Conkers

The Assen website is Ijsspeedway - Assen. As for Hotels, there are a few in Assen but they book up early. Groningen is a good place to stay, but if you have a look HERE you may have some joy. Hope this helps

Yes I know it's only August, but the season starts in late November/Early December Individual World Championship: 10./11.1. Sanok/PL (QR 1); * 11.1 Saalfelden/A (QR 2); 17./18.1. Stockholm/S (QR 3); 7./8.2. Krasnogorsk/RUS (Final 1); 14./15.2. Ufa/RUS (Final 2); 7./8.3. Berlin-Wilmersdorf/D (Final 3); 14./15.3. Assen/NL (Final 4). Ice Racing World Team Final: 31.1./1.2. Inzell/D * I spoke to someone Yesterday who has been in regular contact with the Sanok Ice Racing Promoter and the QR set for there may not now take place, with the next meeting to be held there being the 2010 World Team Final. There is nothing on the Sanok site (www.iceracing.pl) saying this, but it looks certain, it's just a question of who will run the remaining Qualifier. The Assen, Berlin and Inzell sites all have details about their meetings, and I know that Hill Street Blue has already started planning the Eurorider trip to Assen, as the Hotel in Groningen is booked already. Assen are running their Friday meeting the day before the last two rounds of the Final, although I can't find anything yet about the Santa Cup, or the Russian Championship. I'm sure Iris123 will correct me, but I suspect the German Championship will be in Inzell this year, as they have the Team Final, and Berlin staged it last.

Just booked in at the Travelodge in Monmouth for Saturday, £61 + £1 cancellation insurance. We worked it out that staying there this year + car park at Dumfries Place (£12.50) was cheaper than staying in Cardiff, and it's about 30 minutes drive from Cardiff. Plus it's cheaper next year than this year (£70 +£1+£12.50). Interesting that I went to the Ice Racing in Berlin in March. My hotel was also where all the riders were staying, and the place was full of fans but the rates were actually the same as any other weekend. OK it's not the same as Cardiff (there were only 5,000 fans in attendance) but even in Assen (capacity 12,000), the Hotels have "special rates" for the Ice Racing which are sometimes cheaper than regular rates

I would assume that whilst they haven't banned air horns per se, they obviously want safe gasses within those horns. I would assume that should you try to take an air horn in, the stewards will look for the flammable symbol and confiscate those. Incidentally, the information came from the ticket agent where my son bought his tickets.

It won't affect me, as I will have enough to do, but I got this regarding the GP: So now you know!

I posted the FIM release on the US Speedwaybikes forum, and received an e-mail from Billy to say he wasn't riding due to work commitments.

Ironic that this track is going, when the Austrian Ice Racing scene is rising thanks mainly to Franky Zorn's success. Perhaps Austrian Speedway needs someone to have similar success to drag Speedway back up again.

Looking at the Bikes and kevlars of the Togliatti Ice riders, and the fact they are "quite well off" I am not surprised they have applied for a GP. Iris123 posted a link to the pics of their stadium a few months back, which show they have the money to back them up.

The site uses Dragonfly - an updated PHP Nuke. It is optimised for Firefox rather than IE, although I check it in Safari as that is on my Mac. Can you PM me with what problems you are having, as Dragonfly should work better with Firefox

My Berlin Pics WC Round 5, Berllin WC Round 6, Berlin

Glad you've seen it and enjoyed the experience. Unfortunately we forgot to arrange a meeting point this year although a few of met up at the back of the first bend near the food stalls. Maybe next time we can arrange something in advance.

Footnote to the weekend: The Russians were all the Winters last night, and I managed a quick word with Stanislav Arkhipov (well a combination of my very poor german, his very poor english and a drunken interpreter ) , who was walking round the bar a little gingerly. He hasn't broken anything, but boy is he bruised! He wanted to ride in the A final but the medics ruled against it as he was still being examined by the Track Doctor. By the time he was finished, the presentations were well and truly over, and his mechanic was packing away his bike. The Khomitsevich and Ivanov brothers and attendent wives/girfriends were also very merry as they made up for the lack of alcohol over the weekend.

The final round of the World Championship: Round 6, Berlin 16.3.2008 A Final: Dmiytri Khomitsevich 25 Franz Zorn 20 Danil Ivanov 18 Stanislav Archipov 16 (DNR) B Final: Nikolai Krasnikov 14 Ilja Drozdov 13 Harald Simon 12 Maksim Zakharov 11 C Final: Pavel Tsjajka 10 Stefan Svensson 9 Vitali Khomitsevich 8 Antti Aakko 7 D Final: Antonin Klatovsky 6 Johnny Tuinstra 5 Dmitri Tschatschin 4 Per-Olof Serenius 3 Final Table: PSN Rider Country Total 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 124 2 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 117 3 Franz Zorn A 104 (+3) 4 Danil Ivanov Rus 104 (+2) 5 Stanislav Archipov Rus 94 6 Maxim Sakharov Rus 83 7 Ilya Drozdov Rus 63 8 Pavel Tschajka Rus 60 9 Harald Simon A 50 10 Per-Olof Serenius S 49 11 Antti Aakko SF 43 12 Gunter Bauer D 39 13 Stefan Svensson S 38 14 Vitali Khomitsevich Rus 36 15 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 32 16 Johnny Tuinstra NL 24 17 Dmitri Tschatchin D 14 18 Tommy Flyktman SF 12 Great that Franky made it to the rostrum, despite Krasnikov running into him in Heat 40, and the fact that he and Dmitri battled all weekend. Danil Ivanov held up Franky in the A Final, but Zorn just failed to make it a win in the dash to the line with Dmitri. He beat Danil in a run off for the Bronze. Stanislav Arkipov fell in his final ride, but suffered suspected shoulder and back injuries, and didn't race in the A Final. Gunther Bauer withdrew, and Tommy Flyktman didn't make the D Final as he scored 0 all meeting. I heard he had bike trouble, but I don't know. Nice to se Wolfcry and the boys too. And Iris123 - I got Krasnikov to smile and do the pose I wanted him to!!! :lol:

Result from R 5 Berlin 15.3.2008 A Final: Dmitri Khomitsevich 25 Franz Zorn 20 Danil Ivanov 18 Stanislav Archipov 16 (f) B Final Pavel Tsjajka 14 Vitali Khomitsevich 13 Per-Olof Serenius 12 Maksim Zakharov 11 C Final Nikolai Krasnikov 10 Stefan Svensson 9 Antti Aakko 8 Ilja Drozdov 7 D Final Harald Simon 6 Gunther Bauer 5 Antonin Klatovsky 4 Dmitri Tschatschin 3 Overall: PSN Rider Country Total 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 110 2 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 92 3 Danil Ivanov Rus 86 4 Franz Zorn A 84 5 Stanislav Archipov Rus 78 6 Maxim Sakharov Rus 72 7 Pavel Tschajka Rus 50 8 Ilya Drozdov Rus 50 9 Per-Olof Serenius S 46 10 Gunter Bauer D 39 11 Harald Simon A 38 12 Antti Aakko SF 36 13 Stefan Svensson S 29 14 Vitali Khomitsevich Rus 28 15 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 26 16 Johnny Tuinstra NL 19 17 Tommy Flyktman SF 12 18 Dmitri Tschatchin D 10 Sorry for the late result, but Iris123, Jacky and myself have been socialising since 9pm CET EDIT: Forgot to put the finals in!

Nice pics Doug! Do you know if Mark is staying on in Berlin for the weekend?

Draw for Berlin and the last two rounds: 1 Stanislav Archipov 2 Stefan Svensson 3 Antti Aakko 4 Per-Olof Serenius 5 Nikolai Krasnikov 6 Maksim Zakharov 7 Dmiytri Khomitsevich 8 Antonin Klatovsky 9 Ilja Drozdov 10 Harald Simon 11 Gunther Bauer 12 Dmitri Tschatschin 13 Danil Ivanov 14 Vitali Khomitsevich 15 Franz Zorn 16 Pavel Tsjajka R17 Johnny Tuinstra R18 Tommy Flyktman It's a pretty safe bet that Krasnikov will win (but judging by our collective failure to get predictions correct we've probably jinxed him ) but I reckon Zorn will grab a final rostrum spot, with Danil there too.

Assen - Sunday from Isracing.net and Jacky at the track: A-final: 1. Krasnikov 2. Ivanov 3. Arkhipov 4. Sakharov B-final: 5. D. Khomitsevich (blue) 6. Zorn (red) 7. Drozdov (white) 8. Svensson (yellow) Fell/Excluded Finish on the line between D. Khomitsevich and Zorn!! C-final: 9. Serenius (red) 10. Flyktman (white) 11. Aakko (blue) 12. Bauer (yellow) D-final: 13. Tsjajka (white) 14. Simon (red) 15. Tuinstra (yellow) 16. Klatovsky (blue) Standing after 4 Finals: 1. Krasnikov 100 2. Ivanov 68 3. D. Khomitsevich 67 4. Zorn 64 5. Arkhipov 62 6. Sakharov 61 7. Drozodov 43 8. Tsjajka 36 9. Serenius 34 10. Bauer 34 11. Simon 32 12. Aakko 28 13. Klatovsky 22 14. Svensson 20 15. Tuinstra 19 16. V. Khomitsevich 15 17. Flyktman 12 18. Tschatschin 7 Looks like Berlin will be just a formality for Krasnikov, he only needs to score 19 points to be World Champion after scoring Maximum WC points yet again in Assen

Saturday night at Assen - From the Swedish Ice Racing Site from Jacky at the track A-Final 1. Krasnikov 2. D. Khomitsevich 3. Zorn 4. Arkhipov B-final: 5. Ivanov 6. Drozdov 7. V. Khomitsevich 8. Sakharov (Excluded for unfair riding) Khomitsevich and Sakharov both felt in the last corner on lap 4. C-final: 9. Aakko 10. Bauer 11. Serenius 12. Tsjajka (Fell/Excluded) D-final: 13. Simon 14. Klatovsky 15. Tuinstra 16. Tschatschin OVERALL: PSN Rider Country Total 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 75 2 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 53 3 Franz Zorn A 51 4 Danil Ivanov Rus 48 5 Maxim Sakharov Rus 45 6 Stanislav Archipov Rus 44 7 Ilya Drozdov Rus 31 8 Pavel Tschajka Rus 30 9 Harald Simon A 27 10 Gunter Bauer D 27 11 Per-Olof Serenius S 24 12 Antti Aakko SF 20 13 Ilya Drozdov CzR 19 14 Vitali Khomitsevich Rus 15 15 Johnny Tuinstra NL 15 16 Stefan Svensson S 9 17 Dmitri Tschatchin D 7 18 Tommy Flyktman SF 3 Wish I was there mind!

Looks like I missed a good meeting - oh well can't be helped this year. Thanks Joni and DGT for the info. With luck I'll be there in 2009! Ian

The Heat Draw for the Roelof Thijs Bokaal - taken from the Assen Website Heat 1: Christoph Kirchner D Jo Saetre N Dennis van der Tang NL Florian Fürst D Heat 2: Joni Kontoniemi SF Thomas Cavigelli CH René Verhoef NL Josef Kreuzberger A Heat 3: Mario Schwaiger A Sebastian Gegenbauer D Jouni Seppänen SF Lukas Rösti CH Heat 4: Simon Gartmann CH Torleif Burman S Max Neidermaier D Kai Lehtinen SF Heat 11: Sergej Baltatsjev Rus Grzegorz Knapp Pol Heat 12: Joakim Söderström S René Stellingwerf NL Heat 13: Sven Holstein NL Stefan Pletschacher D Heat 14: Vladimir Tsjapalo Rus Markus Skabraut A The meeting is the 24 heat GP formula, so if you are going to Assen this weekend, it looks a great meeting on Friday, together with the prospect of some terrific racing on Saturday night/Sunday Afternoon. I spoke to Ron Shaw from Eurorider last week, and I understand you can still book with him for his trip which takes in all three meetings. EDIT 2 Due to circumstances beyond my control, I won't be in Assen this weekend having to cancel at the last minute. EDIT: News from Assen that Max Neidermaier from Germany will replace Austria's Johann Bruckner

Line up Draw for Assen posted on Speedway.org: 1. Johnny Tuinstra 2. Dmitri Khomitsevich 3. Gunther Bauer 4. Ilya Drozdov 5. Pavel Tschajka 6. Antti Aakko 7. Maksim Zakharov 8. Antonin Klatovsky 9. Stanislav Archipov 10. Vitali Khomtsevich 11. Franz Zorn 12. Dmitri Tschatschin 13. Danil Ivanov 14. Per-Olof Serenius 15. Nikolai Krasnikov 16. Harald Simon R17. Stefan Svensson R18. Tommy Flyktman Reserves will replace the bottom two scorers on day 2

Don't worry, we can refresh your memory with some beer in a couple of weeks! :lol:

If you look closely, Sanok have a qualifying round, Russia appear to have 2 rounds at Krasnagork as well as Ufa. Have the FIM scrapped the team championship then?

Got to agree with you on the missing Russians, but like you say, Vitali may give Krasnikov a run in the next meeting. Franky and Aakko go well around it and don't forget, Posa always does well on his birthday for some reason, so it should be interesting. Those pics that f-s-p has found are really good. Could be from the Junior Final in Sterlitamak Oh well - a week and a bit to go to Assen. :lol: If any forumites are going, and you see me, I am the photographer in the green jacket with all my lenses slung around my waist like a gunslinger - please say hello. If anyone is looking for a good place to meet up, the bar under the main stand is usually the preferred place. I usually pop in there before both meetings.

Once again, thanks for the results Doug. Sorry for the late reply, but I just got in from Telford (fancy resurfacing the M6 at night!) having left at 9.30pm Here are the standings I have after 2 rounds: 1 Nikolai Krasnikov Rus 50 2 Danil Ivanov Rus 34 3 Maxim Sakharov Rus 34 4 Dmitri Khomitsevich Rus 33 5 Franz Zorn A 33 6 Stanislav Archipov Rus 28 7 Pavel Tschajka Rus 23 8 Harald Simon A 21 9 Gunter Bauer D 18 10 Ilya Drozdov Rus 18 11 Per-Olof Serenius S 16 12 Antonin Klatovsky CzR 14 13 Johnny Tuinstra NL 11 14 Antti Aakko SF 10 15 Stefan Svensson S 9 16 Dmitri Tschatchin D 4 17 Tommy Flyktman SF 3 18 Vitali Khomitsevich Rus 3 With Franky's 6th place today he is still in with a chance of a rostrum spot, but if Krasnikov has a poor meeting at Assen or Berlin, we could end up with a final like last year in Berlin.