in middle, while security was watching the racing and having coffee. My girlfriends sister has really been getting on my nerves in the last two years, because she's always moaning about us finns and the way we drink. The fact is, that she has no idea whats happening elsewhere. Yes she's been abroad, but she likes it "posh", so she has no idea about the real people. People drink to get drunk all over the world. You shouldn't generalise a nation on the actions of individuals. I've been holding this message back for three months now, saw the opportunity and...