f-s-p

Hard speedway on both occasions. Cant see a problem with THJ leaning and Nicholls clearly wipes him out on the first one. Should have been excluded so the second one would never have happened. That one THJ created all by himself by leaning on Scotty's arm forcing his bike to straighten... Would have probably been a good match to see from start to finish.

To grow might be a bit misleading since riders are down in numbers but the standard of racing has improved greatly and international results in juniors speak for just that. Thats down to the two individuals willing to spend their time and sometimes money to help the youngsters, aka Palomäki and Teurnberg. The pairs final, why not? I know they believe they'll get a better crowd during the week. Also I think that the cost of the meeting license plays a part here, but cant find the price of it from the federation site (not gonna spend all day either).

Finnish final on youtube: Other vids from the sidepanel at youtube.

Time to edit this post a bit... Comments from yesterday. Wow! Last two heats left everyone gasping their breaths. In the semi Lahti was excluded on the first try. It was a 50-50 call for an all4back but the ref decided Lahti had to go. It was tight in the first corner but Timo should receive some photographic evidence soon that Lahti hit a groove and lost it by himself. Second try saw Mäkinen hit the front but Siltaniemi found something special on the second bend and came pass Mäkinen from the outside. Kelvin Tatum should have been there as the second lap started with all three riders close enough each other to be covered by a blanket. Siltaniemi kept his speed through the corner and was leading as the last lap started. In the first bend he hit a groove and lifted a bit with Mäkinen following and he lifted heavily enough for Hautamäki to come through from the inside. The final saw Aarnio hitting the front with Nieminen 3rd on the backstraight. Hautamäki was in the middle and it looked like he was passed from two sides as Aarnio went in to the second bend outside of him and Nieminen came from beneath him. Aarnio was fast and Nieminen really had to dig deep to find a way past him. At the end of lap two Nieminen made a move which Aarnio managed to block on the front straight. entering the last bend on lap four Nieminen took the inside line, went really close and squeezed himself through on the exit. It was spectacular! Aarnio had the choice to block or keep the throttle open, maybe next time he'll block. I know we kept coming back to the subject all night where we were, that was something special and worth seeing... From the riders, Nieminen was good but made it a bit hard for himself. Aarnio was not my favourite to win but was really good and clear 2nd on the day. Siltaniemi had a tough start to the meeting, hurt his ankle a week ago (his dad said it was a concern during the meeting), lost his number 2 engine during the week and even had to retire from his first ride after two laps. Managed to get in to the semi through countback but then took everything that was on offer. Hautamäki was lucky to make the final but unlucky as his bike lost drive on the end of lap three and he fell handing 3rd place to Siltaniemi. Mäkinen surprised everyone with an effort seen from him usually only on slick tracks. He was fast and fought hard every heat he was on. Timo Lahti was a disappointment, but his brother kept the team on the spotlight riding really well and was the only rider to beat Aarnio in the preliminary heats. Riders willingly missing the Finnish Championship was a subject of conversation afterwards and will probably keep being for the remainder of the year. Maybe something will change, maybe not. The track developed deep grooves on both bends but most of the riders seemed to cope OK or not worrying about them at all. Loads of material also, but no ruts or anything like that. Finnish speedway has changed during the past five years and now we have about a dozen riders entering bends on full throttle no matter what the conditions are. The federation training group deserves the credit from that. Next step is to get 20 more riders in to the sport...

What a final!!! Aarnio was good, Mäkinen at his best in conditions not for him, Nieminen made a move to remember in the final and Siltaniemi took bronze. Timo Lahti was not at his best and the general idea is that the talented youngster is getting a bit tired of the travelling. The track was not the disaster I feared and people will remember the great racing served by the riders rather than the few deep grooves that appeared. Tero Aarnio KMMK 33233 14 Kauko Nieminen SeMK 33323 14 Jari Mäkinen PirMM 22333 13 Teemu Lahti KMMK 21332 11 Juha Hautamäki SeMK 33221 11 Niko Siltaniemi HjMK R2232 9 Markku Autio KauhjMK 32112 9 Joni Keskinen SeMK 20123 8 Tomi Reima HMK 13102 7 Timo Lahti KMMK 01321 7 Pasi Pulliainen VRT 12111 6 Mika Loppi SeMK 202R1 5 Janne Nyman SsMK 10010 2 Jiri Nieminen KauhjMK 11000 2 Jani Eerikäinen KarMK d101N 2 Aarni Heikkilä FMS RNNNN 0 Erä erältä: Karsinta: Nyman, J.Nieminen, Palmi 1. Nieminen, Mäkinen, Nyman, Heikkilä R 59,54 2. Autio, Keskinen, Pulliainen, Siltaniemi R 60,70 3. Hautamäki, Lahti, Reima, T.Lahti 60,34 4. Aarnio, Loppi, J.Nieminen, Eerikäinen d 60,90 5. Reima, Autio, J.Nieminen, Palmi 61,07 6. Hautamäki, Pulliainen, Eerikäinen, Nyman 60,28 7. Aarnio, Mäkinen, T.Lahti, Keskinen60,84 8. Nieminen, Siltaniemi, Lahti, Loppi 60,04 9. T.Lahti, Loppi, Pulliainen, Palmi 59,76 10. Lahti, Aarnio, Autio, Nyman 60,63 11. Mäkinen, Siltaniemi, Reima, Eerikäinen 60,67 12. Nieminen, Hautamäki, Keskinen, J.Nieminen 60,52 13. Lahti, Keskinen, Eerikäinen, Palmi 61,88 14. Siltaniemi, T.Lahti, Nyman, J.Nieminen 60,95 15. Mäkinen, Hautamäki, Autio, Loppi R 60,93 16. Aarnio, Nieminen, Pulliainen, Reima 60,26 17. Aarnio, Siltaniemi, Hautamäki, Palmi 60,78 18. Keskinen, Reima, Loppi, Nyman 62,65 19. Mäkinen, Lahti, Pulliainen, J.Nieminen 61,80 20. Nieminen, Autio, T.Lahti 61,82 Semifinaali: Siltaniemi, Hautamäki, Mäkinen, Lahti d 61,52 Finaali: Nieminen, Aarnio, Siltaniemi, Hautamäki F 60,61 Tuomari: Mika Laukkanen, katsojia 395.

1. Jörg Tebbe saksa 19+5, 2. Ken Viidas Viro 14+4, 3. Appe Mustonen 16+3 (4,2,5,5), 4. Klaus Peter Gerdemann Saksa 18+2, 5. Tommi Ahlgren Suomi 14+1, 6. Petri Kärki Suomi 11+0, 7. Raimo Juntunen Suomi 9

20 seconds at around 80 kmh is around 400 meters. So the winner of heat 8 would have easily lapped the winner of heat 9.

Finnish final this saturday at Kauhajoki. Finland has been under some pretty bad weather this week with thunder and LOAD's of rain and other weather phenomenons I dont know the English word for. Tree's been falling and water has been knee high on the street's at times. And the point naturally was, that hopefully all this has been playing in to the hands of Finnish speedway and the track at Kauhajoki is currently soaked. Saturday is supposed to be nice and warm, so to have enough moisture deep in the track is mandatory. Niko Siltaniemi will ride after his spill last weekend in Ukraine. There's some ligament damage in his ankle but he was given all clear to ride by the doctors. Timo Lahti is on duty today, Nieminen has a meeting on friday and then we will know is everyone coming. I'm REALLY hoping it to be a good one and the track to act accordingly. As mentioned previously, no Rene Lehtinen (injured), Kalle Katajisto (UK), Joonas Kylmäkorpi (has not ridden in this for years) or Aki-Pekka Mustonen (not interested, as did not sign up at all). Meeting will start at 3 PM (local) and hopefully the results will be at www.speedwaysanomat.fi at around 6 PM (local).

A big thank you for all these. I'll link the pics to Niko Siltaniemi's website later. Thats at www.nikosiltaniemi.fi

No visas needed for Ukraine, surprised me too.

I texted our team manager Palomäki on friday and he still thought Kalle might make it. Bikes were sorted and all I'm told. Apparently he checked and texted me later that there was no point as there was no chance he was able to ride with that foot and was still in Finland. Jiri Nieminen was asked to "cover" earlier, but he doesn't turn 16 until a couple of weeks time. I understand Mika Loppi did reasonably well in his debut for the Finnish team. As this meeting format has no programmed rides for the #5 there was really no point in dragging other riders there as the points money in these UEM meetings is crap, the distance I'm told was something like 1200 km from Tallinn (oneway) and the federation is not paying the riders for travel to this meeting. If Gray is reading this, maybe you could find me results with heat times and possibly pictures for use in the Finnish track racing magazine?

80cc Team Cup final yesterday at Lahti. Some good heats and battles. Jooa Partanen rode a max and Henri Ahlbom continues to impress with his somewhat mature riding alltough he's only started this April. Forssan Moottoriseura 18 Miikka Hyyryläinen 2231 8 Henri Ahlbom 3322 10 Kauhajoen Moottorikerho 14 Vili Hautala 3113 8 Vili Mattila 22d2 Kuusankosken Moottorimieskerho 13 Jooa Partanen 3333 12 Niklas Säyriö 0100 1 Salpausselän Moottorikerho 8 Santtu Tapiola 2013 6 Miro Purmonen 110 2 Haapajärven Moottorikerho 7 Niilo Vuolas 1210 4 Antti Vuolas 0d21 3 Erä erältä: 1. Partanen, Tapiola, Purmonen, Säyriö 49,0 2. Ahlbom, Hyyryläinen, N.Vuolas, Vuolas 49,6 3. Hautala, Mattila, Purmonen, Tapiola 52,2 4. Partanen, N.Vuolas, Vuolas, Säyriö 50,0 5. Ahlbom, Hyyryläinen, Tapiola, Purmonen 48,2 6. Partanen, Mattila, Hautala, Säyriö 49,0 7. Hyyryläinen, Ahlbom, Hautala, Mattila d 50,9 8. Tapiola, Vuolas, N.Vuolas, Purmonen 53,5 9. Partanen, Ahlbom, Hyyryläinen, Säyriö 50,20 10. Hautala, Mattila, Vuolas, N.Vuolas 53,4 Tuomari Henna Snellman, katsojia 45

Only 17 riders so the semi was scrapped. A meeting is always a meeting and in my mind the semi would have been the 2nd or 3rd most important meeting of the Finnish season, but no point of having it with this lot. Hopefully next year is better... Sorry about not posting it here earlier. Kemppi Speedway from this weekend has been postponed until August 15th. So this weekend there's only the 80cc team cup at Lahti in Finland.

Katajisto is out and Aarnio in for Finland. Good news for Team GB but will mean that Finland is down a few points...

We have not even ridden yet, so give us a break!

It was so close that Lahti would have come the Torun of Finland but did not happen, yet. Lahti had an excellent track surface in 2007, a bit like Seinäjoki last year. Last year it was crap again. Enough water and laps with a fully loaded truck would sort it this year, I think.

They just did not put enough water on in time, plain and simple. There were problems with the watering at Lahti also in the Extraliiga meeting when the waterpump refused to co-operate before tapes up. Six heats gone and a watering truck from/by the city (this was told to me) appeared and no more (well at least it did not get any worse) problems... I still cant understand after thinking about this very basic track maintanence question for five years now, why cant the clubs sort it for at least Extraliiga meetings and national finals. It REALLY is not like there's only one watering truck per city with a track in Finland. Like I said, you can call it yourself: Is it safer to ride not seeing rubbish with softer fences or seeing clear with harder ones? The question I was trying to make was that: What's the point in excluding tracks from arranging these "bigger" events because of the fence structure, if the one's with "better" fence's keep creating other problems that in my view are as dangerous?

The final was moved to Seinäjoki from Lahti after the Lahti club failed to get new fences to their track for this season. It's a safety measure of some sort of the current "regime" to give the finals only to tracks with Swedish style safety fences, not one's made from 25cm woodpoles and 20mm plywood all around. Then again it can be argued if it really is any safer to ride in that dust cloud that was present at Seinäjoki and at times not see where you hit, or to hit something thats a bit harder and seeing that it's coming... Havent spoken to anyone in the past week, dont know any better than two weeks ago.

Only eight riders for the Finnish U21 final, that sucks. Lahti was a deserved winner, Siltaniemi almost as fast but fully deserving 2nd. Loppi won the eventual winner but should be (and was) really happy for becaming 3rd. Mäkinen was slow and in heat eight had to eat some of his own medicine as Siltaniemi came FAST from the inside, almost made the pass but as Mäkinen was slower and tried to block lost his front wheel when Siltaniemi took it away. Same thing has happened many times, only that Mäkinen has usually done the clipping... Wont say more about the missing riders, it's a shame what happened. Mika Loppi SeMK 2333 11 Timo Lahti KMMK 3332 11 Jari Mäkinen PirMM 3331 10 Niko Siltaniemi HjMK 32d3 8 Jiri Nieminen KauhjMK 2222 8 Miikka Mäkelä SeMK 2113 7 Jarkko Palmi SeMK 1222 7 Jere Lehtonen PMK 1121 5 Erä erältä: 1. Mäkinen, Mäkelä, Lehtonen 65,25 2. T.Lahti, Nieminen, Palmi 62,90 3. Siltaniemi, Loppi 63,28 4. T.Lahti, Siltaniemi, Mäkelä 63,60 5. Mäkinen, Nieminen 65,19 6. Loppi, Palmi, Lehtonen 65,28 7. Loppi, Nieminen, Mäkelä 67,78 8. Mäkinen, Palmi, Siltaniemi d 65,44 9. T.Lahti, Lehtonen 64,91 10. Mäkelä, Palmi 68,60 11. Siltaniemi, Nieminen, Lehtonen 64,10 12. Loppi, T.Lahti, Mäkinen 64,41 Semifinaali:Siltaniemi, Mäkelä, Nieminen, Mäkinen 65,13 Finaali: T.Lahti, Siltaniemi, Loppi, Mäkelä 64,44 Tuomari Matti Koivuoja, katsojia 125. Huge thanks to my kid brother! I trashed the gearbox of his car on the way to the meeting and he was kind enough to lend his mobile internet on the way back...

Funny as it is, I dont see it that way... There's somesort of co-operation with JK and Pasi Pulliainen and I have not really even bothered to find out what it is... But what is a fact that JK rode Pulliainen's bike's at Forssa. So to put it as it is, to fly in from UK to Helsinki by Easyjet (just an example) and get to the track to ride on "co-operation" machinery compared to get the bikes (speedway, as I think he has none of his own in Finland) by ferry to Finland and maybe miss a sunday meeting in Poland... Take a guess... Well actually Pulliainen has similar speedway bikes as JK, so to borrow one from him would probably not be a problem... EDIT: Also if you (and others) dont know, JK is leading the longtrack WC after 3/6 rounds and has won the last two rounds. Maybe getting some practise seemed a good idea, timing fitted and also the Forssa club that organised the final is his "parent" Finnish club at the moment.

Riders willing to become the 56th Finnish individual champion are Kake Nieminen SeMK Joni Keskinen KauhjMK Aarni Heikkilä FMS Niko Siltaniemi HjMK Juha Hautamäki SeMK Tero Aarnio KMMK Timo Lahti KMMK Jari Mäkinen PirMM Jani Eerikäinen KarMK Teemu Lahti KMMK Pasi Pulliainen VRT Mika Loppi SeMK Jiri Nieminen KauhjMK Markku Autio KuMaMo Jarkko Palmi SeMK Tomi Reima Reima Heikkilä FMS Janne Nyman SsMK Notable absentees are Aki-Pekka Mustonen and Kalle Katajisto. Joonas Kylmäkorpi is also out, but actually no one probably expected him to enter anyway. Finnish U21 Final is this saturday but no info availble on the riders. It'll be a 12 rider meeting format, that much I know.

Nieminen, Kylmäkorpi, Lahti, Katajisto, Hautamäki not in riding order. Reserves: 6) Aarnio, 7) Mäkinen and 8) Siltaniemi.

Finnish longtrack final at Forssa July 3rd. Joonas Kylmäkorpi FMS 5555 20 Jörg Tebbe DE 5555 20 Klaus-Peter Gerdemann DE 4344 15 Aki-Pekka Mustonen SeMK 4434 15 Pasi Pulliainen VRT 3443 14 Simo Pulli KarMK 3313 10 Markus Helin HyMK 222N 6 Jan-Eric Korkeamäki KauhjMK 1122 6 Tommi Ahlgren FMS 2R30 5 Marko Mäkinen OrMK 0201 3 Raimo Juntunen HeMK 1NNN 1 Petri Kärki FMS TNNN 0 Erä erältä: 1. Tebbe, Mustonen, Pulli, Ahlgren, Korkeamäki, Kärki T 89,0 2. Kylmäkorpi, Gerdemann, Pulliainen, Helin, Juntunen, Mäkinen 90,2 5. Kylmäkorpi, Pulliainen, Pulli, Mäkinen 89,0 6. Tebbe, Mustonen, Gerdemann, Helin, Korkeamäki, Ahlgren R 88,8 9. Tebbe, Pulliainen, Mustonen, Helin, Pulli, Mäkinen 89,1 10. Kylmäkorpi, Gerdemann, Ahlgren, Korkeamäki 90,7 13. Kylmäkorpi, Gerdemann, Pulli 89,3 14. Tebbe, Mustonen, Pulliainen, Korkeamäki, Mäkinen, Ahlgren 89,0 B-finaali: Pulliainen, Gerdemann, Pulli, Ahlgren, Helin, Korkeamäki 90,9 A-finaali: Tebbe, Kylmäkorpi, Pulliainen, Gerdemann, Mustonen, Pulli 89,6 Tuomari ,katsojia 830. Next weekend sees the U21 final at Seinäjoki. No knowledge of the riders yet, even with the deadline having gone five days ago. Kaj Laukkanen will be in charge of the track in this one, looking forward to see how it'll go. Finnish Extraliiga wont continue until August 14th but there's a lot going on in the cabinets before that. Kotkat is under protest from other teams because missing/arriving late to the riders briefing twice this season (clearly against the rulebook) and this case will be handled hopefully before the start of the second part of the season.

Extraliiga 4/8 at Kauhajoki last tuesday Haukat losing valuable points in this one. Kauko Nieminen making a rare appearance scoring a paid max. Timo Lahti again failing at Kauhajoki, like last year. I've seen him ride there maybe two years ago and he was absolutely flying over the ruts then, so I suspect that he's had some bike problems as tracks dont affect him usually. The track was a problem again, thats the info I've received. Kotkat 35 Juha Hautamäki 302'33 11+1 Kauko Nieminen 2'332'3 13+2 Mika Loppi 11'00 2+1 Pasi Pulliainen 322'2 9+1 Jokerit 28 Tero Aarnio 32332 13 Niko Siltaniemi 11'R21' 5+2 Joni Keskinen 232'1'2 10+2 Jan-Eric Korkeamäki 000 0 Paholaiset 25 Jari Mäkinen 23133 12 Marko Suojanen 0102^0 3 Petri Koskela 22003 7 Aarni Heikkilä 1'1'1 3+2 Haukat 24 Timo Lahti 12002 5 Tomi Reima 0R1'11 3+1 Teemu Lahti 326^13 15 Joni Kitala 001 1 Erä erältä: 1. Hautamäki, Nieminen, T.Lahti, Reima 60,54 2. Aarnio, Mäkinen, Siltaniemi, Suojanen 62,45 3. Lahti, Koskela, Heikkilä, Kitala 61,10 4. Pulliainen, Keskinen, Loppi, Korkeamäki 62,74 5. Nieminen, Aarnio, Siltaniemi, Hautamäki 60,53 6. Mäkinen, Lahti, Suojanen, Reima R 60,77 7. Aarnio, T.Lahti, Reima, Siltaniemi R 60,72 8. Keskinen, Koskela, Heikkilä, Korkeamäki 62,15 9. Nieminen, Hautamäki, Mäkinen, Suojanen 60,62 10. Lahti^, Pulliainen, Loppi, Kitala 60,60 11. Aarnio, Keskinen, Reima, T.Lahti 60,04 12. Hautamäki, Pulliainen, Suojanen^, Koskela 60,45 13. Mäkinen, Siltaniemi, Keskinen, Koskela 60,29 14. Hautamäki, Nieminen, Lahti, T.Lahti 59,64 15. Koskela, Pulliainen, Heikkilä, Loppi 63,02 16. Lahti, Keskinen Kitala, Korkeamäki 61,59 17. Mäkinen, T.Lahti, Reima, Suojanen 61,16 18. Nieminen, Aarnio, Siltaniemi, Loppi 60,68 Tuomari Mika Laukkanen, katsojia 90. Table midway trough Kotkat......4-127-17 Haukat......4-121-16 Jokerit.....4-109-13 Paholaiset..4-96-10

I was away and offline, forgot to update this thread before signing out. Didn't lose sleep over it thouhg, which I think can be interpreted that I'm not lost yet... tremia is spot on. Micke Teurnberg had organised everything ready on the Swedish front and spoken to a bunch of riders that were ready and willing to come. Ferrytickets were waiting to be used but when the deadline was up, only a couple of riders were coming. The whole thing was cancelled then. It's a bit like can be gathered up from said things in the past year or two. Riders that would have made an impact are not bothered (no points money) and the rest not interested in putting in the time and effort, because they get to ride in Sweden during the weekend. Hopefully the trip to Sweden by the Finnish guys will happen, it's supposed to be on in the beginning of September again.