Finnish News

[f-s-p]

Welcome to the 3rd edition of Finnish News!

 

Just to give a positive start for next season I gladly inform you all that Jari Mäkinen has been given the “U21 rider of the year“ award by Speedwaysanomat, The Finnish track racing magazine. First ever name to be added to the list that will hopefully become very long. Mäkinen stood out like a skyscaper in a country village in domestic racing compared to his rivals. Only Teemu Lahti challenged him for the award but the U21 final from Seinäjoki dipped the scales in Mäkinen’s favour. Check out the JMS-website for a story and a picture of the rider and his trophy.

 

The Finnish ice racing season is also starting with several riders taking part to the training camp in Sweden early in December. The Finnish governing body SML is also helping out by giving some financial backing for this effort. The ccokup by the international federations UEM and FIM has given an extra weekend for the Finnish ice racing calendar. These two bodies couldn’t reach an agreement with some dates, so the European final and World’s qualifiers will be raced on the same weekend. Excellent news for the Finnish clubs, since during the last few seasons there has barely been a free weekend for the Individual final. The calendar for the ice racing season looks promising, with plenty of meetings due to take place if the weather permits.

 

Anyone thinking about a city visit to Tampere should take note that on the 9th of February an ice racing test match between Finland and Sweden will take place at the Pyynikki stadion.

 

Pori will host the Scandinavian round of the U21 World qualifying rounds. The meeting is scheduled for the 31st of May. This looks like the meeting of the year in Finland. In the last couple of years Pori has been known for the excellent effort they have put in to their meetings in the form of track preparation, services and other entertainment (in Finnish, not SGP scale) . Riders in the lineup will without a doubt include such names as Morten Risager (last year), Tomas H Jonasson, Simon Gustavsson, Nicolai Klindt… With the Finns Jari Mäkinen on his home track and Teemu Lahti as THE gater in Finland. These naturally not yet 100 % certain.

 

The Finnish U21 final will be ridden at Hyvinkää, so everyone thinking about a city visit to Helsinki should keep note of the date that will be published in this thread early in the year 2008. Alltough it looks like there wont be a full 16 rider lineup this time, some good racing is expected. Pairs final will be in August at Kauhajoki and the Individual final was given to Haapajärvi with a preliminary date in June.

 

Just to keep the positive flow going the only thing I will mention regarding our league is that the closing date for entering Extraliiga or whatever it will be called next year is December 15th.

 

EDIT: There's a link in my signature to my gallery where you can see pictures of Finnish speedway. New pictures will be added weekly...

Edited November 23, 2007 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Teams for the Swedish ice racing league this season:

 

ÖMK Rundbana (Stefan Svensson, Hans Tjärnberg, Ulf Ledström, Patrik Solberg, Marian Kreklau Tyskland, Rene Stellingwerf Holland, Niklas Svensson, Benny Johansson)

 

Jämtlands MK (Per-Anders Lindström, Johan Lundkvist, Hans-Olof Olsén, Lars Ringbert, Robert Gjersvold, Seppo Sirra, Johan Bruckner Österrike, Jo Saetre Norge, Espen Berglund Norge)

 

SMK Gävle (Dmitri Tschatchien Tyskland, P-O Serenius, Peter Lundkvist, Per Bruhn, Peter Koj, Peter Jansson, Joakim Plyhm, Totte Nilsson)

 

Bollnäs MK (Tomas Andersson, Stefan Hedström, Jonas Lindholm, Jonas Norell, Tobias Åström, Sven Holstein Holland, Stefan Pletschacher Tyskland, Markus Skabraut Österrike, Réné Verhoef Holland)

 

Funbo MS (Antti Aakko Finland, Joakim Söderström, Tommy Flyktman Finland, Torleif Burman, Paul Johansson, Börje Ivarsson, Frode Burman, Rickard Edlund, Franz Zorn Österrike, Anders Sjöden)

 

Njurunda MK (Magnus Lundgren, Gösta Sundelin, Ulf Byström, Tomas Ekström, Tomas Höglund, Lars Eriksson, Danne Isaksson, Mark Uzzel England, Grzegorz Knapp Polen, Zdzislaw Zerdinzinski Polen)

 

Team Finland (Kai Lehtinen, Joni Kontoniemi, Timo Kankkunen, Raimo Henriksson, Aki Ala-Riihimäki, Jukka Mantere, Kai Ilkka, Christer Biskop, Jussi Hytönen, Jouni Seppänen, Ari Tuomisto)

 

Racing calendar for Finland/Sweden 2007/08

 

January

5th International Seinäjoki, SeMK

6th Finland - Gävle - Jämtland - Funbo, league Forssa, FMS

8th Bollnäs - Gävle - Finland - Njurunda, league Bollnäs, Sweden

19th ÖMK - Gävle - Jämtland - Njurunda, league Örnsköldsvik, Sweden

20th Jämtland - Funbo - Bollnäs – ÖMK. league Östersund, Sweden

26th Individual meeting Kokkola, Finland

30th Gävle - Bollnäs - ÖMK – Funbo, league Gävle, Sweden

 

February

2nd Funbo - ÖMK - Njurunda – Finland, leagueMorgongåva, Sweden

9th Finland vs Sweden Tampere, Finland

10th Nordic final Forssa, FMS

17th Njurunda - Bollnäs - Jämtland – Finland, league Njurunda, Sweden

22th Swedish Championship, qualifier Gävle, Sweden

 

March

1st League final, organised by the winner of the league Sweden

18th International meeting Örebro, Sweden

21st Swedish Champioship, final Uppsala, Sweden

 

The Finnish Championship final will be added sometime... It will be held at Seinäjoki.

 

The funny thing once again regarding Finnish news is that I received an email last sunday from Germany asking about dates that were known by the german ice racing riders but there was no official info about any of them in Finland/in Finnish...

 

The situation regarding our speedway league for next season is looking really bad. I've spoken with all the teams (eleven in total) I could see taking part in it and only two were gonna. Thats not the four it takes to make a league. There's still two weeks for the deadline, but cant see the situation changing.

Edited November 27, 2007 by f-s-p

[tarabanko]

Moi!

 

I hope you dont mind that I are copying the teams and dates for iceracing and put it up on

http://www.masarnaavesta.nu ??

 

Cheers

 

Mikael

Edited November 27, 2007 by tarabanko

[f-s-p]

Moi!

I hope you dont mind that I are copying the teams and dates for iceracing and put it up on www.masarnaavesta.nu  ??

Cheers

Mikael

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No... Maybe you should put isracing.net as the source though....

[tarabanko]

No... Maybe you should put isracing.net as the source though.... 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Thanks alot.

 

Mikael

[f-s-p]

www.popula.tv is showing a rerun of the Finnish 2007 Longtrack Final next saturday at 9 pm Finnish time. Unlike I said before you could only see it live in Finland when it was broadcasted live. Now it's free for worldwide viewing.

 

Deadline for taking part in the the Finnish Extraliiga 2008 with new rules and five man teams runs out next sunday. Havent heard anything new...

 

A training camp is supposed to take place next weekend at Kuortane with training on saturday and a meeting on sunday to determine the participants for the WC qualifiers. I'm not 100 % sure but the weather hasn't been all that great lately... cancelled

 

Jari Mäkinen has signed to ride for Outrup in the Danish Superliiga next season and Rene Lehtinen has a contract to ride in the Swedish Allsvenskan for Solkatterna.

 

I've subscribed myself the Speedway Star because it's such an excellent magazine! Also a picture I've taken was in the last issue of Bahnsport so thats a pretty good magazine too...

 

Edited December 13, 2007 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Ice racers for the World's qualifiers will be announced early this week by the federation. A training camp similar to the Swedish one was cancelled last weekend because of the weather. Our very own Bernie Ecclestone of track racing, Yrjö Laukkanen is now left with a difficult task to determine which riders will get the nod for the five places we have. Decisions will be pretty much based on past experience... from 2005/-06 since we only had one meeting last year!

 

The 2007 Finnish final taking place at Oulu on the 29th of December will be a do or die this wednesday. Locals have managed to create some ice to the Raatti Stadion, but there's no snow at all.

 

Ice racing at Seinäjoki is supposed to happen on a frozen lake on January 5th, but as I visited Seinäjoki last saturday there was no snow in sight with steady drizzle of rain. Nummen kenttä at Forssa, the place for the league meeting on the 6th of January is without ice or snow yestarday as I'm informed last night. Test match between Finland and Sweden taking place at Tampere on the 9th of February looks bad too. No snow, no ice.

Edited December 17, 2007 by f-s-p

[iris123]

What temperatures have you in Finland then?

Just look at the highest mountain in North Germany and it has 53cm of snow and temperature at the moment -8°

Brocken

We have +1° in Hamburg

[f-s-p]

What temperatures have you in Finland then?

Just look at the highest mountain in North Germany and it has 53cm of snow and temperature at the moment -8°

Brocken

We have +1° in Hamburg

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It dropped below zero saturday evening and is around -1 here in Tampere. I've been following the forecasts a little for Oulu and they've been saying no more than -8 in the nighttime for the whole of December. Usually only a few minus grades. I heard yesterday that a ski resort called Tahko, near Kuopio (half way up the country) has no snow.

 

We have this christmas tradition to go and play some ice hockey before sauna in the afternoon. The were a few years with no ice so we made other stuff, but last christmas was the first when we went and played football on sand...

[Midnight_Lady]

It dropped below zero saturday evening and is around -1 here in Tampere. I've been following the forecasts a little for Oulu and they've been saying no more than -8 in the nighttime for the whole of December.

 

It was -6 last night in Edinburgh

[iris123]

Not sure if you have seen this,but it seems that Germany will be host to the Nordic Longtrack Championship next summer.Danish club Gandrup are going to be promoting at the Jübek track which has been closed for a couple of years.

Jübek

They ran a training weekend this year and look set to hold a couple of meetings next year.Guess there will be Finnish involvement in the Longtrack meeting

[f-s-p]

Not sure if you have seen this,but it seems that Germany will be host to the Nordic Longtrack Championship next summer.Danish club Gandrup are going to be promoting at the Jübek track which has been closed for a couple of years.

Jübek

They ran a training weekend this year and look set to hold a couple of meetings next year.Guess there will be Finnish involvement in the Longtrack meeting

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really cant remember for sure but I thought it was given to Vaasa IF the danes dont want it (it's their turn). Plenty of the local riders have even bought new equipment to make a good impression in front of their home fans.

 

The rumour is out that only two teams wanted to take part in the Extraliiga with 5 man teams. I'm expecting an official statement tomorrow on the subject.

[f-s-p]

Drastic changes in the Finnish camp as the role of Yrjö Laukkanen has became free for applicants. Laukkanen has stepped down from his position as the chairman of the track racing committee (still looking for the right translation ). Personal reasons are quoted as the reason for this. Clubs have until January 15th to propose new applicants. Laukkanen had just finished his first two year commitment and the role was decleared free for applications. Then the announcement disappeared from the federation website and Laukkanen decleared that he would continue only to step down two months later.

 

The situation in Finnish speedway is pretty much the same as it was 12 months ago. Nobody knows whats gonna happen next summer...

[f-s-p]

Finnish final at Oulu 29th December cancelled

Swedish league round at Forssa 6th January cancelled

International meeting at Seinäjoki 5th January cancelled

 

No ice, no snow.

[f-s-p]

Clubs have now taken the matter as their own and are talking about running the league next year with rules from -06 and -07 with minor clarifications and amendments. This is good. They have set a clear deadline in January to get things sorted by then. That would be a massive boost since for the past couple of years things havent been clear even by mid march!

[f-s-p]

A statement dated December 17th had arrived in my email on the 28th of the same month giving information about the reasons behind Yrjö Laukkanen's decision to step down.

 

Laukkanen decided to step down because he felt he didn't have the support from the clubs to back his plans for the deveploment of Finnish speedway. He also tells that he will finalize everything that is currently "ongoing" before travelling to Thailand to play golf.

 

Rules for the Extraliiga season 2008 have also been released for the clubs to see. Basically they are what was expected to be released three months ago. One major modification was made and that is the number of foreigners for a match. Thats now dropped to one. Not really sure will this go through or not...

 

Finnish ice racing final 2008 scheduled for the end of March has been changed to another date. The club at Seinäjoki weren't promised there would be enough ice so late in to the spring so they may keep their meeting earlier at another venue. It was supposed to be ridden on artificial ice. The home track of the speed skater Pekka Koskela.

[f-s-p]

It's just been announced that the Finnish ice racing championship final of 2008 will be ridden on saturday the 19th of January at Seinäjoki. Possible qualifier will be held earlier on the day.

 

First heat of the final will start at 13.30. I'm told that also Tommy Flyktman and Antti Aakko are riding.

Edited January 8, 2008 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

An un-official meeting between the interested clubs was held yesterday at Tampere to discuss next years league. Keittiöpiste was the only team absent.

 

Basis of the discussions were the new rules proposed for next year. There was still one club insisting on the Danish format alltough it was seen last December that the majority of the Finnish clubs are not interested to take part in a such a demanding format (more than double the number of home matches). There's no denying that more home matches mean more income through ticket & sausage sales but there are clubs that are unable/-willing to organize five home meetings. No Excel calculations will overrule that, no matter how extensive they are with coloured pictures and all. It now seems that there will be a league after all which is great. March 1st is the preliminary date for the official meeting to decide next seasons rules.

 

The matter of the new #1 for track racing was also discussed and an agreement was reached. Clubs are proposing him to the federation before the deadline of January 15th along with assistants to share the workload. News broke out a couple of months ago that a Swedish coach had been hired for the Finnish juniors and the U21 riders but that hasn't been confirmed anywhere or by our federation.

 

Personally I have been against the idea of the Danish format because I cant see it working in Finland. My views have strongly been influenced by discussions with club officials and their opinions in the last two years. + We only have around 25-30 riders with some of them injured, sick, unavailable or riding abroad at times. For example our individual final had three rider heats last season because there werent enough riders interested to participate. With the 16 riders in the final gaps were as big as half a lap between the riders as they finished. I cant see how that would change even in a few years simply by changing a league meeting format. One particularly good idea was brought up in the discussions, and that was to introduce practise before the meetings of 5-10 minutes per team. That sounds good, but on the other hand track preparation has been a problem in the past in Finland and the crushed granite tracks might not like the fact that before the meeting they have to survive through a meeting and a half. This can of course be managed if wanted.

[f-s-p]

The Finnish federation SML has published a list of riders selected in to a training group targeted towards future talents:

 

80cc: Jarkko Palmi, Mika Loppi, Timo Lahti. Grass- and Longtrack: Rene Lehtinen. Speedway: Markku Autio, Teemu Lahti, Jari Mäkinen, Joni Keskinen, Kalle Katajisto. Ice racing: Tommy Flyktman. All of the above are between 14-23 years of age.

 

Swede Mikael Teurnberg has been appointed as the coach of this group. He will still continue in his role as Andreas Jonsson's co-ordinator.

 

The press release doesn't clearly indicate Teurnberg's role during the summer, but one would think that he would organize riding sessions and other similar activities. Atleast early on in the spring.

[iris123]

It is an interesting situation f-s-p.Quite similar to the German one.The lack of riders(or at least riders of a certain level)can cause problems with a league.That is and was the problem with the restrictions on foreign riders.When a top German rider is injured there is just no way to replace him.Then like you say there will be some tracks that might be willing to run 5 meetings per year but others only feel able to host 1 or 2.In my opinion this idea of 1 or 2 meetings holds the sport back a bit.The meeting in dragged out so long,as like you mention they want to sell as much food and drink as possible and get all the people going round to all the other stalls to buy souvenirs and stuff.The Danish clubs took the leap(although i think some had to be dragged) into running a proper league and it seems to have payed off.The attendances held up quite good.Even on nights when a couple of clubs were running meetings.Still think also that Danish clubs are lagging way behind in their merchandising ideas.Holsted obviously has a Nicki P shop when he is riding but there are very few Holsted souvenirs to buy and not of a great quality.And from what i have seen they are the best track.German tracks are by and large worse.

At least in the Bundesliga they have separated the U19 riders and given them their own heats.In 2006 the gaps between the riders was terrible.But there does still seem to be apredictability with these heats.In most meetings last year i think the 4 U19 heats has the exact same 1st-2nd-3rd-4th