f-s-p

No I did not. But I havent walked around after midnight there though... I wont be going this year, there's a longtrack meeting in Pori the same day. It's the finnish final.

Last years Individual Finnish final is now fully online. Check out this one! Heats 13 and 23 are the treats.

I think Saalfelden has now completely given up organizing the qualifier. I phoned to Oulu yesterday, they didn't confirm anything except that they are aware of the situation have had a look if they could do it.

Very interesting day yesterday! Went to see the training camp in Alavus and missed all the action it started snowing yesterday and the weather was pretty bad for driving. Anyway saw all the riders to see and had a chat. Regarding the places for the qualifiers Seppänen drew himself out of the running saying he has enough in the GS and the "official"-work he took up. He said the that from the times clocked Ala-Riihimäki and Henriksson were the two fastest and deserve their places. During the heats A-R and Kaj Lehtinen had a pileup which led to a few spike marks in Lehtinen's lower leg, but he returned to the track with crutches and was pretty up-beat about it all. He's been lucky enough to ride practically every weekend since late October alltough most of his time has gone in to adjusting his new bike. A-R said you can call this a comeback. His back is fine when it comes to riding but all the knocks have taken their toll and no more of them wanted. Henrikkson was also ready to take on the qualifiers, he's along with only one bike but said it's as fast as ever. Both Henriksson and Kirilov had their first weekend on ice. Afterwards I went and paid a visit to Kauko Nieminen at his place in Seinäjoki. Kauko had an operation on his shoulder after the season and is on the mend. He said that if he had to, he'd ride tomorrow alltough the movement of the arm is not 100%. He's keeping up with his fysio and doing the "homework". He seemed very confident about 2007.

The train station and the bus station are right next to each other on the eastern? edge of the old town. Next to the market square. I've been to Riga twice and been in the "Radi un Draugi" hotel both times. 5 min walk to the stations, inside the old town.

The word over yesterday was that the Saalfelden people had a meeting sunday evening to make the decision.

A few videoclips from the 2006 Finnish final from Seinäjoki here. Some pics below... Sounds like two trips two Oulu this spring then.. My credit card wont like that EDIT: I bet you havent seen Laukkanen gate like that EVER!!!! (clip4) EDIT2: Heats 5-8 now online EDIT3: Heats 9-12 now!

I heard about this yesterday, but thought that Oulu was only second or third on the list? I take it that Oulu is first then and the qualifier is in Oulu on the same day as the other qualifiers...

Aki Ala-Riihimäki, Jouni Seppänen, Tomi Kirilov and Raimo Henrikkson are the four riders competing for the last two places in in the World qualifier in Inzell. There will be a training session this sunday where they will decide who's going. There has been enough ice to practise during the last month, but all meetings scheduled have been postponed. I did hear that Oulu has enough ice in Raatti Stadion to host a meeting staight away, but not enough snow for the barriers. Practice is not allowed there. Also Saalfelden postponed their qualifier by a week, and the weather reports aren't promising anything better. I understood that they are looking into giving the qualifier away...

Thank you very much to Steve Turner. And to Leliwa also for the offer. The site will be online in a few weeks. I'll make sure everyone knows about it when the time comes.

We are preparing to launch a website for a 16 year old finnish prospect Jari Mäkinen. The language of the website will be finnish with some english and swedish material. All languages mentioned are well understood already, but polish isn't all that big over here. But it is a speedway language, and I was hoping someone (polish?) would help me in translating Jari's basic info into polish? Its about 200 words including loads of names. Any takers? No money promised, but favours are returned 100%.

There was supposed to be an ice racing meeting in Seinäjoki on the 14th of January, but that was postponed due to no ice. There have been enough - degrees though, and they did speed skating in Seinäjoki yesterday, they had the national championhips. So someone might even have practised ice racing even! But because there still are two places up for grabs for the Inzell qualifier, there will be a "unformal" scouting event in Alavus next sunday, the 14th. I know Ala-Riihimäki and Seppänen are seriously wanting to go, dont know about others. Kirilov? Henriksson?..

We had it when Laukkanen was in it, but BSI didn't make an offer for our Channel4 to continue. We would have had it in 2005 if BSI had only offered it.

I went against all the odds... the finnish post combined with roayl mail. I havent lost my hope yet, two weeks + a day or two with the holidays is not that bad from experience. The UK tour is gonna be based around Liverpool (north) or then I might fly to REALLY south UK via Stansted, maybe Bournemouth or whatever that one airport was. What ever Ryanair provides.

Ok, been to Prague. Alltough a lovely city with plenty to see this will make me say no. And I'll bet you can count the locals from that with just one hand. Also not so cheap to get to from here. There was the Sterling company who did budget flights from Helsinki to Prague and probably about 50 people had booked their flights for last years event. Well Sterling pulled the plug just a few weeks prior. Now it's 250-300€ for just the flights when using SAS or Finnair. Daugavpils didn't have enough to offer apart from speedway. Might make other arrangements if going there. And that reminded me that I have a friend living in Hultsfred now, so might go to Målilla.

Just two weeks ago I paid off my hotels from Copenhagen 2004. Still have to worry about a couple, but the limit on my cc might allow a couple of trips next summer. The German one might be nice, especially since I can fly direct from Tampere to Bremen (250km away) by Ryanair. The DB service is always reliable and frequent. Looks like I'll give Eskilstuna a miss next year. I really want to get to UK to watch the leagues and visit friends. If only Laukkanen could get his things sorted I could figure out a plan. Not going to Cardiff though, I'll probably do a northern tour this time... The polish one's are always tempting, if only had I landed the job for Scanclimber. They have a production plant in Gniezno. It would have been 60-40 between Tampere and Poland. A trip to Vienna is planned around 1st of May, the couple we're travelling with are coming over for new years tomorrow. We've been talking about going to Lonigo on the same go. We'll see how the negotiations between the guy's and girl's go after dinner. Slovenia is out, but if they ever get GP's in Gorican - Millenium, I'll do my best to get there. It always rains in Målilla and the Danish one is too expensive as well. Any left??

Through a somewhat awkward and funny chain of events I ended up on the phone with Aki Ala-Riihimäki yesterday. He's making a real comeback this season in ice racing, and plans to challenge for a place in the World qualifiers. Unlike I had led myself to believe, there are still 2 more places up for grabs in Inzell. Merry Christmas for everyone!

Finnish riders for 2007 European and World rounds in ice racing: Team WC, Saransk: Antti Aakko, Tommy Flyktman and Kai Lehtinen. EC semifinal, Lukhovisty: Tommy Flyktman EC final, Lukhovisty: Antti Aakko. WC quali, Penza: Antti Aakko and Kai Lehtinen. WC quali, Inzell: Tommy Flyktman.

Forssan Moottoriseura turned 50 last saturday. The club is one of (if not the one) the most active clubs in the country when it comes to longtrack and ice racing. They also have a very active speedway-section, and they currently also have a ongoing project to build a new track in Forssa. Unfortunately the first site was planned as a industrial zone after the club spent 3000 € to measure the noise effects. Another site has been given and planning is in progress. More importantly a friend of mine has been visited by Antti Aakko. Whats the story you might think? He had lost so much weight that my friend almost didn't reqognize him at first. Thats good news in my opinion, it clearly states that Aakko has made huge improvements in his summer training (I think it means he's started it). Well done Antti!

Can you shed some more light to his argument with his club, Vargarna. He's been accused of "picking/choosing" his meetings, one in particular. The club made such a noise of the matter, that Zagar was kicked out and all the other clubs were told about the situation. Apparently when signing him, another Swedish club would have to pay something for Vargarna. This is all from Swedish press from the time when it happened last August/October.

Alltough my sources are reliable, I hope your's are right. Main thing for me is that Kake Nieminen gets his chance to prove himself right from the start.

I was told that there is no track at Arendal at the mo, at least the fences have been taken down?

And Kaparna is on it's way to getting the track situation sorted.

Go to youtube and search finnish speedway or similar. There's a clip from Seinäjoki where Jarmo Hirvasoja rides an ice bike on a regular track... Not nice, someone should have told him that when he falls he doesn't slide...

I have no idea where Östersund is in Sweden, but SMHI, the swedish weather service is promising +2 to +7 celsius for the next week all over Sweden. As I left to pick up my girlfriend last saturday from the Christmas party of her job, it's was +7,5 celsius at Tampere. We had one week of winter here, 1st to 4th of November. Thats when I was in the UK. Its been raining almost all the time ever since. Tommy Flyktman is currently in Arjeplog, have no idea where that is but there is ice. He's been riding alot I heard.