Finnish News

[DutchGrasstrack]

That's awesome news, great to see the longtrack GP's developing in Scandinavia (Forus and Forssa in 2011) rather than the usual (non-longtrack) tracks which are used for the GP meetings.

[f-s-p]

Having gone through the results you can add Bernd Diener to the slightly unfortunate list. He was leading heat 7 by the proverbial mile when his engine blew up on the backstraight of lap... 4.

 

Martin Smolinski DE 555555 30

Herbert Rudolph DE 553R54 22

Richard Hall GB 445422 21+5

Glenn Phillips GB 344343 21+R

Aki-Pekka Mustonen FI 54533R 20

Matthias Kröger DE 254421 18

Jerome Lespinasse FR 32433 15+5

Sirg Schutzbach CH 4335R 15+4

Bernd Diener DE 23R54 14

Jannick de Jong NL 33221 11

Pasi Pulliainen FI 12240 9

Rene Lehtinen FI 41R11 7

Mark Stiekema NL 113R 5

Tom Perry GB 1R22 5

Daniel Rath DE 2RR2 4

Theo di Palma FR 021R 3

Richard Wolff CZ 0111 3

Gabriel Dubernard FR 0011 2

 

Erä erältä:

1. Mustonen, Lehtinen, Lespinasse, Kröger, Pulliainen, Wolff 120,76

2. Smolinski, Hall, de Jong, Rath, Stiekema, di Palma 119,64

3. Rudolph, Schutzbach, Phillips, Diener, Perry, Dubernard 119,04

4. Kröger, Phillips, Diener, di Palma, Wolff, Rath R 121,10

5. Smolinski, Hall, Schutzbach, Lespinasse, Lehtinen, Dubernard 119,48

6. Rudolph, Mustonen, de Jong, Pulliainen, Stiekema, Perry R 119,64

7. Hall, Lespinasse, Stiekema, Perry, Wolff, Diener R 121,79

8. Mustonen, Phillips, Schutzbach, de Jong, di Palma, Lehtinen R 120,51

9. Smolinski, Kröger, Rudolph, Pulliainen, Dubernard, Rath R 119,29

10. Schutzbach, Hall, Mustonen, Perry, Wolff, di Palma R 119,38

11. Smolinski, Kröger, Phillips, de Jong, Lehtinen, Rudolph R 119,76

12. Diener, Pulliainen, Lespinasse, Rath, Dubernard, Stiekema R 120,01

Semi 1: Smolinski, Diener, Lespinasse, Kröger, Lehtinen, Schutzbach R 121,07

Semi 2: Rudolph, Phillips, Mustonen, Hall, de Jong, Pulliainen 119,56

Uusinta: Lespinasse, Schutzbach 121,70

Finaali: Smolinski, Rudolph, Phillips, Hall, Kröger, Mustonen R 119,57

Uusinta: Hall, Phillips 121,82

Tuomari: Thierry Bouin, katsojia 2375.

 

Probably a few galleries of pics will appear here by monday.

Edited September 26, 2010 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Finnish season is just about over. There's one more Jensen Cup meeting next saturday in Eskilstuna. Finland just might take the win in that one and clinch the whole series. They are currently joint #1 with Piraterna. 80cc riders will have their own Sweden - Finland match at the same track the following day.

 

A week after that there's scheduled practise at the Hyvinkää track and according to my knowledge thats the final happening of the season. It's been a rather good one I think with loads to build on towards next year.

 

I guess it's time to start stirring the Ice racing thread then, but not just yet. I'll write something in the coming couple of weeks to wrap things up.

[f-s-p]

On 10th of October there's an individual meeting at Hyvinkää, starts at 2 PM by yesterdays info. All the Finnish big guns will be there with a few Swede's to spice things up as I understood it.

 

There was a sceduled practise at the re-launched Hyvinkää track yesterday and I'm told it was a huge success. A TV crew had been invited and they were gonna just come and take some shots for a quick insert. Didn't work out their way though, they were there for 3,5 hours. Loads of riders from 50cc micro to 500cc and I got the impression it was a success.

 

The longtrack GP at Forssa in 2011 is in the hands of the local club. You would not believe the praise the challenge meeting has received from the "important ones" if I wrote it here. They (the club) are gonna keep their own feedback meeting in a few weeks and decide if they wanna step up even more in 2011, as it IS their call.

 

EDIT:Refrasing my thoughts and "heards" regarding the Hyvinkää meeting to: riders coming back from Sweden, that are actually Finnish. Joni Keskinen and Aarni Heikkilä.

Edited October 1, 2010 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

The weather looks good for sundays meeting at Hyvinkää. There'll be a 80cc meeting and after that at 3pm 500cc. All the top Finnish riders will be there with the exception of Kauko Nieminen (and Kylmäkorpi naturally) who's lining up for Lublin in the Polish playoffs.

[f-s-p]

Hyvinkää Indivual Open

Hyvinkää (HyMK) 10.10.2010

 

Some good racing in the comeback meeting of the Hyvinkää track, couple of really good battles. It's a shame that the Finnish season ended in a smash as Marko Suojanen lost control of his bike while second on the third lap of the final. Timo Lahti was already gone when Suojanen hit a rut as Hautamäki was passing him from the inside. He lifted, almost got it under control and then hit another rut and he was gone. Heat was awarded and Suojanen given 3rd as Aarnio had already retired trough mechanical gremlins. It looked REALLY bad but he was up and walking on his own 30 minutes later. It's allright to ask though, how that was allowed to happen...

 

Mäkinen withdrew himself from the semi after hurting his leg and his place was given to PP. Nothing serious.

 

Juha Hautamäki SeMK 33333 15

Tero Aarnio KMMK 32333 14

Timo Lahti KMMK 31333 13

Markku Autio KauhjMK 30332 11

Jari Mäkinen PirMM 23123 11

Marko Suojanen PMK 22222 10

Joni Keskinen KauhjMK 23202 9

Pasi Pulliainen VRT 13211 8

Aarni Heikkilä FMS 22211 8

Janne Nyman SsMK 12120 6

Jani Eerikäinen KarhMK 11012 5

Jiri Nieminen KauhjMK 111R1 4

 

Erä erältä:

1. T.Lahti, Heikkilä, Nieminen 66,27

2. Autio, Keskinen, Pulliainen 66,53

3. Hautamäki, Mäkinen, Nyman 65,23

4. Aarnio, Suojanen, Eerikäinen 65,98

5. Mäkinen, Suojanen, Nieminen 67,20

6. Pulliainen, Heikkilä, Eerikäinen 67,06

7. Hautamäki, Aarnio, T.Lahti, Autio 65,86

8. Keskinen, Nyman 67,02

9. Hautamäki, Pulliainen, Nieminen 67,73

10. Aarnio, Heikkilä, Nyman 66,97

11. T.Lahti, Keskinen, Mäkinen, Autio 66,12

12. Autio, Suojanen 66,57

13. Autio, Nyman, Eerikäinen 67,26

14. Hautamäki, Suojanen, Heikkilä, Keskinen 66,07

15. T.Lahti 66,75

16. Aarnio, Mäkinen, Pulliainen 66,81

17. Aarnio, Keskinen, Nieminen 66,37

18. Mäkinen, Autio, Heikkilä 66,12

19. T.Lahti, Suojanen, Pulliainen, Nyman 65,23

20. Hautamäki, Eerikäinen 65,75

Semifinaali: Suojanen, Keskinen, Pulliainen, Autio 67,59

Finaali: T.Lahti, Hautamäki, Suojanen d, Aarnio R ei aikaa

Tuomari: Matti Koivuoja, katsojia 220.

Edited October 12, 2010 by f-s-p

[Vicar]

Why Makinen did not ride in semi-final?

[f-s-p]

I knew it would be asked so the info was there.

 

It was sort of a rubbish meeting again with the officials ruling according how they felt and not the rules. But it was not the national final, just one for the public and riders to have another go on a track that is back in business. On the other hand you needed a license for it and the federation logo was on the program, so one would assume that rules would be followed. I was just writing a short story of the meeting to the Spar and it just looks stupid. Anyone who's interested can see straight away that the ref has been sh!te.

[f-s-p]

Some excellent (better than mine) pictures from the LT challenge at Forssa can be found here: http://www.kasakuvat.fi/ On the left there are a few galleries.

[f-s-p]

The Finnish season finished almost a month ago, when Marko Suojanen crashed at Hyvinkää and the final heat of the season was awarded to Timo Lahti. Hyvinkää’s meeting was the 20th of the season in 500cc and on top of that there were seven 80cc meetings. Also a Finnish team rode in the Swedish 80cc league (Tigrarna finished 3rd) and Jensen Cup. Finland won the Jensen Cup alltough only appeared in six of the eight matches.

 

It was a good season. Racing wise it was cracking. The new EL-format was a great success, the Finnish individual title was fought to the finishing line of the final after some really exciting and thrilling racing. U21 final was a downer but luckily pairs final (after all the controversy surrounding) held it’s place in the calendar. There was no qualifier for the individual final this year and that was a loss. There just werent enough riders willing to ride as the were rock concerts and individual meetings abroad that were apparently more inportant. Same reasons apply for the lack of riders in the U21 final.

 

Finland is a feeder in the world of speedway, you only need to look at the map to see it. Unfortunately the federation backed training group is only revolving around half a dozen enthusiastic prospects and they are not looking to rise in numbers. Palomäki and Teurnberg have done a really good job, no doubt about it. Katajisto is now a Scot (did not ride in Finland at all) and Timo Lahti looks set to ride as much as he wants next season around Europe. So all the hard work the TG puts in to these guys is one step closer for the Finnish speedway to lose them abroad. And there really isn’t enough new blood coming through. I’ve totally forgotten our microspeedway scene that was introduced in 2009. There are still a few tracks running in that, but I’ve not heard anything about the number of kids involved.

 

Some riders were again better than others. Kalle Katajisto managed almost an 8 point average in PL and rode in the U21 semi in Slovenia. First Finn to do that in almost ten years. Timo Lahti was in the U19 final, almost made it through from the Nordic U21 round and rode a full season for Masarna in the Swedish Allsvenskan. He turned 18 in July. Both of the guys were in the SWC quali in Lonigo where Finland won and Lahti was also in the KL round of the SWC, understandably out of his debt. Both did manage to ride an injury “free” season, not braking bones and therefor missing loads of meetings. That was naturally very positive and showed in their performance curve naturally. Kauko Nieminen did well and upped his game again while Joonas Kylmäkorpi is coming back and will be an international level force again next year.

 

Here in Finland Jari Mäkinen made a comeback on to the right trail and Joni Keskinen rode his best season yet. Niko Siltaniemi stepped up big time this year and won medals in all four possible competitions there was. Only Tero Aarnio (-04?,-05?) and Kaj Laukkanen (-95) have managed the same in the past 15 years. Juha Hautamäki was unstoppable in the Finnish Extraliiga and practically won the medal for Kotkat by himself. He took 45 % of their seasons points. Tomi Reima was winding it down this year and called it a day after Extraliiga was finished. I think he rode really well considering he did not practise at all during the season and only did 9 meetings in total. Joni Kitala was another hanging up his kevlars, there might be one or two other during the close season. Rider shortage is a concern in the coming couple of years, there are not enough Pasi Pulliainen type of comeback riders coming through. On a really positive note the track at Hyvinkää is back in action and there’s fresh blood and energy at the helm. Anything can happen when they hit full speed.

 

I guess that kind of wraps up the season this time. This thread is at the time of posting on over 61 views per post. That’s almost 10% up on last year, again.

[britmet]

.

Excellent summary, - Thanks for your postings thru the year.

 

We shall expect the same from you in 2011, (please.)

 

.

[f-s-p]

The Finnish AGM is this saturday. The plan is to ride the Extraliiga with the same format next year and I know one team is already made deals with it's riders for the coming season. KC and 80cc are not so clear, clubs have been told to come up with suggestions how to ride them. They are needed competitions no doubt.

[f-s-p]

The AGM went pretty well I think. Four teams look set for next years league again with Lahti dropping out and Hyvinkää stepping in. Kaupunki Cup looks to keep going the same. Extraliiga reverts back to SM-liiga. I always liked the name Extraliiga and thought it had potential but in the end no one was willing to do rubbish for/with it so it's now buried. R/R is introduced, joker turns to tac.sub without double points and a transfer window is introduced mid way. All the teams participated in the talks so the rules look good.

 

Finnish finals next season are:

Ice racing - Hyvinkää

Speedway - Haapajärvi

U21 speedway - Kauhajoki

Speedway pairs - Pori

Longtrack - Pori

[f-s-p]

UEM has issued an updated track racing calendar for 2011 (November 30th) and the U19 Nordic final makes a return and Seinäjoki is hosting it on July 2nd. Timo Lahti is a clear candidate for the win, but unless Mika Loppi leaps astronomically during the winter with his performance and bikes it'll as ugly with the rest as it was in 2007.

 

Allocations:

DMU 7

SVEMO 6

SML 3+2

Edited December 6, 2010 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

Timo Lahti was made U21 rider of the year in Finland by Speedwaysanomat, the Finnish track racing magazine. Lahti turned 18 midway through the season and was practically untouchable on the Finnish tracks apart from a blip in form in the individual final at Kauhajoki. He was also an important part in the Finnish national team in all the international competitions.

 

The award has earlier been given to Jari Mäkinen -07, Aki-Pekka Mustonen -08, Kalle Katajisto -09 and now Lahti 2010.

Edited December 7, 2010 by f-s-p

[f-s-p]

The Finnish SM-liiga (formerly known as Extraliiga) will be a four team battle again next year. Kuusankoski (fka Keittiöpiste), Hyvinkää (fka Sand Blowers), Pori (fka Paholaiset) and Seinäjoki (fka Kotkat) are those four teams. The door is kept open for a fifth team until the end of the year. Team nicknames will be announced with lineups after January 15th 2011.

 

Kaupunki Cup will also be contested next year, more info on that WAY later...

[f-s-p]

Merry Christmas!

 

I'm starting to build up for the coming season now...

[f-s-p]

Enough sources have confirmed that Kalevi Lahtinen passed away just before christmas. He was one of the 16 riders that took part in the first ever Finnish speedway championship final back in 1955. Mentioning just that dont do him the credit he deserves so I'll wait for others with more knowledge to write about him. More on this next years thread.

 

He was also a member of the VSRA.

[Puma23]

Some meeting with Kalevi:

 

World Team Championship;

 

 

Year:1960 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 4

 

Year:1961 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 4

 

Year:1962 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 4

 

Year:1964 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 3

 

Year:1965 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 3

 

Year:1967 Rank meeting: Scandinavian round: Team: Finland Position: 4

 

 

Long Track World Championship;

 

Year: 1957 Rank meeting: Semifinal Position: 8 Points: -

 

Year: 1958 Rank meeting: Semifinal Position: 13 Points: 10

 

Year: 1959 Rank meeting: Semifinal Position: 6 Points: 0

 

Year: 1960 Rank meeting: Semifinal Position: 5 Points: 12

 

Year: 1960 Rank meeting: Final Position: 7 Points: 16

 

Year: 1962 Rank meeting: Qualifying round Position: 9 Points: 8

 

Year: 1963 Rank meeting: Qualifying round Position: 7 Points: 8

 

Year: 1964 Rank meeting: Qualifying round Position: 10 Points: 7

 

Year: 1965 Rank meeting: Qualifying round Position: 4 Points: 13

 

 

Individual Finnish Championship;

 

Year: 1955 Rank meeting: Final Position: 15 Points: 3

 

Year: 1957 Rank meeting: Final Position: 10 Points: 7

 

Year: 1958 Rank meeting: Final Position: 6 Points: 10

 

Year: 1959 Rank meeting: Final Position: 2 Points: 13

 

Year: 1960 Rank meeting: Final Position: 1 Points: -

 

Year: 1961 Rank meeting: Final Position: 2 Points: 14

 

Year: 1962 Rank meeting: Final Position: 2 Points: 14

 

Year: 1963 Rank meeting: Final Position: 2 Points: -

 

Year: 1964 Rank meeting: Final Position: 1 Points: -

 

Year: 1965 Rank meeting: Final Position: 1 Points: -

 

Year: 1966 Rank meeting: Final Position: 3 Points: -

 

Year: 1969 Rank meeting: Final Position: 1 Points: -

 

Year: 1970 Rank meeting: Final Position: 1 Points: -

 

Year: 1971 Rank meeting: Final Position: 2 Points: -

 

Year: 1972 Rank meeting: Final Position: 3 Points: 12

 

I am sure that Timo Laine have more details about him.