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Kalle Katajisto and Niko Siltaniemi have both stepped up from 80cc to ride the big bikes next season. Both have also found a riding berth in the Finnish Ekstaleague.

Thats 24 heats of Heat by heat details and another 40 to go along for the GP's... Nice to see that Seppänen got a place, he wasn't sure about it a week ago. His season really has been a disaster with the Golden Spike turning out to be what it is with the weather. Heard he bought new leathers, now he might have a chance to show them!

It would be great if someone could do the translating for the German version of the letters in the scorechart??? Here are the polish ones I got earlier, think it was Leliwa? Thanks anyway.. w = excluded d = engine failure u = fall t = excluded for touching tapes for example: u/4 means fall while 4th, w/2 usually means excluded for exceeding 2 min. time

They do have a policy about it, saw it in 80cc junior speedway myself. Dont know about their ice racing policy... What happened to Lehtinen??? An engine blow..? This is a tactical (much but not THAT much) move by the Finnish authorities to put Aakko straight in to the finals. We are looking for a medal. Last year plenty of people were saying that Aakko was robbed from a podium finish. By giving him a chance to prove himself again and hoping for a better result, Finland is after to organize this competion in the near future.

Went to see and chat with the Lahti brothers today. Timo starts his last season in the 80cc this summer and Teemu (current U21 champ) will be building on his last seasons success even more. Two very good prospects for Finnish speedway! Both very good riders with a very down to earth parents and other people behind them. Teemu has a contract to ride for the Gävle team in the Swedish 1st division, and I see no reason why he wouldn't be given a chance on a higher level too. Teemu has now finished college and is applying to a university (like I've said before, bright) but said he has a few years to see if speedway is worth taking a chance. And with his current rate of progressing, it is. Timo is even more into the sport, I expect big things from his as well.

Too flashy bikes? Dont remember if I posted about this already but I spoke with Aakko about the travelling in Russia. He said it's unbelievable what happens in traffic. All sorts of vehicles with or without light day and night, no respect for speed limits makes the accidents terrible looking... What ever you can think of practically. But once you get where you're going it's an OK place to visit.

Spoke with Henriksson yesterday, he's been to a magnetic scan on wednesday and has a doctors appointment early next week. The Finnish final on his home track is six weeks away and he couldn't say anything about it. In the heat where he broke his wrist Zorn and Krasnikov collided and there was only two ways for Henrikkson to react: Go through Zorn who was directly in front of him on his line or avoid the collision and go through the fence. He opted for the fence. Jouni Seppänen who was there said that Henriksson was so close to the two that he had no time to really react any other way. Also that Henriksson looked fast and had a good chance of going through. The 0 in his 3rd heat came because his front end was too soft and the suspension "bottomed" and he could not attack.

I'd be very happy if someone could point me to the place/.pdf/.doc where it states that there is this rule about max three riders from one FMR to go through in ice racing. It doesn't say that in the rule book, and it doesn't mention any wild cards either.

(unless they score well and finish so far up the field it makes a mockery of the racing.) You are kidding, right? If Aakko scores 10 on sunday and finishes 13 after the first two GP's, will he start in the 3rd as a regular?

The Kauhajoki meeting is now fully online. Jari is to be eliminated in clips 25 & 26 and 28.

I received an e-mail saying Kaj and Mari Laukkanen got a baby girl today.

Every morning this week we've had -30 celsius or lower. The sun is shining right now and it's a perfect winter day. Only -22 celsius.

This one is fairly recent, but in any case it has to have been THE meeting in Finland for the past 15 years. SPEEDWAY U21 World Final Tampere 4.8.1995 Jason Crump 33232 13+3 Daniel Andersson 32323 13+0 Ryan Sullivan 23322 12+3 Tomas Topinka 23331 12+2 Kaj Laukkanen 32331 12+1 Ben Howe 22233 12+0 Piotr Protasiewicz 33220 10 Ronni Pedersen 20113 7 Jiri Stancl 11212 7 Savalas Clouting 02103 6 Rafal Dobrucki 11112 6 Antonin Svab 11101 4 Nicki Pedersen 11001 3 Mirko Wolter 00020 2 Norbert Magosi 00010 1 Waldemar Walczak OR0F0 0 Heat by heat: 1. Crump, Howe, Dobrucki, Clouting 66,25 2. Laukkanen, Topinka, Svab, Magosi 66,42 3. Andersson, Sullivan, Stancl, Walczak 65,39 4. Protasiewicz, Pedersen, N Pedersen, Wolter 66,40 5. Protasiewicz, Andersson, Dobrucki, Magosi 65,66 6. Crump, Laukkanen, N.Pedersen, Walczak R 66,63 7. Topinka, Howe, Stancl, R.Pedersen 66.46 8. Sullivan, Clouting, Svab, Wolter 67,93 9. Laukkanen, Stancl, Dobrucki, Wolter 66.72 10. Sullivan, Crump, R.Pedersen, Magosi 65,64 11. Andersson, Howe, Svab, N.Pedersen 66,61 12. Topinka, Protasiewicz,Clouting, Walczak 66,60 13. Topinka, Sullivan, Dobrucki, N.Pedersen 66,26 14. Crump, Protasiewicz, Stancl, Svab 66.89 15. Howe, Wolter, Magosi, Walczak F 68,32 16. Laukkanen, Andersson, Pedersen, Clouting 66,64 17. Pedersen, Dobrucki, Svab, Walczak 66,90 18. Andersson, Crump, Topinka, Wolter 66,80 19. Howe, Sullivan, Laukkanen, Protasiewicz 67,17 20. Clouting, Stancl, N.Pedersen, Magosi 67,60 re-run for 3rd: Sullivan, Topinka, Laukkanen, Howe 66,3 re-run for 1st: Crump, Andersson F 66,40 The track record before the meeting was 66,45 by Hans Nielsen from 4.6.1989 (Must have been the Scandinavian Final ). Anyway Ryan Sullivan rode 65,64 in heat 10. Kaj Laukkanen rode 65,08 in the Finnish final 22.8.1999 in the A-final beating Tomi Reima and Vesa Ylinen for the championship.

Juha Hautamäki sets the current track record in a new clip here. Ice racing Eurochamps in Uchaly will see Kai Lehtinen in the semi and Antti Aakko seeded straight in the final. The Finnish final keeps moving back and forth all the time. It's currently scheduled for 31st of March if the weather allows it to happen. The all new Jari Mäkinen website is close to being ready for everyone to see. Just a week or two to go!

Put something blue&white on, from what I've counted there will be around 100 Finnish fans at the track!

This is a bit younger.... Finnish Individual Qualifier 17.5.1983 Eteläpuisto, Tampere Ari Koponen 333333 15 Hannu Lehtonen 32333 14 Isto Maja 23332 13 Markku Haapala 33222 12 Esa Mattila 22223 11 Ossi Henriksson 31132 10 Jorma Fräntilä 21321 9 Ari Heikkilä 13003 7 Pentti Kallio 10222 7 Kari Yrjänäinen 12111 6 Ari Heinonen 2021R 5 Risto Jokinen 12000 3 Ari Nevala 011F1 3 Tapio Suutari 0101 2 Timo Virtanen 011 2 Antti Aalto 0000R 0 Jyrki Suutari F 0 Heat by heat: 1. Koponen, Maja, Jokinen, Aalto 63,10 2. Lehtonen, Fräntilä, Heikkilä, Nevala 64,45 3. Haapala, Mattila, Kallio, T Suutari 66,20 4. Henriksson, Heinonen, Yrjänäinen, J Suutari F 66,55 5. Koponen, Lehtonen, Henriksson, Kallio 62,90 6. Haapala, Yrjänäinen, Nevala, Aalto 66,30 7. Heikkilä, Jokinen, T Suutari, Virtanen 68,15 8. Maja, Mattila, Fräntilä, Heinonen 65,40 9. Koponen, Heinonen, Nevala, T Suutari 65,20 10. Lehtonen, Mattila, Virtanen, Aalto 64,90 11. Fräntilä, Kallio, Yrjänäinen, Jokinen 67,10 12. Maja, Haapala, Henriksson, Heikkilä 66,15 13. Koponen, Mattila, Yrjänäinen, Heikkilä 65,10 14. Henriksson, Fräntilä, Häyrinen, Aalto F 67,20 15. Lehtonen, Haapala, Heinonen, Jokinen 65,90 16. Maja, Kallio, Virtanen, Nevala F 66,65 17. Koponen, Haapala, Fräntilä, Virtanen 67,20 18. Heikkilä, Kallio, Aalto R, Heinonen R 69,75 19. Mattila, Henriksson, Nevala, Jokinen 66,25 20. Lehtonen, Maja, Yrjänäinen, Häyrinen 65,??

http://www.sheffield-tigers.co.uk/Canterburyko20051978.html I also remember him being accused for being the main reason of the low times of Sheffield speedway in the late 70's in some website...

Not speedway but Heather Mills took 1600 € (7200+ PLN?) per hour from Paul McCartney in their marriage.

He was really good at Kauhajoki. But the best of Jari are yet to come. He's gonna fall of a couple of times and also makes a really good pass (better than clip 6)... The guy keeping the site should have the rest uploaded in a week maybe. Thats about the time it took him to upload the other clips.

This is the guy www.speedway.fi that taped some of the meetings. He's a pro in multimedia, but he's had difficulties with his hard- and software. So he decided to distribute them via his site. Dont know about any others.

Clips from the 1st Kauhajoki Speedway here. Some good crashes there...

He was a good longtrack rider, yes. His 16 year old son Jari is now one of the biggest prospects in Finnish speedway. My enquiry on Timo Laine has not been succesful yet.

LAGUTA Grigory LaMSF LAT Is this the same guy who was a reserve in SGP Daugavpils? Is he any good on ice?

Peter Timm who keeps the german forum also keeps the German equalent of your Travel Plus Tours. When ever I've met him after spring 2004 I've had a chat. He usually takes 1-2 busses full of people to every GP.

Ala-Riihimäki, Henriksson and Flyktman confirmed for Inzell.