f-s-p

I think thats the biggest single reason. The other one is that with the growing international calendar there really are only a handfull of options. Now lets introduce FIM best pairs and FIM speedway league and a couple of more SEC rounds FOR 2015! Yes, lets do that. LOL

FIM chooses dates first, then FIM Europe and then SVEMO/SML + others. FIM Europe chose to pick a date for ECC, that was the same as the Abensberg GP quali. They also chose the date for the ECC that they KNEW would be a restaging date for the Berwick (then Austria) and Ljubljana rounds. FIM usually/always has 2 spare days, the following ones. Page one: http://www.fim-live.com/fileadmin/alfresco/06-07=SGP-QR=Ljubljana-SLO=SR,_update_16.04.2014.pdf

Was gonna skip this year alltogether, but since I was asked yesterday and I had a little time today, here are the results of the first two rounds of SM-liiga. Seinäjoki was abandoned after 14 heats due to torrential rain. Results will stand after 13 heats. Pori was pretty good speedway. Perhaps we'll hear from someone else, if it was any good... Speedwayn SM-liiga, ottelu 1 Seinäjoki (SeMK) 7.6.2014 Kymi 22 Ricky Kling 0323 8 Nike Lunna 101 2 Teemu Lahti 211 4 Jooa Partanen 233 8 Paholaishaukat 20 Niko Siltaniemi 203 5 Jiri Nieminen 3210 6 Marko Suojanen 21d 3 Jesse Mustonen 132 6 Kotkat 19 Robin Aspegren 0132 6 Juha Hautamäki 222 6 Joni Keskinen 10 1 Mika Loppi 3021 6 Sand Blowers 17 Kauko Nieminen 333 9 Daniel Henderson 1002 3 Jari Mäkinen 130 4 Aarni Heikkilä 001 1 Erä erältä: 1. Loppi, Partanen, J.Mustonen, Heikkilä 63,90 2. J.Nieminen, Siltaniemi, Lunna, Kling 64,15 3. Nieminen, Hautamäki, Henderson, Aspegren 62,34 4. J.Mustonen, Suojanen, Mäkinen, Heikkilä 65,69 5. Partanen, Lahti, Keskinen, Loppi 63,78 6. Kling, Hautamäki, Aspegren, Lunna 63,06 7. Nieminen, J.Nieminen, Suojanen, Henderson 63,06 8. Aspegren, Hautamäki, J.Nieminen, Siltaniemi 63,44 9. Mäkinen, Loppi, Heikkilä, Keskinen 65,72 10. Nieminen, Kling, Lunna, Henderson 63,44 11. Partanen, J.Mustonen, Lahti, Suojanen d 64,47 12. Siltaniemi, Aspegren, Loppi, J.Nieminen 64,37 13. Kling, Henderson, Lahti, Mäkinen 64,66 Ottelu keskeytettiin (sade), tulokset jää voimaan. Tuomari: Harri Heikkilä, katsojia 210. Speedwayn SM-liiga, ottelu 2 Pori (PMK) 8.6.2014 Kotkat 32+3 Robin Aspegren 12R3^11 8 Juha Hautamäki 03222 9+3 Mika Loppi 2233 10 Henri Ahlbom 3002 5 Kymi 32+2 Ricky Kling 333^333 18+2 Nike Lunna R1010 2 Teemu Lahti 3d23 8 Jesse Mustonen 1111 4 Paholaishaukat 31 Kalle Katajisto 32123 11 Niko Siltaniemi 21222 9 Jiri Nieminen 23R02 7 Marko Suojanen 2310 4 Sand Blowers 19 Kauko Nieminen 233dR 8 Daniel Henderson 1011R 3 Jari Mäkinen 121R1 5 Aarni Heikkilä 2001 3 Erä erältä: 1. Ahlbom, Heikkilä, Mustonen, Suojanen R 65,81 2. Kling, Nieminen, Henderson, Lunna R 63,82 3. Katajisto, Siltaniemi, Aspegren, Hautamäki 64,02 4. Lahti, Loppi, Mustonen, Ahlbom 64,92 5. Suojanen, J.Nieminen, Mäkinen, Heikkilä 65,77 6. Nieminen, Katajisto, Siltaniemi, Henderson 64,45 7. Hautamäki, Aspegren, Lunna, Lahti d 65,15 8. Kling, Siltaniemi, Katajisto, Lunna 63,59 9. J.Nieminen, Loppi, Suojanen, Ahlbom 65,85 10. Nieminen, Hautamäki, Henderson, Aspegren 64,22 11. Kling^, Mäkinen, Mustonen, Heikkilä 65,28 12. Kling, Katajisto, Lunna, J.Nieminen R 64,93 13. Aspegren, Hautamäki, Mäkinen, Nieminen d 65,06 14. Loppi, Siltaniemi, Aspegren, J.Nieminen 65,50 15. Kling, Loppi, Siltaniemi, Aspegren, J.Nieminen 64,97 16. Loppi, Ahlbom, Heikkilä, Mäkinen R 65,69 17. Lahti, J.Nieminen, Mustonen, Suojanen 65,14 18. Kling, Hautamäki, Aspegren, Lunna 65,69 19. Katajisto, Siltaniemi, Mäkinen, Henderson 65,14 Uusinta: Hautamäki, Kling 66,20 Tuomari: Harri Heikkilä, katsojia 187. SPEEDWAYN SM-LIIGAN SARJATAULUKKO (päivitetty 8.6.2014 klo 20.44) Joukkue O + P 1) Kymi 2 54 9 2) Kotkat 2 51 8 3) Paholaishaukat 2 51 7 4) Sand Blowers 2 36 4

It's his first time at FIM level, you wont see him drinking... Mika Laukkanen from SML is the ref.

Put your blue hoodie on and take a pic of the ref for me.

FIM is not wimping out. It's just that it was NEVER about returning to leather. It was about banning nylon.

7 riders in that pic... Hope they really know what they are doing...

Great movie that one, when watched as a teen 20 years ago. Could not but laugh when I try to watch it now from my VHS collection. I bought a used Sony system last week! paid 2 euros. I need spares to have a chance to watch my old speedway tapes.

There's a picture on Kylmä's Facebook site about his first ever LT meeting. He's sitting next to Bernd Diener on a pick up truck. The pic is about 20 years old, Diener looks the same today. = )

FIM website has a report and it's about 54

Still, a week til the ECC and 5 til the first round. We have way too much stuff to figure out ourselves/to talk about.

8 from ECC in your post, thats what sticked to my eye... One would assume any rider, even outside ECC could be the TRC wild card? http://www.fim-europe.com/images/pdf/2014/RULES%20ALL%20DISCIPLINES/TRACK%20RACING/2014%20FIME%20_Track_Racing_Rules.pdf

No... TOP3 from 2013, 4 By OneSport handout, 7 from ECC and one whole season wild card By FIM Europe TRC. Thats 15 and then one wild card each round + FMNR reserves... And in answer to my earlier question, no one knows yet who the 4th rider is. From the book... Document properties suggest that the final and released version has been created on April 21st. The FIM Europe promoter will contract four riders as ‘Nominated’ riders to compete in Final Series prior to the start of the qualification stage. One additional rider will be nominated by the European Championship Bureau (ECB) for the Final series (at the latest) one week after the ECC. If the winner of the previous years Individual Speedway European Championship refuses or is unable to participate in the Final Series, a subsequent ‘Nominated’ rider will participate in his place in the Final Series.

12.5.2 Nominated Riders The FIM Europe promoter will contract four riders as ‘Nominated’ riders to compete in Final Series prior to the start of the qualification stage. Thats from FIM Europe rule book. Who are these four? Emil, Andreas, Gollob and who?

Or 9th? Ninth according to the Appaendix dated January 6th... There were big problems, since Finland had it's only SGP quali slot originally on the same date at Abensberg and both Finns (Nieminen and Timo Lahti at the time) were expected to cruise their EC quali's towards the ECC.... http://www.debrecenspeedwayse.hu/index.php?q=berlet-2013 EDIT: It seems Debrecen are having it on June 9th, no matter what others say...

Actually, no. Unless it's an international Fim/ Fim Europe/other FMNR? competition of any kind, national (FMN) rules apply. They are more than likely to base themself on FIM rulebook, but still they are national rules.

That sounds valid. He can still ride for MA in SWC, unless Rosco names him in his squad to the FIM. The amount of confusion and open places just days before the actual meeting surprises me many times...

Minimum wage according to the law and what is really paid are two different things. Finland is widely considered as non corrupted and developed country, but every year at least one case is discovered when someone has been a slave for another with ridicolous wages. Top polish mechanics will laugh at 1200 euros a month. Yet other are able to take hundreds from even that and send home every month. I found strange when I was told last year that the real minimum wage actually varies according to counties in Poland.

You're naked in the sauna. Doesnt matter If at home with the family or in a public sauna with 20 people never met, its done nude.

I know. Spoke to a few of THE people last night (literally). It seems this was a classic case of not listening to the local track people on how to maintain the track. This does not explain the shape and width of the track (for which there are reasons) but it explains at least half of the ruts that appeared. From watching the TV I noticed that Jarno Kosonen himself was shovelling the ruts at some point on the track. So everyone made an effort to make it better! The miscounting of laps was unfortunate. Made by "brought/bought for purpose" people that have nothing to do with everyday Finnish speedway. Until maybe next year for the second staging of FIM Finnish Speedway Grand Prix... I know someone on BSF recognised them, I didn't and dont really care. Though it probably was the first ever of it's kind in SGP.

Interesting note though from a friend. As every spectator was actually scanned to get in, its not unlikely that 12k was paid and only 10,6k appeared?? Now for another one...

4557. So thats exactly where they where... NOT really though.

Riding for eastbourne in the uk.

You äärschloss... LOLTop game indeed. Dont know the attendance of that yet. Gp week is now over and having a beer on my way back to Tampere. There was some propaganda to get people to buy their tickets before hand. Fell for it myself for my own valid reasons. Not by BSI though! The info given to me is that the crowd was around 10700. Thats two times what we had for all the track racing meetings last year. Close anyways... Its been extremely interesting weekend so far. Lots of REALLY interesting stuff happening. = ) Okay, the meeting was crap and some riders told it live on air. But for example my local paper Aamulehti which is the second biggest in Finland (last time I checked) has had speedway stories throughout the week. With pictures even!! The last time they did their own stories on speedway was 2008, and then it was about moaning. These have been positive. Big story on Kylmä in yesterdays Iltalehti as well, last time they mentioned speedway was when Rico died or when Timo Villanen was paralyzed. I really do hope this all will help us. Even though the actual GP did not live up to the expectations. Mine either.