Finnish News

[iris123]

So who are the 3 riders for the Nordic U19 final in Fjelsted?

[f-s-p]

So who are the 3 riders for the Nordic U19 final in Fjelsted?

It doesn't say. There's an individual meeting at Pori on the 17th of May that plays a major part in the nominations for both of the junior events. Teemu Lahti was born in 1988 so he's out from Fjelsted. That leaves Mäkinen, Katajisto, Mustonen, Siltaniemi, Autio and possibly younger of the Lahti brothers in the equation. I might be missing a name here...

[Dekker]

Hows Kalle doing this year?

[f-s-p]

Hows Kalle doing this year?

I'm hoping to see him on a bike too this weekend. Dont really know what to expect. He's 17 this year and has grown over 4 inches during the winter. We'll see...

[f-s-p]

The Finns won the local team in Hallstavik today with the score 45-51. Three days of intense gating practice was a success. It was almost embarrassing to hear the praise that Mikael Teurnberg was giving the riders about their effort and enthusiasm and riders thanking Micke for what he had done. A local "nobody" was present on friday talking about the importance of preparation and giving general tips regarding the sport. His name was Greg Hancock.

 

Kalle was very good. Would have sored a max in the meeting today but fell while leading his first and shed a chainb in his last from the lead. In fact there were no bad riders practising. Better report might appear later...

 

 

[Anders]

Seems that the Finnish U21 training weekend was a success, I'm glad to hear that!

 

It was nice to meet up with you in Vetlanda, f-s-p, shame it was so hectic on Friday, otherwise we would have been able to chat some more.

[f-s-p]

Seems that the Finnish U21 training weekend was a success, I'm glad to hear that!

 

It was nice to meet up with you in Vetlanda, f-s-p, shame it was so hectic on Friday, otherwise we would have been able to chat some more.

 

It looked like you had plenty of friends to chat with in the ref's box ... But yes, it was nice to meet you too. Was Jari any better on saturday?

[Anders]

Was Jari any better on saturday?

 

The opposition was better on Saturday than Friday, and Jari didn't gate so he didn't score either. Tough meeting for Örnarna overall, with only Christian Agö scoring 2 points while the other 2 points were gifted.

[f-s-p]

Joni Keskinen confirmed that he will be riding in the EC qualifier in Hungary. He has made some serious investments for this season and is ready to ride in the UK. Infact he is trying everything to get a chance to show what he's made of. He was one of the surprise's of last weekend training camp in Sweden. He did a lot better than expected.

[Dekker]

Kalle was very good. Would have sored a max in the meeting today but fell while leading his first and shed a chainb in his last from the lead. In fact there were no bad riders practising. Better report might appear later...

Good to hear, sounds like his time in scotland has helped him a lot, even if he it wasnt apparent at the time.

 

[f-s-p]

Good to hear, sounds like his time in scotland has helped him a lot, even if he it wasnt apparent at the time.

Well said, I think. The DVD's I saw from Edinburgh showed him to be as crap as he was when he left even at the very end. This time he was still a bit wild but there was a significant difference compared to what he did a year ago.

 

I waiting for the results from the meeting itself and a few pics. I should get them this week...

 

EDIT: Rolf Lunstedt was there!

Edited April 24, 2008 by f-s-p

[RedcarRacer]

Joni Keskinen confirmed that he will be riding in the EC qualifier in Hungary. He has made some serious investments for this season and is ready to ride in the UK. Infact he is trying everything to get a chance to show what he's made of. He was one of the surprise's of last weekend training camp in Sweden. He did a lot better than expected.

 

 

Seems Joni could be Redcar Bears' new signing to replace Chris Kerr until he returns.

 

Announced at STMP that Glyn Taylor had signed a Finn on the recommendation of Kaj Laukkanen - but we didnt catch his name! Think it sounds like Keskinen though! What can we expect if it is?

[f-s-p]

Seems Joni could be Redcar Bears' new signing to replace Chris Kerr until he returns. Announced at STMP that Glyn Taylor had signed a Finn on the recommendation of Kaj Laukkanen - but we didnt catch his name! Think it sounds like Keskinen though! What can we expect if it is?

Was just gonna say that Keskinen signing for Redcar (starting May 15th I'm told) leaves the EC qualifier place now open. There arent many riders left but the search is on...

 

He's not a miracle worker but I think he has a chance to keep his 5-point average. Because thats what it's gonna be, even if people now might be talking about seven. He was present at the training camp in Hallstavik a week ago and was rated as a surprise performer by Mikael Teurnberg. Improved his gating and first bend performance considerably. The one thing negative in all this is that his english is quite poor. But dont all Finns learn "racing english" pretty fast. Marcus "Up in the a$$ of Timo" Grönholm and Tommi "the race was good" Mäkinen as prime examples.

[f-s-p]

Raimo Juntunen will be the second Finnish rider at the longtrack qualifier in Artigues de Lussac.

Edited April 28, 2008 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Start for the Finnish season is ten days away.

Extraliiga 1: Kotkat – Jokerit – Paholaiset – Haukat/Royals, Seinäjoki, May 9th tapes up at 6 pm.

 

I'm getting really worried if there's gonna be enough riders left in Finland to get this meeting ahead. Phone's have been ringing of the hook and anyone who's been able to ride a bike in the past few seasons has been contacted by a British promoter for a team place. This added to the fact that only one foreigner is allowed per team makes it even harder for teams to get their lineups in order. I think Kotkat just loast one of their foreigners, since Benny Johansson signed for Berwick. Laukkanen and Mäkinen are expected to be present, since Mildenhall doesn't have a meeting that week (except on Sunday).

[f-s-p]

Petri Koskela will replace Joni Keskinen in the EC-qualifier in Hungary and Juha Hautamäki will replace Kauko Nieminen at Czhestochowa.

Edited May 13, 2008 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

I finally got my hands on the results from Hallstavik's practise meeting.

 

Suomi 51

Rene Lehtinen N322 7

Joni Keskinen 01301 5

Teemu Lahti 21333 12

Kalle Katajisto F3333R 12

Tomi Reima 3N3N 6

Timo Lahti 000 0

Niko Siltaniemi 2013d 6

Aarni Heikkilä 210 3

 

Stjärnorna 45

Linus Jansson 12113 8

Andreas Westlund 310121 8

Niklas Larsson 1T00 1

Jens Oskarsson 32222 11

Robin Burestad 111 3

Peter Wall 12002 5

Jonas Messing 3222 9

Harald Andersson NS

Heat by heat:

1. Westlund, Heikkilä, Jansson, Keskinen

2. Messing, Siltaniemi, Wall, T.Lahti

3. Oskarsson, Lahti, Larsson, Katajisto F

4. Reima, Wall, Burestad, Siltaniemi

5. Katajisto, Messing, Westlund, T.Lahti

6. Lehtinen, Oskarsson, Keskinen, Larsson T

7. Katajisto, Jansson, Lahti, Westlund

8. Katajisto, Oskarsson, Siltaniemi, Larsson

9. Keskinen, Lehtinen, Burestad, Wall

10. Reima, Messing, Jansson, T.Lahti

11. Siltaniemi, Messing, Heikkilä, Wall

12. Lahti, Oskarsson, Burestad, Keskinen

13. Katajisto, Lehtinen, Westlund, Larsson

14. Lahti, Westlund, Jansson, Siltaniemi d

15. Jansson, Wall, Keskinen, Heikkilä

16. Lahti, Oskarsson, Westlund, Katajisto R

 

Pictures from the practise a day earlier here.

Edited May 4, 2008 by f-s-p

[Vicar]

When was this meeting?

 

What good finnish speedway sites do you know except teamlaine.com?

Edited May 6, 2008 by Vicar

[f-s-p]

When was this meeting?

What good finnish speedway sites do you know except teamlaine.com?

There arent any good websites, except JMS of course (had to edit for that ). Check out www.jarimakinen.fi and the Linkit-section that has all the Finnish links under Suomi.

 

The Hallstavik meeting was on sunday April 20th.

Edited May 6, 2008 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Just a couple of pointers regarding the Kaj Laukkanen article in Speedway Star (week 18) by Peter Oakes.

 

Laukkanen say's he's the latest Finnish rider to qualify to the U21 semifinal stage...

- Indeed Laukkanen is currently the latest Finn to be in a shouting distance of the title itself. A win in his last heat back in 1995 would have given him the U21 title, but he came third. Like written at the time by Lasse K Laitinen in the local paper Laukkanen was late from the tapes, as have been known to happen later in his career also. He also qualified for the final in 1996. After that Joonas Kylmäkorpi came 5th in the 2000 final and lost a final place in a runoff in his semi 2001. Also Kauko Nieminen qualified and was a reserve in the semifinal back in 2000. Since then it's been very quiet with Tero Aarnio being the closest back in 2004 losing a reserve slot by finishing last in his semifinal heat in the Scandinavian qualifier.

 

Regarding the two team tournaments...

- Not all the teams were happy about it last year. The whole situation came like a lightning from a blue sky. Kaupunki Cup was supposed to/is/has been be aimed for the up and coming or otherwise starting riders. Well last year sometime during late March new rules were presented to the clubs that had shown interest in the past (not to all the clubs) to ride in the KC. As a result the idea of it being a beginners league was tossed out the window and in the first round of the KC at Seinäjoki most of the 14 riders present had represented Finland in SWC qualifiers. This is how it went through the season and in the end it worked OK, alltough not all the meetings were ridden because there wasn’t enough date’s or similar reasons. I wouldn’t say to any reporter that it was a success or even OK regarding crowd figures. Or that the meeting format was the reason it got good crowds. That’s bs. The Pori club saved the figures in both our leagues. They’ve been doing a good job in bringing new people through the gates for a few years now. On 17th of May (week from now) they are having Yyteri Speedway and have distributed 9000 free tickets to the local schools. Their aim is to break 2000 spectators.

- During 1997 the Finnish league was run with the British format. A friend who rode in the championship winning team that year recently said that R/R was used plenty of times as teams regularly turned up with only five or six riders. I remember being present at a meeting at Kaanaa, Tampere. Petri Kokko scored a full max and thanked our efforts in supporting him by a decent set of wheelies after the meeting. I know they were meant for us since there were only three of us in that sector of the grandstand. The other twenty were at the other end of the stand…

- The fact is that the some Finnish clubs don’t want to organize more than the two home league meetings they do. Without these clubs there isn’t gonna be a league of any sort. They are not the smallest clubs either. Credit to them for what they are doing in getting the things done they do now.

- It has been discussed in almost every conference in recent years that the only way for Finnish speedway to get staged is to have no points limit allowing clubs to use local riders in order to get people come and see them. Introducing points limits will break this and since some of the clubs don’t even pay points money it would leave some riders without team place. Not even Kaj Laukkanen is ready to ride for the Kuusankoski team for no money.

- The number of Finnish riders is also our downfall at the moment. Riders of similar age as Laukkanen are starting to retire and we dont have a half a dozen new riders coming in next year. We are on the far edge of the speedway world paying crappy points money, so there's only so many riders of a decent level that will come and ride here.

 

Regarding the Laukkanen dossier

- I’d say there something odd in his look towards Finnish youngsters when he totally neglects Teemu Lahti. Lahti is the 80 cc Finnish champion from 2004, 3rd in the U21 –05, U21 champion 2006 and 2nd in the U21 –07 and also finished 5th in last years individual final (hometrack but still). He was also a part of the Extraliiga winning Keittiöpiste in the past two seasons and also has won the pairs title in the last two years…

 

Deveploment of Finnish youngsters

- Finnish federation has offered to fund a junior program to get new riders in to the 80cc scene. Aake Mustonen successfully ran the program for a couple years resulting in the very first Finnish 80cc league back in 2003. There has always been junior riders riding in Sweden and in the occasional Finnish meeting, but suddenly there was over 10 riders more and voila, we had a league. After Mustonen quit, other people tried but couldn’t match his results. In last years conference (funding was still available) the plug was pulled on the whole thing for the last time making the whole 80cc scene the responsibility of the local clubs. This is not to blame any single individual, but a fact that no progress had been made on that front in the last two years. Thankfully the new track racing supremo is trying to re-launch it. What will happen nobody knows. I’ll keep you informed.

 

Speedway career of a Finnish youngster

- An example was given in Kalle Katajisto how a young (Finnish) rider can move to UK and live from speedway. Here are the stats for Kalle: 3 months of living in the UK, 21 meetings and an average of 1,8 points per match. This according to premierspeedway.co.uk. There’s been plenty of post’s on BSF regarding the amount that a rookie gets paid per point. Add the fact that Kalle’s dad took 3 months leave from work without pay losing a quarter of his annual income. They also bought at least one new bike for the trip and lived with Laukkanen in Manchester. You do the math if it was financially worth it. I’ll just say that I’m giving a HUGE credit to Kalle’s parents for making/allowing it to happen. Direct quote from Timo Katajisto himself says that 95% of the expenses in Katajisto Racing comes from the family pocket.

- Total number of meetings in Finland was “about” accurate. Last year we had 10 Kaupunki Cup meetings, 12 Extraliiga meetings, 3 individuals, 3 Championship meetings (including U21) and the U19 qualifier. All this while taking in to account the rules of the different leagues allowed for a young rider to take part in 24 meetings. He just had to be good enough to get in to the pairs. Appe Mustonen did about 18 speedway meetings in Finland last season with a few longtrack meetings on top of that. He was the busiest. For this season the rules have changed again and it’s not possible to ride in that many meetings. Even 15 might be too much. But even still we have riders who cant financially survive the whole season and not ride in meetings the middle of the season.

- Jari Mäkinen’s move to the Premier league was blocked by BSPA’s assessed average last season. He still managed to ride in about 35 meetings last year with a couple of short breaks due to injuries. That includes a few appearances in the UK and other countries after our season had ended. He also did a full season in the Swedish 1st division, a league that was closed for foreigners this year. With Allsvenskan being only five teams also a new and real problem has arisen, since last year I think we had eight riders riding in the Swedish 1st division. Almost all of them are now on the mercy of the Finnish calendar, since they are not good enough or interested in riding in the UK for example. This just to point out that you can do 35 meetings in a season without living in the UK for 7 months/year. You can also keep practising while you’re at it. You don’t need to do 80 meetings per season in three countries at the age of 17 to make steady and even fast progress.

 

Crowd figures in Finland 2007

Kaupunki Cup 2-team tournament

LahtiForssa – Pori 95, LahtiForssa – Sjoki 90, LahtiForssa – Kauhajoki “rainoff”, Pori – LahtiForssa 310, Pori – Sjoki 180, Pori – Kauhajoki 142, Seinäjoki – LahtiForssa “rainoff”, Seinäjoki – Pori 35, Seinäjoki – Kauhajoki 115, Kauhajoki – LahtiForssa 70, Kauhajoki – Pori 100, Kauhajoki – Seinäjoki 70, Total of 1207 with an average of 121

 

Extraliiga 4-team tournament

1/12 Pori 322, 2/12 Kauhajoki 198, 3/12 Seinäjoki 177, 4/12 Lahti 350, 5/12 Sjoki/Vaasa 70, 6/12 Kuusankoski 210, 7/12 Seinäjoki 122, 8/12 Pori 265, 9/12 Kauhajoki 100, 10/12 Sjoki/Vaasa 40, 11/12 Lahti 125, 12/12 Kuusankoski 210. Total of 2189 with an average of 182.

 

As the crowd figures show, there’s plenty of work to be done to get more people through the gates. Seinäjoki as the most successful club in the past ten years (Laukkanen’s home club) has a lot of work to do too. Maybe instead of trying to force others to a system that is more expensive, more work yet has no guarantees of being a success they should try and make their own “business” an example of how things are run first. Changing the meeting format doesn’t make riders better in a year or two. It might give a more media sexy scoreline of “ Seinäjoki 46 – Kauhajoki 44” but if the riders and racing are/is still crap…

 

The problem I have with the article in question, is that it gives a very negative picture of the current state of Finnish speedway and that’s not true. We have loads of new and wonderful people working in the sport. The Finnish league was at it’s lowest a few years ago when it had five teams with 3 riders each! It was back to four man teams only a couple of years ago. Yrjö Laukkanen came on board as the “boss” for 2006 and as “the train had already left” we had a “4man6team” league in 2006. For 2007 Laukkanen had the time and tried to enforce 7man teams and a 6team league. He had a well represented case to show at the conference, but the reality in the clubs was totally different. Cant remember how many, but I think only three clubs wanted to take part in that league. In the end a “4team4rider” league was in place for 2007. For 2008 he planned the Danish model, but this time only three clubs enlisted resulting in a “4team4rider” league with 5 teams for the coming season too. If there’s any sense in people’s heads they will lock this option for 2009 in the conference after the season giving clubs the chance to get organized in time during the winter. I know for sure that the track at Seinäjoki might be gone by next year, alltough they are told to be given a new site before closing Routakallio. Kuusankoski has the same situation. Lahti and Pori are safe for a few years to go and Kauhajoki is brand new so they might have longer. If an over ambitious move, like the Danish format (and it is over ambitious), would now be forced in to action, it would without a doubt put an end to at least one club’s involvement in Extraliiga speedway. In the long run it would close their track. Forever.

 

These things don’t make me angry. They are facts that I/we have to live with.

 

Most of this is documented in the Finnish News threads of the past, so I’m not just making this up. If it's not, then it's just traslated from the stories I've done in Finnish.