f-s-p

Is this the official unofficial entrylist for GP predictions? If thats the case, then 1. Trick 2. Jason Crump 3. Antonio Lindback 4. Ryan Sullivan

Finnish U21: Tero Aarnio ( KeittiöJet in Finland and Eldarna in Sweden) Finnish U16 (80cc class): Kalle Katajisto (Snails in Finland and Kaparna in Sweden) Finnish Longtrack: Jari Ahlbom Finnish League: Leijona-Haukat (combined Helsinki and Lahti)

Finnish Championship, Seinäjoki, 24.7.2004 Kaj Laukkanen SeMK 3 3 3 3 3 15 Juha Hautamäki KMMK 2 3 3 3 3 14 Tero Aarnio KMMK 3 2 3 2 2 12 Jani Mäkelä SEMK 2 3 3 2 2 12 Juha Mäkelä SeMK 3 2 1 3 1 10 Rene Lehtinen SeMK 1 2 2 2 3 10 Kake Nieminen SEMK 3 3 2 X - 8 Toni Salmela FMS 0 2 0 3 3 8 Margus Mandre Eesti 1 1 2 2 2 8 Panu Karvonen KMMK 2 1 2 X 1 6 Joni Keskinen SEMK 2 1 0 1 0 4 Jani Eerikäinen 1 0 1 1 1 4 Teemu Lahti KMMK 0 0 1 0 2 3 Aarni Heikkilä FMS 0 0 1 1 1 3 Petri Koskela 1 1 0 0 0 2 Joni Kitala SSMK 0 0 0 1 0 1 Q 1: Keskinen Eerikäinen, Lahti Q 2: Koskela, Kitala, Heikkilä Q 3: Eerikäinen, Lahti, Heikkilä Heat 1: Laukkanen, Hautamäki, Mandre, Lahti 61,96 Heat 2: Aarnio, Ja Mäkelä, Lehtinen, Salmela 63,75 Heat 3: Nieminen, Keskinen, Eerikäinen, Heikkilä 64,13 Heat 4: Ju Mäkelä, Karvonen, Koskela, Kitala 66,05 Heat 5: Laukkanen, Lehtinen, Keskinen, Kitala 61,23 (new track record!) Heat 6: Hautamäki, Salmela, Karvonen, Eerikäinen 64,87 Heat 7: Nieminen, Aarnio, Koskela, Lahti 63,98 Heat 8: Ja Mäkelä, Ju Mäkelä, Mandre 65,64 Heat 9: Laukkanen, Nieminen, Ju Mäkelä, Salmela 62,97 Heat 10: Hautamäki, Lehtinen, Heikkilä, Koskela 64,66 Heat 11: Ja Mäkelä, Karvonen, Lahti, Keskinen 66,27 Heat 12: Aarnio, Mandre, Eerikäinen, Kitala 64,33 Heat 13: Laukkanen, Aarnio, Heikkilä, Karvonen(exl. tapes) 61,93 Heat 14, 2nd re-run: Hautamäki, Ja Mäkelä, Kitala, Nieminen (f, exl.) 65,43 Heat 15: Ju Mäkelä, Lehtinen, Eerikäinen, Lahti 67,25 Heat 16: Salmela, Mandre, Keskinen, Koskela 68,79 Heat 17: Laukkanen, Ja Mäkelä, Eerikäinen, Koskela 62,04 Heat 18: Hautamäki, Aarnio, Ju Mäkelä, Keskinen 65,22 Heat 19: Salmela, Lahti, Heikkilä, Kitala 70,03 Heat 20: Lehtinen, Mandre, Karvonen 68,52 B-Final: Lehtinen, Salmela, Ju Mäkelä® 66,63 A-Final: Laukkanen, Hautamäki, Aarnio, Ja Mäkelä 61,84 Racing suffered due to a poor first bend (soft and patchy). Laukkanen had to fight hard against Nieminen in heat 9. He missed the start totally (clutch broke), and was third exiting the first bend. For three laps he was allover Kake, and finally an all or nothing move going into turn 3 on the last lap, then cutting on the inside made him victoriuos by a margin of 50cm. Heat 14 Jani Mäkelä and Nieminen collided, and Nieminen hit the fence quite hard. This incident wrecked his number 1 bike, and in the first re-run, still a bit shaken, he fell on his own and was excluded. Basicly this demolished his chances of making it to the A-final, so he packed it in. A-final was from the tapes, no passing after first bend. Move of the meeting was made by Juha Hautamäki in heat 6, going wide and taking Salmela from the outside of second bend, just enough ahead to cut infront of him going in to turn one. Attendance was close to 500, weather was cloudy but dry.

Was won by Kaj Laukkanen. The title was his seventh, and like many times before, he had to battle for it. And like many times before, again, his biggest rivals were Kauko Nieminen and Juha Hautamäki. Joonas Kylmäkorpi didn't ride (I think he's still injured) and Sergei Darkin was a no show, due to his Coventry deal, I presume. I will post heat details and comments within 24hrs, but after driving home in absolutely terribly weather for 3hrs, stopping 3 times because cuoldn't see trough the rain, I think I need a relaxing chat with ms(?) Stella Artois and mr Newcastle, B.A.

The system. Alltough I already edited my post once, I came to realize it still wasn't what I was after. I've been thinking about this for some time now, and to me the best one at the moment seems to be the one they use(d?) in ELRC. 20 heats, after which 2 best to the final, and numbers 3-6 ride for 2 more slots in the final. That way the best 2 get the benefits of a good meeting, and they dont have to face elimination in a semifinal. The current GP system is OK, but I see no point in riding d,c and b finals like they do in Ice Racing GP's. Why bother with a d-final, when everyone has had a fair chance of qualifying for THE A-final? Generaölly about Ice racing, I do find it a bit boring. I cant understand why people call speedway scalextric, but I sort of get the idea when it comes to ice racing.

A and B SEMIFINAL, of which 2 best goes to the final. Thats what I think I know. The system they are using in the qualis. EDIT: Ice racing system is different, and it sucks

1. Jason Crump 2. Ryan Sullivan 3. Gregory Hancock 4. Leigh Adams

I know I read it from the star, about the Howe-Stead situation last year. At Wroclaw I asked Lukas about this, and at that moment before the meeting, he thought that he was getting Svab's place, because they were at the same draw? I think Hampel hit the shovel deep under his own feet by stepping down from the qualifiers, and took the first step towards the handle at Cardiff. He is going to be in the GP next year, but he is not making it easy for himself. He should have gone trough the quali's!

Pictures of the meeting have been posted by mr. Jurmu at www.teamlaine.com. On the left go to KUVAGALLERIA and then on the middle go for SPEEDWAYKUVAT. @ iris, honestly I dont know why this is. Maybe this was done ages ago, when world was still big, and it sounded good to keep us (as in me and the others) scandinavians where we were coming from...

I just want to see the GP on the box. We are coming to London for the sights, and I already checked my hotel, the Ibis Wembley, and they dont have skysports. Could somebody please tell me if there's a pub nearby showing the meeting, or is there a list of SkySports-bars in the web, like there's a list for Premiere- Sportsbar's here in Berlin?

Why is Holta not riding? That would mean Joonas Coldforest is taking his place, and I'm stuck at Ibis Wembley to watch it on TV (if they even have SS)! §$" 1. Crump 2. L. Richardson 3. Gregory Hancock 4. Bo Brhel Since I'm out for this years series, I'm going for the BIG ONE here. Don't take this the wrong way, but I had a good laugh reading your e-mail pugwash, and like we both know they are not making the track for Kaj at Cardiff, but he'll get more then 2 rides...

Heard that Fredrik Lindgren was the man of the day, easily the fastest, alltough lost a point in the early heats. Risager alltough with a big team, flashy bikes and gadgets looked mortal on the bike. And for Iris: I've been thinking about your question, and alltough at the moment even Finland has a member in the FIM commission (Ilkka Teromaa), I dont think that the Scandic Qualifier is a result of good lobbying. If you look at the older results in the books for the SGP-qualifiers, there has always been the Nordic final for the Scandinavians. So may this is just a relic.

I'm up for it! You can interview me in finnish and swedish too... Nicki isn't good at english, but at least it's somewhat fluent, even with the youknows. Compared to other motorracing World champions he's a pro with his english. The likes of Marcus Grönholm, Mika Häkkinen and Tommi Mäkinen all (finnish) suck at it. " Ai wont tu tänk te tiim änd te reis was kut pat te klats wos slipperi..." Just for the books, I'm not a fan...

1 Niklas Fridell Sweden 2 Mads Korneliussen Denmark 3 Rene Lehtinen Finland 4 Joni Keskinen Finland 5 Tero Aarnio Finland 6 Tobias Messing Sweden 7 Henrik Möller Denmark 8 Jan Mikke Bjerk Norway 9 Morten Risager Denmark 10 Fredrik Lindgren Sweden 11 Petri Koskela Finland 12 Eric Andersson Sweden 13 Rune Sola Norway 14 Rune Knudsen Denmark 15 Lars Hansen Denmark 16 Jonas Davidsson Sweden 17 Aarni Heikkilä Finland 18 Joni Kitala Finland (www.teamlaine.com)

Fisher has to go trough from this one. He did it last year in the semifinal at Abensberg, even while struggling with his machinery. So this time plain sail, I hope. Hopefully Knakowski makes it also, though I've seen him struggle if the track doesn't suit him.

Probably Dryml, he is the first reserve and a czeck(?) like Svab. Last year, when Howe had to withdraw from the final round, his place went to Stead instead of Kylmäkorpi, in that case it was about federations I think. Well now it's the same federation and first reserve, so go Lukas!!

The weather shouldn't provide any difficulties this time, sunny and almost +20C are todays figures. If thats the the case, I'll go for: 1. Crump 2. Gollob 3. Sullivan 4. Loram In case it rains, i'll go for JD

You mean like the one they have at Gothenburg... We`ll be there

Yesterday I bought the train tickets to Wroclaw (from Berlin). Incase anyone is interested in some combined flying (Easyjet is flying from London Luton to Berlin Schönefeld) and train travelling, details (for two) as follows: On friday 28.5. 09.38 IC241 Berlin Zoologischer Garten, arrives at 15.42 Wroclaw Glowny, so traveltime is 6.04hrs On monday 31.5 12.41 IC240 Wroclaw Glowny, arrives at 19.02 Berlin Zoologischer Garten, traveltime 6.21 Price was 71,50 € (Sparpreis Europa, this train at this time, no refund) + reservation fee 6€ per ticket, so it came to 83,50€. Regular fare was 118€, allowing last minute changes(yes) and refund(?). There are, naturally, other trains to Wroclaw also, but we are taking this one. You cand find more info at www.db.de. The station Wroclaw Glowny is about 2 miles from the stadium. And also there has been A LOT of talk about taking the airfence of the straights starting at Wroclaw in the Swedish press. I might be wrong, but I believe I even saw it stated as a fact. Then again, I havent been feeling all that well after Prague...

GP, we were on row 6. The "strippers" were to our left and I had a long talk with a danish? man in bermudas on a former finnish rider. He was sitting in front of us.

From some personal experience I can say that friday night count's as well! =) Seems like you were sitting right in front us.

I dont mean to spoil day already, but I believe that if it rains, there will be no bobsleighs (been there and been denied that!). That's because when the metaltube youre supposed to ride in gets wet there's no friction for the brakes. Speeds might get well beyond 50km/h. Then again, sounds even more fun, and my travel insurance wont expire until august...

I'm planning on being there too, with my Ullevi compensation tickets. I've asked after them, and was told by the BSI, that tickets wont be available until few weeks prior to the GP. Alltough that doesn't prevent them being on sale, I wouldn't hold my breath while waiting =)

Travel details to Prague (in my jacket pocket) must have messed my head, since I was convinced Wroclaw was on the 15th. Guess I'll have to do some sightseeing afterall... We dont have tickets yet, we do have a hotelroom in Wroclaw and train tickets from Berlin.

Just wanted to know if there's going to be league speedway on the same stadion on sunday following the GP. If not where's it going to be staged? I'm coming to Wroclaw on friday before the GP, and leaving on monday. My girlfriend thinks we'll do some sightseeing on sunday, but if there's league racing...