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I know Reima and Hautamäki have been offered a team place in the Premiere league. For Reima it was maybe 5 years ago and for Hautamäki maybe 2-3 years ago. They decided not to try, thats why I'm not sending them to a tour of your description. Only way I'd see it beneficial for Finnish speedway is to send a U21 team. But honestly we cant send a team with 7 riders. - Mäkinen and Lahti are the sort of riders I'd send. Young with ambition and goals. - Keskinen sometimes, but cant see him adjusting quick enough. He also still has issues with crash he did a few years ago. - Heikkilä.. cant see him making an impression. - Mustonen is no longer making the effort's he did in 80 cc. - Autio might make an impression, but isn't that well equipped and is totally lost on new tracks at first. He needs some guidance, but dont know if he's getting it. - Kalle Kivistö is someone who surprised me last year. He faded a bit as the season went ahead. But showed some move's that indicated he might be worth following. Dont know how well he's equipped, but needs someone to guide him. They have guys like that in his club, but it's not up to me to check. I might seem a bit harsh, but cant see any good in telling these guys everything is fine if they if things clearly arent.

Jari Mäkinen, Joni Keskinen and Teemu Lahti will take part in the U21 World's qualifying round in Motala May 12th. Reima is born in the mid 70's, Hautamäki and Mäkelä are both from early 80's?? I think Hautamäki won the U21 Championhip here in his last year as a U21 2003. So he would be the only one of the three I'd send to get "educated" in the UK. Finnish riders in Sweden 2007: Elit: Laukkanen - Kumla, Kylmäkorpi - Bajen, Nieminen - Kaparna* Allsvenskan: Nieminen - Solkatterna*, Mäkinen - Örnarna* 1st division: Teemu Lahti - Gävle, Reima/Palomäki/Mäkelä - Filbyterna, Joni Keskinen - Kumla, Mäkinen - MSF* Doesn't that add up to 9? * stands for unknown... Situations yet to develope in to confirmations.

Something similar was supposed to happen, but didn't. Infact the Finns have been on training camps in the UK in the 80's and 90's, but havent heard of anything like that in the past 5 years. Regarding how competiteve Finns would be compared to the Americans, dont know since I have not seen them ride. But just from the top of my head I'd say most of our U21 TOP7 would be laughed off the island. But maybe I'm just too negative, it's been known to happen.

Mikko Rahko and Markus Helin will take part in the Longtrack qualifier at Marianske Lazne and Rene Lehtinen ja Ilmo Suutari will go to Artiques Lussac. Janne Koivula was offered a place but declined because this will be his last season and the qualifiers are for next year. The Extraleague conference will be held here in Tampere next saturday, report here late saturday/early sunday. A training camp scheduled to take place in Motala for all riders in the squad for different national teams was first moved forward by a week because of the Vetlanda Cup (4-6 Finns present) held around 20th-22nd of April. Then on the 7th of April there was an email spreading about the camp asking for riders to take part. The very next day it the camp was cancelled due to lack of riders. You make your own mind up about it...

Didn't go to Neuenknick. We were a group of six and they werent interested enough and I c/wouldnt do it alone. Spoke to Aarnio about the Osterpokal. He had mechanical problems, if I remember correct he blew two engines to start with. Now there's a guy who need's to get his act together. This is the 2nd season in a row when his racing starts with engine failure's. Maybe something should be done differently? Because if he does get it together, he might even make it someday as a pro in the UK. At the moment his mind is already there and his "racing package" suffers from it. He thinks too much about how he's gonna be a pro and it slows him down. He can do it if he could just unwind a bit.

I take it that all German tracks get in to your skin and clothes then! Only been to Wolfslake and Gustrow and they are both like that, only the shale is black. Well you didn't actually sell the place to me, we'll have to see what to do. The lineup is German, not World level but on a decent track well worth seeing in my opinion. I thought about going to Gustrow on saturday but thats too far, 650 km return. I did print out the driving instructions to take along, so they are ready. Might settle for football then in Bremen, that would save us the car hire. If thats sold out it's between beer and driving to Petershagen. Thanks for the advice

Since I'm in Bremen this weekend I'm thinking about getting to Neuenknick for the Bundesliga, any thoughts? Will it be worth the effort? Is the track hard to find? The NC website says its by the B482 road through Petersbrock or similar... Hadn't realised that Vechta is actually even closer to Bremen... Might make it for the longtrack in the future. All this because Ryanair fly's from Tampere to Bremen.

Nothing has happened over these past two weeks, people in the clubs are wondering whats going on and riders too. Rumour has it that there will be a "conference" between the Extraleague teams a week from now. There really is a huge demand for one, since nothing has been confirmed regarding next summer. I'm just speechless, since I thought things would get better after Yrjö Laukkanen became our track racing "number one" a year ago. Things have not improved. Well at least Jari Mäkinen is progressing well in Sweden and will look magnificentlly good once his new kevlars come out from KW very soon. After all I was along to design them! Other riders to look good next season will include all the riders from Kopparberg Speedway and Teemu Lahti. Here are the teams for the inaugural Extraleague season 2007: KEITTIÖPISTE, KMMK KUUSANKOSKI 1. Juha Hautamäki 9,95 2. Tero Aarnio 7,80 3. Juha Mäkelä 8,44 4. Teemu Lahti 6,78 5. Toni Stenberg 1,78 JJ. Jorma Mäkikunnas KOPPARBERG SPEEDWAY, VAMK VAASA 1. Emil Lindqvist 10,40 2. Mikko Rahko 3. Jyri Palomäki 10,00 4. Tomi Reima 8,50 5. Tero Villanen 6. Timo Villanen 7. Jonne Perälä JJ. Markku Uuttu PAHOLAISET, PMK PORI 1. Marko Suojanen 5,58 2. Petri Koskela 5,04 3. Jari Mäkinen 5,30 4. Ari-Pekka Mustonen 5,14 5. Panu Karvonen 4,44 6. Jouni Viljanen 1,71 JJ. Tomi Kauppi JOKERIT, KAUHJMK KAUHAJOKI 1. Jan-Eric Korkeamäki 2,00 2. Markku Autio 0,00 3. Juho Ruuska 2,00 4. Kalle Katajisto JJ. Anssi Hautala KOTKAT, SEMK SEINÄJOKI 1. Kaj Laukkanen 10,45 2. Kauko Nieminen 10,00 3. Rene Lehtinen 8,00 4. Joni Keskinen 2,67 5. Petteri Koivunen 2,20 JJ. Vesa Ylinen HAUKAT, SSMK LAHTI 1. Janne Nyman 2. Kalle Kivistö 4,00 3. Aarni Heikkilä 3,56 4. Joonas Kylmäkorpi 5. Niko Siltaniemi JJ. Kari Sorvali Vaasa and Kuusankoski look like the candidates for the Championship. Seinäjoki I think will struggle since they have both Laukkanen and Nieminen as their backbone with already full fixture lists. Avg's are from last years league. Hopefully I will have something good to report on the 16th of April.

The opposition against the newly released calendar is growing which means it will most likely get re-written. Good.

Large amounts of shale are about to hit the fan in Finland. After it was decided last november that there will be only one league (without playoffs?) the calendar was announced late last week. It now show's the Extraleague with six teams and four final rounds and a City Cup (1st division) as four team series. Both of these series take out 16 dates form the calendar leaving it full. The club from Kuusankoski is now threatening to pull their team out since they only have 3 dates in the calendar. They have May 19th, June 17th and 26th which is the Finnish final. Problem here is that the calendar is so full because of the City Cup (which was not supposed to happen) that there is no chance of staging any kind of meetings. Finland only has around 25 riders. So Kuusankoski will have their three meetings in the first quarter of the season and possibly some training session's for the remainder. If they pull out... Well I really dont want to think about it. On a positive note the calendar shows around 35 meetings to be held which is about ten more than last year. That's nice. I'll post the calendar this week after I've modified it to suit the purpose. The nominations for the qualifiers are still undecided as well. At least they have not been published.

Whats this I hear that younger of the Klatovsky brothers had his license taken away after some "disagreement" with a local official in Russia. The Swedish site on the other hand has had comments in it's guestbook claiming he's the sort of rider that turns to an idiot once the helmet gets on??

Jari Mäkinen is spending this weekend in Rybnik, Poland on a training camp provided by his Swedish school. Preliminary reports so far are telling it's been a huge success for Jari. They have been riding on friday and saturday and if the weather permits they will continue on sunday. Jari will share his thought's about this weekend surely next week in his blog. Here in Finland Jari has been nominated for the U21 Finnish national team alongside Markku Autio, Aarni Heikkilä, Joni Keskinen, Teemu Lahti and Appe Mustonen. Finland is not sending a team to the U21 World Team Championship because of the results of the past two years. On the other hand Jari has all the possibilities in taking part in the U21 and U19 international qualifiers providing that his current rate of progress (started by his move to Sweden) will continue. from jarimakinen.fi

According to a multiple Berlin visitor and a former Finnish Long Track Champion Jari Kortelainen (in Berlin) all apart from Aakko looked fast. He's a fan of Aakko, but the information might change as the evening progresses.

I think it's just that there's no time to get new stuff. I doubt he's thinking of retiring, might even say no way. Problem is that he just doesn't have the money? to buy new bikes every other year. On a better note I was told that three new bikes (all new) were made for Finnish riders for this season. Thats quite alot for 25 riders (thats how many wanted to become Finnish Champions this season) and for just one meeting.

Just heard that Aakko is on barrowed equipment in Berlin next weekend. His own bikes are finished in capital letters. Parts I'm told are literally falling of from his seven year old frames. He'll ride with upright frames but dont know whose they are. First rumours of postponing the Finnish final have emerged. Apparently there is no ice at Oulu anymore. Confirmation will probably come this weekend. This would mean that there was only one ice racing meeting held here in Finland this season. That was the qualifier at Forssa.

Tomi Kirilov will also start in the RT-pokal in Assen.

Maybe Kaparna's new track could do it, but the capacity would not be bigger than Eskilstuna or Målilla I believe. Arendal is a no go for a GP. I think 2002 was the first GP and Kaparna did everything, and did it well. The next year Svemo decided that they would make the profit of it. They laid the track but saved in the materials (they just did not have the money to make it) and with the rain it was a disaster. 2004 everything was fine except the rain that resulted in moving the training from friday to saturday. Because it all seemed too iffy or doubtfull to happen only around 10k people turned up and it was another financial disaster. Ullevi was also given the Euro Champs in athletics and they re-did the running track after 2004. Dont know how much that affected. I think some since Stockholm has not staged speedway after they re-did theirs after 2004?

Well done Antti. Busiest with 12 heats total and the most points as the Russians shared their heats. I was told friday that the crash Tommy had in Bollnas when he broke his teeth might have affected him a little. With this result thats an understatement unless there was technical difficulties to cope with as well.

Qualifier for the Finnish final at Oulu 31st March 2007. Nummi's field, Forssa 3.3.2007 Jukka Mantere 33333 15 Joni Kontoniemi 23333 14 Kai Ilkka 33223 13 Timo Kankkunen 23123 11 Ari Tuomisto 32312 11 Janne Vilponen 22232 11 Jarmo Malinen 12122 8+3 Ari Nevala 31031 8+2 Jussi Nyrönen 21212 8+d Jani Ahola 12300 6 Sakari Piirainen 11201 5 Tommi Suolammi 01111 4 Janne Leskelä 00120 3 Johan Ahponen 10001 2 Harri Saari 00010 1 Esko Rantanen 00 0 Erä erältä: 1. Ilkka, Kankkunen, Ahponen, Saari 53,1 2. Mantere, Kontoniemi, Malinen, Leskelä 53,9 3. Nevala, Nyrönen, Piirainen, Suolammi 55,9 4. Tuomisto, Vilponen, Ahola, Rantanen 54,9 5. Kontoniemi, Tuomisto, Nevala, Ahponen 54,9 6. Ilkka, Vilponen, Nyrönen, Leskelä 55,0 7. Kankkunen, Malinen, Piirainen, Rantanen 57,4 8. Mantere, Ahola, Suolammi, Saari 55,1 9. Ahola, Piirainen, Leskelä, Ahponen 60,2 10. Kontoniemi, Ilkka, Suolammi 55,4 11. Mantere, Vilponen, Kankkunen, Nevala 54,8 12. Tuomisto, Nyrönen, Malinen, Saari 57,7 13. Vilponen, Malinen, Suolammi, Ahponen 56,6 14. Mantere, Ilkka, Tuomisto, Piirainen 55,2 15. Kontoniemi, Kankkunen, Nyrönen, Ahola 57,5 16. Nevala, Leskelä, Saari 61,7 17. Mantere, Nyrönen, Ahponen 54,8 18. Ilkka, Malinen, Nevala, Ahola 56,3 19. Kankkunen, Tuomisto, Suolammi, Leskelä 57,2 20. Kontoniemi, Vilponen, Piirainen, Saari 56,5 Uusinta: Malinen, Nevala, Nyrönen d 59,00 7+2 went through... I expect more because of injuries of Lehtinen and Henriksson. Havent heard of Henriksson lately, rumour says he's set to ride. Lehtinen is keen also, was all smile today (and walking) at Forssa because his teammates did so good (Kontoniemi, Mantere, Vilponen).

You should have been in charge 15? years ago...

Yes

Heard via SMS from Saransk that Aakko was on fire in practise, rode better than ever. Flyktman had bike problems but they are getting sorted. So I guess Finland can expect a medal!

They had a new ath-track made for Ullevi too for the Athletics EC 2005? or 2006? Next summer they are hosting Monster Jam in Ullevi. So bye bye for the magnificent new track.

11th Head of Mordovia Republic Cup is what the press report in Finland says. I got a sms saying it was a very hard meeting with good racing.

From the FIM today: Team F: Russia 11 Nikolai Krasnikov, 12 Vitaly Khomitsevich, 20 Mikhail Bogdanov Federation: MFR , Team Manager: Sergei Shevchenko The story was that there was a decision made long ago that the top3 from the Russian final would make the team. This was changed, and now changed back.