Conkers

The Steingarden line up/preview is HERE. Looks like they are going to have loads of Ice too. Finns to be confirmed it says - any ideas boss?

So expect photos of him holding bits of the frame after they drop off!

Santa Cup Östersund 27 December 1 Franz Zorn (Austria) 25 2 Antti Aakko (Finland) 22 3 Harald Simon (Austria) 20 4 P-A Lindström (Jämtlands MK) 18 5 Markus Skabraut (Austria) 16 6 Johnny Tuinstra (Netherlands) 15 7 Posa Serenius (SMK Gävle) 14 8 Sven Holstein (Netherlands) 13 9 Peter Koij (SMK Gävle) 12 10 Tommy Flyktman (Finland) 11 11 Stefan Svensson (ÖMK Rundbana) 10 12 Joakim Söderström (Funbo MS) 9 13 Jan Klatovsky (Czech Rep.) 8 14 Robert Gjersvold (Jämtlands MK) 7 15 Jo Saetre (Norway) 6 16 Stefan Pletschacher (Germany) 5 17 Lars Ringbert (Jämtlands MK) 4 18 Heinz Göldi (Switzerland) 3 19 Hans Olov Olsén (Jämtlands MK) 2 20 Johan Lundkvist (Jämtlands MK) 1 results from Isracing.net Good result for Franky and Antti Aakko. P-A Lindström being highest placed home rider certainly puts him forward as the "new" guy in Swedish Ice Racing. Perhaps Mark Uzzell could give more info about him?

iris123 - I had an e-mail from Roland Haupt (The huge bear of a guy from Berlin!) who was going on a trip to Sweden for the Santa Cup. Looks like he's having a reduced Ice Racing Trip. Looking at Mr Es photos I wonder how he gets so low on some of the photos. He must be almost level with the outside fence. He certainly takes some spectacular shots. The wide angle one of the track has given me some ideas for the future too.

What do you reckon that Pavel Tchajka will be challenging for the World Championship in 2008. Has Krasnikov got a fight on his hands?

Any reason why? (Presumably weather related)

Yo! Go Roger Newton!!

C'mon mate, if you got sent that pic for SS you'd use it! It's a cracking pic!

Good stuff weter, Got to agree with Iris123. I particularly like This photo

It's the one that Discovery showed in the UK a few months ago, when their presenter tried forms of Motorcycle racing. You get to see the Brits there and Rob gives an interview, but you do see Mark and Roger. If you haven't seen it it is quite good. Hey Mark, if you are at Assen for the Thijs meeting, I'll see you there. Good luck in Flims and in Sanok in the European Championship!

Thanks for those results. Not a lot of real surprises, but Dmitri K beating his older brother has to be one of them. Still looks like Krasnikov is going like a train, and it will take a massive upset for him not to retain the World Championship.

The way Krasnikov has been going, he has to start out as favourite, but Pavel Tsjajka is a rider worth looking out for. He scored well in the first round of the Russian League last weekend and was the only rider to beat Nikolai in Blagovesjtsjensk (I don't count NKs exclusion). The Ivanovs are NKs main opposition in Shadrinsk. I see Sergei Kasakov is still riding - twice world champion (1982/83) and tough as old boots. Broke a collar bone on the Saturday night of the 1985 World Final in Assen (opening Race). Went to Hospital, then rode on the Sunday with it strapped up.

Final result from Shadrinsk: 1. Günther Bauer 14+15=29 2. Eduard Krysov 12+14=26 3. Dmitri Tschatschin 12+13=25 4. Roman Akimenko 15+10=25 5. Johnny Tuinstra 12+10=22 6. Dmitri Koltakov 9+11=20 7. Maksim Koltakov 10+6=16 8. Sergej Koltakov 7+8=15 9. Aleksandr Rodin 7+7=14 10 Daniil Belonogov 7+6=13 11. Artjom Novik 5+7=12 12. Maksim Melekhin 2+5=7 13. Dmitri Brjukhovskikh 3+3=6 14. Martin Leitner 4+2=6 15. Dmitri Deev 1+1=2 16. Jevgeni Taushkanov 0+1=1 Good win for Bauer dropping the single point, and well done to Tschatschin and Tuinstra getting third and 5th respectively! Final Results from the Russian Higher League: 1. Bashkortostan (Ufa) (24) 8 (24) 8 16 Dmitri Bulankin 10 0 Sergej Baltatsjov - 6 Nikolaj Krasnikov 14 18 2. Mordovië (Saransk) (24) 6 (23) 6 12 Junir Bazeev 14 13 Dmitri Karpukhin - - Maksim Zakharov 10 10 3. Siberië (Novosibirsk) (19) 5 (19) 5 10 Maksim Kortsjemakha 1 0 Aleksandr Kotsjetov 3 9 Maksim Baraboshkin 15 10 4. Kaustik (Sterlitamak) (16) 3 (14) 3 6 Igor Kononov 6 5 Vladimir Tsjapalo - 2 Stanislav Arkhipov 10 7 4. Amur (Blagovesjtsjensk) (15) 2 (15) 4 6 Pavel Tsjajka 15 15 6. Podmoskovië (Lukhovitsy) (17) 4 (12) 1 5 Mikhail Dushamov 2 4 Ilja Uljanov 1 - Sergej Makarov 14 8 7. Kamensk-Uralski (10) 1 (13) 2 3 Vadim Bugreev 3 2 Semjon Goloshejkin 1 2 Danil Goloshejkin 6 9 Apparantly, Togliatti wanted to ride in the higher league, but have been told they have to qualify from the first league, so expect them to take the lower league with ease with the Ivanovs and Khomitsevichs in their side.

Not just Johnny, brilliant result for Bauer, and well done to Tschatschin. Also a good score for Martin Leitner scoring 4 in his first meeting of the aseason, and in Russia to boot! He is one of the up and coming Austrians

Little piece in Speedway Star this week that British Ice Racers Rob Irvine & Kevin Rowland and Kev's daughter Elisse were involved in a road accident en route to Mora last week, on their way to the British Training Camp. Rob has damaged his fingers and hands but otherwise all three are well. Rob is in the Saturday meeting at Flims with Graham Halsall. I was watching the Ski Jumping from Finland last weekend, and it looked really cold with loads of snow and Ice. Has that all changed then?

Makes Buxton look positively Luxurious! Thanks for that DGT. Anyone got any pics from the Brits practice in Sweden?

Just found the teams in this years Swedish Ice Racing League on Isracing.Net. Good to see Mark Uzzell, is turning out for Njurunda MK. Teams in full: ÖMK Rundbana Stefan Svensson, Hans Tjärnberg, Ulf Ledström, Patrik Solberg, Marian Kreklau (Germany), 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 (Austria), Jo Saetre (Norway), Espen Berglund (Norway). SMK Gävle Dmitri Tschatchien (Germany), 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 (Germany), 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 (Austria), Anders Sjöden. Njurunda MK Magnus Lundgren, Gösta Sundelin, Ulf Byström, Tomas Ekström, Tomas Höglund, Lars Eriksson, Danne Isaksson, Mark Uzzel (England), Grzegorz Knapp (Poland), Zdzislaw Zerdinzinski (Poland). 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.

I just hope that the Poles haven't got those rigid framed museum piece bikes they rode last year. Hard to ride and not as easy to ride as the modern bikes. F-S-P: Is Antti Aakko going to be on new machinery this year? He indicated he maybe buying new bikes when we spoke in Berlin

Just had a look on the Speedwaybikes Web site and checked the Californian results for 2007, but didn't see his name. Unless someone from the USA can confirm he's still racing, I think he may have retired

I had a look where this venue was. They were nearer China than anywhere else! So considering that Tuinstra and Bauer appeared to have travelled the furthest, I think they have done rather well when you bear in mind they have had to live there for a week, with the attendant food issues. Unless they did what Mike Patrick used to do when traveling to Eastern Europe in the 70s and 80s, and have a bag full of Heinz Beans and a camping stove! If we have a full season this year, then I have to agree that Zorn is the Westerner to watch, but Bauer will improve and considering that we saw Johnny T get carted off in an Ambulance in Berlin, his comeback has been good. Johnny is aggressive enough to win races, and IMHO just needs some better machinery. Either that or a good tuner. Interesting to see what Laguta can do on the Ice, considering he missed last weekend's racing. Agree with you on Bulankin, but it's early days yet.

"My" club was asked to organize such an event, but I dont think we've yet heard the actual sum that it would have cost us. The "rumoured" sum was close to being ridicolous. I spoke to someone from the Assen club last year as to why they had decided against the Golden spike and was told that there were a number of factors, one being cost and the other was they weren't allowed to nominate any up and coming riders. They were being dictated to as to who would ride, so they dropped out of the circuit. As it was they had quite a spectacular meeting last year on the Friday night. Oh well, I better do a follow up on the Golden Spike, as I put it in the Star last week :oops:

Franky Zorn will defend his Sanok Cup title in Poland. Also booked are Finland's Antti Aakko, together with Antonin and Jan Klatovsky of the Czech Republic. I expect that all of them will ride in the European Championship that weekend. (from Speedway.Org

When I was flying from Berlin to Amsterdam in March, we flew in over the North East Netherlands, near to the German Border. As the plane turned slightly, I could see three Oval tracks almost adjacent to each other. One was a tarmac track, but the other two looked like a red shale. Any ideas if this was one of these tracks DGT?

Iris123 posted this on the German INSPEED.DE forum: N.Krasnikov (3,3,3,3,3]27 M.Baraboshkin (D,2,3,2,3)23 P.Tschajka (1,2,1,3,3)23 M.Bogdanov (3,3,2,1,0)22 I.Ivanov (3,1,3,3,2)20 D.Ivanov (3,2,3,1,1)19 W.Khomitsevitsch (2,3,2,1,3)19 D.Khomitsevitch (D,3,2,2,2)18 G.Bauer (2,D,1,2,2)17 D.Tschatschin (1,2,0,3,0)11 D.Bulankin (2,0,0,0,1)9 J.Tuinstra (D,1,1,2,1)9 M.Kreklau (1,1,1,0,0)6 J.Polikarpov (0,0,2,0,2)6 R.Akimenko (0,-,-,-,-)3 Think I was right to tip Krasnikov. looks like he will be going for four in a row in 2008. Anyone able to shed light on what happened to Laguta that he didn't ride? Did he turn up?

Can you recommend a good translation website? The one I just tried kept mentioning seagulls and nanoseconds for this meeting! Got to agree on Barabushkin, as he is pretty useless come March. Good 5th place for Bauer though. Still think that Krasnikov would have won had he not crossed the inside line. The Khomitsevichs and Ivanovs seem to be starting slowly too! Anyone know what happened with Laguta?