f-s-p 832 Posted November 23, 2007 (edited) 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted November 27, 2007 (edited) 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tarabanko 5 Posted November 27, 2007 (edited) 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted November 27, 2007 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.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tarabanko 5 Posted November 27, 2007 No... Maybe you should put isracing.net as the source though.... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Thanks alot. Mikael Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 12, 2007 (edited) 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 17, 2007 (edited) 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 21,058 Posted December 17, 2007 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 17, 2007 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... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Midnight_Lady 2 Posted December 17, 2007 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iris123 21,058 Posted December 17, 2007 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 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 17, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 18, 2007 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... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 19, 2007 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. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
f-s-p 832 Posted December 21, 2007 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! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
