f-s-p

Even I havent received that press release to give out here...

How's it done?

Looks like the danish format? just less teams...

Lets get all the speedway leagues in the world this season on this thread. I'll show an example and hope that people will follow. Great Britain Elite league - 9 teams - 7 per team - 4 times against each + playoffs - 2 teams per meeting Premier league - 14 teams - 7 per team - twice all - 2 teams per meeting National league - 10 teams - 7 per team - ??? - 2 teams per meeting Sweden Elitserien - 9 teams - 8 per team - twice all + po - 2 teams per meeting Allsvenskan - 7 teams - 8 per team - twice all + po - 2 teams per meeting 1st division - 10 teams - 8 per team - twice all - 2 teams per meeting Ungdomsserien - 11 teams - 5 per team - 1-4 times against each - 3 teams per meeting Poland Ekstraleague - 8 teams - 7 per team - twice all + po - 2 teams per meeting 1st division - 8 teams - 8 per team - twice all + po - 2 teams per meeting 2nd division - 8 teams - 8 per team - twice all + po - 2 teams per meeting Finland Extraliiga - 4 teams - 4 per team - twice at all tracks - 4TT Kaupunki Cup - 6 teams - 3 per teams - once at all tracks - pairs Russia league - 4 teams - 8(?) per team - four times all - 2 teams per meeting Germany Bundesliga - 5 teams - 5 per team - once each - 2 teams per match Denmark Superliga - 8 teams - 5 per team - twice all - 2 teams per match 1st Division - 8 teams - 5 per team - 4 teams per match Italy Lega - 5 teams - 3 riders per team - 4 rounds The one with the three nations, Croatia - Hungary? - Slovenia 3 nations - 3 teams - 7 riders per team - ??? Norway ??? Czech Ukraine 5 teams - 7(?) per team - twice all - 2 teams per meeting Hopefully someone has the time to lend a hand... USA They have something going on too, dont they? EDIT: They dont.

Pics from the Finnish qualifier here.

Finnish qualifier for the individual final today at Kuortane. Pics here. Teppo Toivola ASMP 33323 14+3 Kai Ilkka OMK 33233 14+2 Mats Järf VaMK 33313 13 Ari Tuomisto FMS 20332 10 Christer Biskop KMS 13222 10 Janne Ruismäki VMK 22213 10 Timo Kankkunen P-KMK 22132 10 Jarmo Malinen FMS 32121 9 Markku Weckman SsMK 21311 8 Harri Saari P-KMK d1102 4 Sakari Piirainen OMK 1d201 4 Esko Rantanen PirMM 111R0 3 Sami Hassinen P-KMK 01RNN 1 Tommi Suolammi HäMK 0NNNN 0 Mark Uzzell GB 12F30 6 Erä erältä: 1. Järf, Weckman, Biskop 64,9 2. Toivola, Ruismäki, Rantanen, Saari d 63,7 3. Malinen, Tuomisto, Piirainen, Suolammi 67,9 4. Ilkka, Kankkunen, Uzzell, Hassinen 65,6 5. Järf, Kankkunen, Rantanen, Tuomisto 67,8 6. Ilkka, Ruismäki, Weckman 66,1 7. Toivola, Malinen, Hassinen 65,3 8. Biskop, Uzzell, Saari, Piirainen d 68,7 9. Järf, Ruismäki, Malinen, Uzzell d 69,4 10. Weckman, Piirainen, Rantanen, Hassinen R 71,6 11. Tuomisto, Ilkka, Saari 66,5 12. Toivola, Biskop, Kankkunen 66,1 13. Ilkka, Toivola, Järf, Piirainen 65,6 14. Kankkunen, Malinen, Weckmann, Saari 70,2 15. Uzzell, Rantanen R 72,3 16. Tuomisto, Biskop, Ruismäki 68,4 17. Järf, Saari 69,5 18. Toivola, Tuomisto, Weckman, Uzzell 66,5 19. Ruismäki, Kankkunen, Piirainen 70,7 20. Ilkka, Biskop, Malinen, Rantanen 68,5 Uusinta: Toivola, Rantanen 67,4 Katsojia 305 I'd say it was an ok if not better for entertainment with a few good battles and some close racing during the day. Uzzell was never gonna qualify so I placed him as last. He would have gone through as the second reserve. He had a nasty looking fall in heat 9 when his back tyre just slid off from under him and it looked like he was dragged by the bike for a 10 meters or so. We had a talk after the meeting and he was OK. No new holes in his leathers that he noticed... Going back to Sweden now and heading back next weekend for the meeting at Seinäjoki. There'll be a few Swedes, some polish riders and most of the field from today riding in the international open meeting. Kai Lehtinen will be the top Finn if my memory is correct from the hasty look to the list of riders. Meeting starts at 1 PM just south from the city centre at Lake Kyrkösjärvi. EDIT: Funny thing happened. Last year at the same track I took pic's from the outside of turn 1. Today I was specificly asked to leave the outside for the inside. So I did. In heat eight Sakari Piirainen would have made a hole in my boots if I had stayed still when he fell and came over the inside kerb... I lost several seconds of my total 15 minutes of fame when I had to take a few steps to keep myself clear from the bike as everyone was watching. I would have preferred to save them for later...

I heard yesterday that Jussi Nyrönen was a reserve for this meeting. Maybe he'll take his place.

Forssa, February 28th. First heat at 2 PM.

Finnish Individual ice racing championhip qualifier at Kuortane, February 14th. Draw as follows: 1. Mats Järf 2. Markku Weckman 3. Johan Ahponen 4. Christer Biskop 5. Esko Rantanen 6. Janne Ruismäki 7. Teppo Toivola 8. Harri Saari 9. Ari Tuomisto 10. Tommi Suolammi 11. Jarmo Malinen 12. Sven Holstein 13. Timo Kankkunen 14. Kai Ilkka 15. Sami Hassinen 16. Mark Uzzell Holstein and Uzzell are not gonna qualify no matter what.

Paholaiset is now indeed out of the -09 Extraliiga after they were unable to put a side together. Two major problems in the equation were lack of riders and lack of funds to get riders from elsewhere. This was really bad news in my opinion, but the league is still there with four teams.

Lineups for next years Extraliiga were announced today. Only for teams now look to compete, as Pori is missing from the lineup. They are having difficulties getting enough riders together. Appe Mustonen has been snatched up to Seinäjoki from Pori. Jokerit also looks a lot better than in previous seasons with Kalle Katajisto staying and now getting fast improving Niko Siltaniemi there too. Joni Keskinen switching away from Kotkat is a surprise to me, but a good move for him. JOKERIT (KauhjMK) Markku Autio, Kalle Katajisto, Joni Keskinen, Niko Siltaniemi and team manager Timo Kujanpää HAUKAT-ROYALS (SsMK-FMS) Aarni Heikkilä, Tomi Reima, Joni Kitala, Janne Nyman, Jani Eerikäinen, tm Harri Heikkilä KEITTIÖPISTE (KMMK) Teemu Lahti, Timo Lahti, Tero Aarnio, Toni Stenberg, Aleksey Poptsov, Fedor Poptsov, tm Asko Sorvo KOTKAT (SeMK) Kaj Laukkanen, Juha Hautamäki, Rene Lehtinen, Appe Mustonen, tm Mikko Koskinen

Franky "Itakemyownbloodtorussiaifihappentocrashandatransferisneeded" Zorn looks like a real challenger this year. The only ice racer in my opinion to look like someone whose really proud of what he's doing. Looks the part like a speedway rider should.

It's supposed to finish the season as the third round in october or november or similar. I wouldn't say Europe is being better. But what I will say is that it's money down the drain for the riders taking part. Especially Brits seem to be moaning all over how expensive everything is in speedway and how sponsorhip is hard to get. I wouldn't travel to the other side of the world with equipment that wouldn't cut the mustard in a final round of the championship/final meeting of the year...

... with the third round to be held at Argentina. Now is that stypid or what? This has been mentioned in the polish portals and last weeks Spar. Armando Castagna has been checking the facilities in Argentina and they are actually thinking of a mini GP next year and on... Dont do it.

Hope you didn't actually pay for the book! I'll teach them all to you some day... pugwash, I only tell the rumours forward as I thought I heard them, so it wasn't me...

We're back once again! Finnish Extraliiga will be once again a five team series with the same teams as last year. The date for the league entries was January 15th and the lineups had to be entered January 31st. There hasn't been an official press release on the subject, so I wont bother with the unofficial. In ice racing, both the test match between Finland and Sweden and the Nordic individual Championship has been cancelled. The test match was first when there wasn't a track available at Tampere and now the Nordic final has been cancelled, because the Swedish clubs wont change their league meeting dates. Instead the Seinäjoki club are hosting an international meeting on the same date. Also a meeting scheduled for Seinäjoki for February 7th was always a no-go and apparently a misunderstanding that never got corrected. Qualifier for the Finnish ice racing final will be held at Kuortane on February 14th and the final is at Forssa on the 28th of February. Riders seeded to the final include: Antti Aakko, Kai Lehtinen, Tommy Flyktman, Jussi Hytönen, Janne Vilponen, Joni Kontoniemi and Jouni Seppänen. Since Kontoniemi is now out for the season, Henri Malinen has taken his place in the final. 9+2 places are available for the final at Kuortane Interesting to see how things shape up along during the spring, but hopefully there are results to be posted and rumours to be exaggarated!!

Practically no quaranties either way, but the paper is there. Ice racing for you Vicar, next saturday at Seinäjoki and the week after that at Kuortane.

Leaving the rerun undone would have been the mother of all cöckups no matter what the poles would have wanted to do. But now the ballot is out and Finland has 2+1 riders in it. I think this was pretty huge from Lehtinen . Aakko has been in it for ages and has peaked already and Flyktman somehow seems to be gathering pace at the moment...

OK, thanks. EDIT: I'm told Poland wont use their slot since Knapp is injured but there's still the NL slot to be seen during tonight. They've just started so a couple of hours still to go for us to know.

From where is this nomination info originating? I went through my FIM emails and riders allocation sheets and found nothing! There were 5+1 going through from the other two and Sanok should see 6 get a place in the GP.

The Finns seem to really be in the thick of things at Sanok! Sanok updates

Joni Kontoniemi's season is over. The damage to his shoulder was bad enough to put an end to his racing this season. It needs an operation.

The test match between Finland and Sweden has been cancelled at Tampere on the 22nd of February. Pyynikki that has hosted ice racing at Tampere since the fifties looks now to have closed it's doors for the last time, when Sweden crushed Finland there in early -06. The fate of the ice racers is shared by the local auto club, that has hosted rally speedway on ice there for more than 30 consecutive years. The city doesn't want either of them anymore, and is more interested in allowing the summer sports being able to start as early as possible, rather than allowing the paying public to see what they have grown accustomed to in the past 50 years. The same has apparently happened at Raatti, Oulu. And there's also the fact that team Finland will be riding on the sat and sun of that particular weekend in the Swedish league. So what happens with the Nordic final scheduled for the sat remains a mystery, since the Swedish clubs aren't willing to change their dates. Finnish individual ice racing semi will be raced at Kuortane on the 14th of February and the final two weeks later at Forssa.

Joni Kontoniemi dislocated his shoulder in his fall and is apparently done for the weekend? Vilponen had problems with his machinery and had to miss his last heat because of it. Flyktman still in the battle for the GP, thanks to Simon's 0 in his last. This Harald Simon fellow looks to have passed both the top Finns in the world ranking...

We stayed at the Express by Holiday Inn just on the north of Udine. Brand new hotel in the middle a business park. A few km's from the city and about 15 km from the track. I was told there are many smaller hotels near the track.