f-s-p

They have their hands full, more or less. Speedway wouldn't make them so much money that it would be wise to do something to get it. Last time it was practicly given for them. Didn't make it to longtrack, it was such a nice day that I opted for minigolf and cycling instead.

When Laukkanen was in the GP, Nelonen+ was sending them live on a digital service. Nelonen also showed 30min highlights the following sunday morning. They got around 70 000 viwers, and the channel was happy. They would have liked to continue showing the GP's, but BSI didn't make them an offer.

If I can I would like to quote you with that all over the finnish press!!! Friend of mine who knows the finnish longtrack scene better than me said that he's gonna pick as many points as the others let him. So I wouldn't make a bet for him. If I get out of bed in time tomorrow, I'll go and see him race at Forssa. Maybe then I'll have more info of him?

Seinäjoki has announced today that their track is open for practise. They were the first track to do that. Not that anybody give's a duck, but that just to show that our season is a bit short.

If you let me correct you this one time? "It didn't used to happen for him in the GP qualifiers." ? PK is great, but for some reason it just hasn't happen.

Mikko Rahko, once in the longtrack GP, makes a comeback this season. He's been listed for the Vaasan MK team in the speedway City series (1st division). He's also taking part in the longtrack finnish final to be held at Vaasa (his hometrack) later this summer.

None detected... I checked their (Forssa club) website before posting just to make sure. One reason I can think of is the fact that this meeting is most likely going to be crap. We have maybe 20-25 riders in this country for longtrack. TOP3 has Karger, Graversen, Lausch, Lantenhammer.... top motors, and the rest have what they get. If the meeting is going to be held in a final format, then the A-final might be a good one with close racing. So they dont want to tell people in advance that they only have the bottom 15 finnish riders. Regarding the finnish league the situation is the same. Teams are obligated to announce their lineup about a week before the round, but not once in past 3 years have I seen them publicly announced. For it to being a secret sport over here, well maybe it is. But we currently have some good people working on it, with stamina to improve on all areas...

No. The clubs in Finland dont usually give the names of the riders until you buy the program and read it there when it happens. Clearly this is something that could be done differently.

Some resuffling in the finnish league... I read yesterday that Cesary Owizyc has withdrawn from the Pori team, and also they are having some difficulties with another foreigner. Well they have 3 weeks to get things going again... There's a longtrack meet in Forssa next sunday, saturday is reserved for practise. I was on the phone to Forssa about an hour ago, not much riders to race with but they should have enough to make a couple of full heats.

FIM, no link to give.

Wild card 16. Fredrik Lindgren Track reserves 17. Jonas Davidsson 18. Eric Andersson

SM-liiga, 29.4 Daugavpils/Latvia 1) Kotkat, SeMK 30 Kaj Laukkanen 18 S.Drevjatnikov 7 Rene Lehtinen 4 Joni Keskinen 1 2) Speedway-Centrs 29 D. Saifutdinov 13 V. Girutskij 8 E. Karavatskij 3 E. Petuhov 5 3) KeittiöPiste, KMMK 28 A. Kazionnyi 11 Juha Hautamäki 8 Juha Mäkelä 6 Teemu Lahti 3 4)Leijona-Haukat 24 Tomi Reima 10 S.Lazarenko 5 N. Kaminskii 8 Joni Kitala 1 SM-liiga, tilanne 29.4 1/12 Kotkat, SeMK 1 - 30 - 5 Speedway-Centrs,Daugavpils 1 - 29 - 4 KeittiöPiste, KMMK 1 - 28 - 3 Leijona-Haukat, HMK-SsMK 1 - 24 - 2 Paholaiset, PMK 0 - 0 - 0 Snails, VRT 0 - 0 - 0 Rene Lehtinen was 7. at the longtrack meet in Berin yesterday. He blew up his FGM GM in his second ride, and managed to qualify for the A-final with his VT Jawa. FINAALI: 1. Gerd Riss Saksa 2. Robert Eibl Saksa 3. Matthias Kröger Saksa 4. Jörg Tebbe Saksa 5. Enrico Janoschka Saksa 6. Nynke De Jong Hollanti 7. Rene Lehtinen Suomi 8. Jaroslav Ptak Tshekki Ryhmä A: 1. Gerd Riss Saksa 7 7 7 7 28 2. Matthias Kröger Saksa 6 6 6 4 22 3. Jörg Tebbe Saksa 3 4 5 6 18 4. Enrico Janoschka Saksa 4 5 4 5 18 5. Markus Eibl Saksa 5 R 3 3 11 6. Christian Hülshorst Saksa 1 3 2 R 6 7. Kenneth Borgenhaug Norja 2 1 R 2 5 8. Zdenek Schneiderwind Tshekki 0 2 1 1 4 Ryhmä B: 1. Nybke de Jong Hollanti 7 6 5 6 24 2. Jaroslav Ptak Tshekki 5 7 7 R 19 3. Rene Lehtinen Suomi 6 R 4 7 17 4. Sjoerd Rozenbereg Hollanti 4 5 3 5 17 5. Ronny Stüdemann Saksa 2 4 6 4 16 6. Klaus-Peter Gerdemann Saksa 3 2 2 R 7 7. Stefan Bromberg Saksa 0 1 1 3 5 8. John Hartley Englanti 1 3 0 - 4 9. Paul Evitts Englanti - - - 2 2

Well... If I tell you it's his second season on longtrack and he has one monoshock (+1 older) bike and one FGM tuned GM to take to the qualifier... He's riding in Berlin next sunday, maybe you'll go and check him out and tell me! And he's only 21. Janne Koivula was overlooked because he was unable to take part after being nominated on a 4 day notice last year. Markus Helin declined as well, but he is in this years qualifier's. The nominations were an absolute farce, and since then Koivula tried to argue his case were ever possible in the SML. No luck, and he's called it a day.

This was HOT off the press, I'm not sure even the people at SML knew it yet when I wrote it (or do they even care ). But it is as accurate info as a man who makes the decisions can give! (it wasn't me)

I think he's on a 6,5 to 7 point average. So when enough riders are hurt, and all other's from under different size of rocks are used I'm sure he'll be contacted. He's ready and willing, but needs a riding berth to come over. His finances do not allow him to just come over for a few weeks and beg for 2nd half rides.

No, thats not what I mean. If you go to a FIM rule book you wont find ice speedway but ice racing. They do speedway on ice at Telford. Here in Finland we call it "jääspeedway - icespeedway" but thats not english is it. And if you type speedway in to google you'll find loads of American car racing track's that are infact speedway's. Like Arlington, Daytona, Laguna Seca and track's like that. I pointed this out because I've never heard of American motor speedway, the sport. They ride speedway though in the states. Then again I didn' even bother to check... EDIT: checked

There is no ice speedway, but there's speedway on ice. Ice racing is probably what you're after. As for American motor speedway, I'm sure thats a track, not a sport.

Finnish riders for the U21 World qualifier @ Holsted are Rene Lehtinen, Joni Keskinen and Aarni Heikkilä. Aarni Heikkilä will also ride in the U19 European semifinal, where ever that'll be. I'm not expecting any success.

Please prove me wrong, but the only place to get heat times for the GP's is the Speedway Star and the official result sheet given to media directly after the meeting in the media room of the GP in question. I just cant understand why it is so!?

The finnish league starts next saturday at Daugavpils Latvia, with the locals Daugavpils, KeittiöPiste KMMK, Leijonat Helsinki and Kotkat Seinäjoki. I dont know the riders to the meeting yet, but I do know that Kauko Nieminen (Kotkat) isn't there, Toni Salmela (Leijonat) isn't there and Jyri Palomäki (Keittiöpiste) isn't there. Infact my sources have informed me that Toni Salmela isn't riding at all this season, because of an foot injury from last year. For the opening round Salmela will be replaced by a "local" rider, whoever it's gonna be... lol A training camp that was supposed to be organized at Latvia during easter was moved to Sweden, and apparently was a success, since I got a call to say "it's been a long time since something this good has happened!" In a SML meeting yesterday the spokesman for track racing, Matti Pöysä was unable to retain his spot in the board, so it's a bit uncertain times ahead for "us". On a lighter note he has received the highest possible status from the FIM in organising meetings, and is the sole person in any motorsport in Finland to have such a status. He's also a qualified FIM referee.

Did anyone try and get the DK4 to show as a last minute effort? Did you succeed or does it need a few days to start itself?

YIPPIII!!! Both my riders from the forum game are through...!!!!!!!!!!!

Malcolm Holloway has highly recommended the pub right across the main entrance, "Arm's something?" Having met and spoken with Mr. H a trust him with every speedway info he gives. And It's of no coincidence that I have traded my basic outlet T-shirt for a Ryan Fisher team-shirt in that same bar for a pint of beer from... Mr Ryan Fisher!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did not know you could do such distances in Denmark!

160 DK would that be around 15-20 Euros? Last year it was annual fee. I wasn't a subscriber, but a friend of mine was. It was also free for a while, but apparently all the speedwayworld without Sky started watching it... I think it took a few days to get activated.