f-s-p 832 Posted May 5, 2005 (edited) The finnish season starts next weekend, when a training camp is organised by the local club, Pori motor club on the southwest coast of Finland at Pori. Training starts on saturday 10 am continuing all day. On sunday at 14 pm there's a qualifying meeting to determine 7+2 spots for the Individual Championships, in which the winner will be determined over three rounds held at: 18.06.2005 @ Kuusankoski, KMMK 16.07.2005 @ Haapajärvi, HjMK 13.08.2005 @ Varkaus, WarkMPU The best nine from last year have been seeded to the series, and they are: Kaj Laukkanen SeMK 10.00 Juha Hautamäki SeMK 8.96 Tomi Reima FMS 8.47 Tero Aarnio KMMK 8.00 Toni Salmela Nässjö SK 6.72 Rene Lehtinen SeMK 6.37 (most likely for Elgane for the U21 qualifier) Juha Mäkelä SeMK 6.33 Jyri Palomäki Nässjö SK 6.23 Jani Mäkelä SeMK 6.14 Riders in the annual Pori Open are: 1-Jani Eerikäinen 2-Aarni Heikkilä 3-Petri Meritähti 4-Teemu Lahti (-04 #3 at U21, I hope he gets the nod for the qualis in Elgane) 5-Marko Suojanen 6-Pekka Valo 7-Margus Mandre 8-Mika Suojanen 9-Pasi Räsänen 10-Kalle Kivistö 11-Juho Ruuska 12-Pasi Mattila 13-Janne Nyman 14-Petteri Koivunen 15-Tero Aarnio (-04 U21 #1, best/all we have in U21) 16-Joni Kitala 17-Tarmo Mustajärvi 18-Ari Tuomisto 19-Toni Stenberg 20-Petri Koskela 21-Tomi Kauppi 22-Joni Keskinen 23-Jan-Erik Korkeamäki 24-Tuomas Reinikainen (Riders in blue take part in the qualifying event) All together 25 riders wanted to come, so the meeting will raced under 24 rider Grand prix format. The numbers after each rider show you their league average from last year, and that avg. was used to place the riders order. Riders in black here participating in the meeting are able to win it, but not participate the series. Theres no finnish team in the World Cup this year because someone was late with the application. Funds and team were there, but depending who's asking/answering, the blame is always on the other guy (between head of speedway dep. and the secretary of the finnish union). When you add to this that the persons representing Finland at the annual FIM congress last autumn went there with a Longtrack qualifier to be held at Forssa, Finland, and came back with some Enduro meetings, I can tell you there's been a LOT happening behind the scenes. The problem is that the sport is so small, that nobody actually cares. Who ever is in charge can do as he sees fit. Sometimes it's good for the sport, sometimes not. At the moment it's not. Edited May 5, 2005 by f-s-p Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted May 6, 2005 Wouldn't Finland be able to send a team to the U-21 world team cup qualifyer at Abensberg? The Americans are now definitely out of it, as they can't afford to send a complete five-man team over from the States. There is now talk that a makeshift combined team of Hungarians and Slovenians will be included to replace the USA. Surely only a true national team should come in as replacements instead of a mixed nations side. Finland would be good, as would be Scotland!!!! Listen F.I.M. - does the participation of a comined Hungary-Slovenia side give this new competition more credit than a Scotland team (or Wales)? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted May 6, 2005 U21 is different, and we a place in the Polish round @ Rybnik on the 28th of August. Joonas Kylmäkorpi was the last rider to make it to a semi in the U21 individuals, and that was maybe 2-3 years ago, so I wont be making any reservations to hotels in Pardubice 1.10. The finnish U21 team isn't very strong. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted May 9, 2005 Results: 1. Tero Aarnio KMMK 2. Marko Suojanen PMK 3. Margus Mandre Eesti 4. Pekka Valo SeMK 5. Petteri Koivunen SeMK 6. Joni Keskinen SeMK 7. Jani Eerikäinen KMMK 8. Teemu Lahti KMMK 9. Tuomas Reinikainen WarkMPU 10. Janne Nyman FMS 11. Petri Meritähti PMK 12. Aarni Heikkilä FMS 13. Ari Tuomisto FMS 14. Pasi Räsänen SeMK 15. Toni Stenberg KMMK 16. Mika Suojanen PMK 17. Tomi Kauppi PMK 18. Joni kitala SsMK 19. Petri Koskela PMK 20. Juho Ruuska HjMK 21. J-E Korkeamäki KauhjMK 22. Pasi Mattila KauhjMK 23. Reino Koivuluoma KauhjMK Aarnio (21 yrs) did what he was supposed to. He had one EF while leading, once he was challenged "all the way from the tapes to backstraight" by Joni keskinen, otherwise untouchable. He has changed his riding style a bit this spring, but with this opposition he had yesterday, it's impossible to say anything. It looked better though, sort of tidier... He's been offered a contract by a British Premiere team, but with his current contracts and being in the army until July?, the man is in pieces trying to figure out what to do... Teemu Lahti (17 yrs) was a bit of a disappointment. He had loads of technical problems on saturday, but made it trough to take a place in the series. Joni Keskinen (19 yrs) on the other hand was a surprise. He gated well, which he didn't do at all last year I saw him. He bought one of Laukkanens GP -bikes during winter, and he rode well. A few years ago he was unbeaten in the finnish 80cc series. When he began riding 500cc, he had a bad accident in training and spent a month or two in the hospital. It was said he had too much steel in his back to carry on racing, but he did well. Well extremely well yesterday. One more name to mention is Janne Nyman (18 yrs). He rode well in this opposition. One of the few riders who wasn't afraid to make a move and challenge when there was a chance. Good for him! Finnish riders in Elgane for the U21 Worlds qualifier are: Tero Aarnio, Rene Lehtinen and Joni Keskinen Finnish riders for the U19 European Championship semi @ Målilla are: Joni Keskinen and Jani Eerikäinen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted May 9, 2005 Very interesting. The one rider I would like to know more about is Margus Mandre, as he is the lone speedway rider from Estland at the moment. How old is Margus Mandre, and how good would You rate him? By the way, if I remember right, there was talk that a speedway track would be reopened in Estland this year. Do You anything about this? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted May 10, 2005 I dont know anything about Estonian speedway, except that they've ridden longtrack at the Tallinna Hippodrome. I didn't actually pay much attention to Mandre last weekend. I did notice that he had some sponsor stickers from Tallink and his bike looked a bit better. Last year it was more "a part from there and one from there" -sort of look. He rode @ the finnish U21 last year and won the B- final, thats how old he is . He was 9th in the finnish championship last year. As a rider I think he is a tryer, doesn't give up. That actually gave him a slot in the final, because he passed Keskinen on the line in the semi, after being way behind. As a gater he's OK? Track's in Finland were a bit crap (grippy with loads of material and holes) last year, but it seems a lot of work has been done on that front at nearly every track. So how would he do on a well prepared slicker track? I have no idea. I think the next time I see him, I'll go and have a word... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bavarian 767 Posted May 12, 2005 thanks f-s-p, as far as I know Margus is racing mx as well, so may like the roughness of the finnish speedway tracks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
