More races!

It is an intense period for the icespeedway followers around the world right now. In Sweden the competitions seems to be ongoing almost every day and tonite the Swedish par-championship was settled at Lungre stadium in Östersund. These are the results from tonights race which some of you surely has been following on the isracing.net site where referee Tord Lundgren kept "Gaisarn" updated from his cellphone in between every 4 heats.
The teams were: Funbo MS, ÖMK Rundbana, SMK Gävle, Jämtlands MK, Bollnäs MK, Njurunda MK and Strömsunds MC.
The final score was,
Gävle 27
Posa 12
Koij 9
Bruhn 6

Övik 22+3
Stefan 17
Ledström 5

JMK 22+2
PA 15
Engenström 7

Strömsund 19
Olsen 12
Ringbert 5
Höglund 2

Bollnäs 14
Åström 10
Mats 4
Lindholm 0

Njurunda 13
Sundelin 12
Lundgren 1
Bertilsson U

Funbo 8
Nordmark 5
Palle 8

source: Tord Lundgren and "Gaisarn"

Leauge game: Morgongåva, Funbo

Tonight the race is on at the pitoresque and charming venue called Morgongåva. We would like to name it the most exotic track in Europe. It is short and narrow and the heats are therefor very intense. The leauge is already won by ÖMK Rundbana with Stefan Svensson in charge with SMK Gävle on runners up. That doesn´t stop the other teams from fighting for the 3rd place. Tonight it is Funbo, Strömsund,Finland and Njurunda who are competing. The final score...

Funbo
Aakko 12
Tommy 14
Palle 4
Nordmark 7
Robert 7

Strömsund
PA 11
Gjersvold 8
Olsén 7
Ringbert 4
Ekström 4

Njurunda
Gösta 6
Jarl 0
Saetre 3
Bertilsson 6
Lundgren 8

Finland
Lehtinen 11
Seppänen 2
Vilponen 3
Myrönen 1
Kankonen 2

Source: "Gaisarn"

Reviews ICY RIDERS!

The ice-races are taking place all over Sweden at the moment. People come to watch this fantastic sport and we are happy as can be to recieve such good feedback as we get for the film ICY RIDERS. Posa and his iceracing comradery seems to have reached into the very soul of the Swedish people. However Posa is truly worth all the appreciation and acknowledgement he can get. This we can read in TV-columns, editorials, blogs, chatrooms and all the other forums of the written word. Today in Gävle Dagblad we found an extra enthusiastic editorial from a signature called "Eppa". It is in Swedish but we choose to publish it anyway. *L*.

Tough as nails!

Got this from the great site www.isracing.net.

"Hi everyone. Everything is OK. Crash with Rene in Strömsund broke my left knee, and I have now about 40 stitches in leg. I would like to thank you all who help me on track, in ambulance, and in Östersunds hospital. I hope that we see next year with better luck."
Best regards, Kai Ilkka

A letter from a true icerider. No regrets and no excuses. Just a shrug and a hope for a better season next year. You cannot help but sometimes wonder ..-What planet are these guys from?

Swedish Leauge, Njurunda 22 feb.

© Copyright Georg Nordstrand

Topresults from the Swedish Leauge game in Njurunda yesterday night.

1) SMK Gävle 49,
Per-Olof Serenius, 2, 3, 3, 3, 2
Peter Koij 2, 2, 3, 3,
Per Bruhn 2, 3, 2, 3
Peter Jansson 1, -, 2, -
Fredrik Johansson 2, 3, 3, 3, 2

2) ÖMK Rundbana, Örnsköldsvik 48
Stefan Svensson 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
René Stellingwerf 3, 2, 3, 2
Ulf Ledström 3, 2, 2, 2
Hans Tjärnberg 3, 1, 1, 2
Patrik Sohlberg 3, 2, 2

3) Njurunda MK 22
Gösta Sundelin 1, 2, F, 1
Magnus Lundgren 1, 1, 1, 1
Jo Saetre 1, 1, 2, 1, 1
Leif Bertilsson 2, 1, 1, 1

Tord Lundgren, the passionate icespeedway follower from Njurunda, also contributor to our website, had a great evening watching his club end up in third place. More than 300 people attended the hard and intense game which was won by Gävle with only one point down to ÖMK rundbana. The temperature was -8C degrees below zero which mean perfect conditions for the icespeedway people. It is truly an exotic feeling watching the Swedish Leauge. Next race is even more exotic. Morgongåva is the place and the track is run by John Fredriksson, legendary former world class rider. To find the place, look at the great site, isracing.net under gästbok.

Ride on!

Posa, Stefan and the mechanics are on there way back from Siberia. Last update is that they probably drive around Haparanda in the very north of Sweden via Vasa, Finland. Then all the way down to Örnsköldsvik, to drop Stefan off and further down to Gävle. Quite a tour! Then there is a Swedish league game coming up this weekend. No rest for the wicked!

DVD news update

ICY RIDERS the DVD-edition is up for grabs at www.icespeedwaymovie.com. Now ou can buy your own copy via user friendly Pay Pal or simply by using your creditcard. The extramaterial is immense and longer than the film itself. The men behind the film will also come and visit the Swedish venues in Skövde, Örebro, Gustavsberg and Uppsala. There you will get the chance to talk and ask them about the making of ICY RIDERS.

Win a LADA in Saransk!

Mordovia is a little republic about 600 km east of Moscow. The capitol city is Saransk with 348 thousand inhabitants. They are crazy about ice speedway. Every year they hold an open competition where the winner wins a new car, a LADA. Here are the results of tonights races...

Krasnikov 15, Baseev 14, Bauer 12, Zacharov 11,
Aakko 10, Klabo 9,Luschnikov 8, Bogdanov 7,
Krysov 7, Svensson 6, Gavrilkin 6, Kononov 5,
Flyktman 4, Posa 2,Makarov 2, Holstein 2.

Franky Zorn is reported injured and we try to get an update as soon as possible.

Source: Karina Flyktman

SVT ratings ICY RIDERS

Yesterday night while Posa and his colleauges started their way back to Saransk, SVT, Swedish Television aired the documentary ICY RIDERS for the first time. The slot was Prime Time at 20.00 and the competition from the other networks was pure murder. However almost half a million (!!!) Swedish people sat and watched the adventures of the icespeedway community. 455.000 to be precise. Those are extremely good numbers for a documentary but even more fantastic as the topic was a narrow motorsport. We salute you who watched the programme and hope to see you on the racetracks throughout Europe this and following winters.

UFA day 2

Harald Simon and Johnny Tuinstra didn´t turn up at todays final race in UFA. You can hardly blame them either. The result were as follows..
A-finals Nikolai Krasnikov
Danil Ivanov
Dimitry Komisevich
B-finals
Vitaly Komisevich
Franky Zorn
Günther Bauer
Pavel Tjaika
C-finals Stefan Svensson, Antti Aakko, Tommy Flyktman, Ivan Ivanov /did not start (injury)
D-finals Jan Klatovsky, Posa Serenius, Markus Skabraut, Jari Lehtinen

WC-races in UFA, Russia day 1

Breaking news from the trusted Karina Flyktman. It has been great complications during the first day in UFA. Posa had a fall in the first heat and was disqualified. He had trouble getting things together after that. Some more zero-pointers followed before he had yet another crash with Klabo. UFA is a tough track. Harald Simon broke his arm in two places and Johnny Tuinstra broke his collarbone. Posa who didn´t get any points today will most likely be riding tomorrow as both Simon and Tuinstra are out. Ice speedway is indeed a tough business. Here are todays results.
D-finals
Antti Aakko
Tommy Flyktman
Jari Lehtinen
Harald Simon /not start
C-finals
Ivan Ivanov
Stefan Svensson
Klabo
Johnny Tuinstra
B-finals
Günther Bauer
Baseev
Dimitry Khomisevich
Pavel Tjaika stop
A-finals
Nikolai Krasnikov
Vitaly Khomisevich
Danil Ivanov
Franky Zorn

Travels with Posa

Normally any sportsman would give up and go back home if they were to be stopped in the russian customs for a couple of hours. Especially after having driving there by car. This is perfectly normal for Posa and the other ice speedway riders. Every season involve extreme travelling. Here is this years schedule in kilometres for Posa...

27 januari: Bollnäs-Trelleborg-Sanok, Poland.
Kilometres: 1500.

1 feb: Inzell, Tyskland.
Kilometres from Sanok: 600.

2 feb: Back home to Sweden.
Kilometres from Inzell, 1300.

3 feb: Ferry from Stockholm to Finland then by car to Moscow.
Kilometres: 1200.

14 feb: Ufa, Russia.
Kilometres from Moscow: 1300.

17 feb: Via Saransk, Russia back home to Sweden.
Kilometres home from Saransk via Ufa, 3000.

7 march: Berlin Wilmersdorff, Germany
Kilometres from home to Berlin: 1000.

14 march: Assen, Holland.
Kilometres from Berlin: 400.

Finally back home to finish off the season with leauge races and the Swedish championships. Add another 1250 kilometres.... All in all it adds up to 11550 kilometres in less than 50 days! All travels are approximetaly. And remember if you think this is extraordinary... Posa has been doing this for 32 years in a row!!

Source: Gävle Dagblad

Russia update...

Posa and his two mechanics went on a short trip to Togliatti after the races in Krasnogorsk. Posa have made friends all over Russia and even though he don´t speak russian he likes to discover new places. Stefan Svensson who drove so well there in the semis (4th place) has great problems with the front fork. Also the suspension is giving him a hard time. The main reasons to why he is only at 14th place. In a couple of days they will be in UFA for the second session of the WC-finals.

Russia vs Europe

The difference between riding icespeedway in Russia and Europe is that the Russians only sweep the track after every 4th lap. Thy don´t plow afterwards like they do in the rest of Europe. That leaves the riders with a very bumpy track. Therefor the riders who are more used to the slushy surface face serious challenge in Russia. Also the ice is considered very hard due to the cold. Here are some pictures from the races in Krasnogorsk last weekend. As usual, a big thanks to www.isracing.net.

Krasnogorsk Day 2

The finals show that Nikolai Krasnikov is the undisputable champion of ice speedway. He is from the same town as the legendary Kadyrov who was so dominant during the seventies, UFA. Here are the results of the second day in Krasnogorsk.

1. Krasnikov 50p
2. Bazeev 34p
3. D.Ivanov 36p
4. F. Zorn 36p

Posa ended up number 12 and Stefan Svensson as number 14.
The next races are in UFA. The homestead of Krasnikov.V.

V. Khomisevitch crashes day 1.

Krasnogorsk Day 1

Here are the results from day one in Krasnogorsk.

D-final
Tjaika,Svensson,Lehtinen fall, Tuinstra disq./fall.
C-final
Simon,Posa,Klabo,Antti stop.
B-final
Baseev,Bauer,Dimitry Khomitsevich,Ivan Ivanov.
A-final
Krasnikov,ZORN,Danil Ivanov,Vitaly Khomitsevich disq.

Posa is best of the Swedes on tenth place. Better luck tomorrow! Stefan Svensson had a really tough fight with the russian Tjaika in the D-final. The audience was extatic according to Lars Lönnberg, on place in Krasnogorsk. Also Franky Zorn seems very determined to give the Russians a fight for the goldmedal this year. Zorn who has had problems with the Russian conditions has now overcome that issue.

Source: Karina Flyktman

Let the races begin!

Krasnogorsk, Russia.
Not only is it the place that keeps one of the biggest film-archives in the world, it is also the place where the WC-championships in ice speedway start tomorrow. Stefan Svensson who made it really good lately in the semis at Togliatti is number 9 and Posa Serenius got number 13. You can follow the races on a russian site we recieved from the trusty and always reliable sources at www.isracing.net. Also it might be a good opportunity to improve your skills in the kiryllic alphabet.

SVT web

Today SVT, the Swedish television launched their ICY RIDERS website. Complete with our catchy trailer and all. Please feel free to visit the site.Posa himself together with his standard Russian team, Olsson and Ragge are safe and sound on place in Russia. We talked to Posa yesterday and there was "only" an hour and a half in the Russian customs this time. Icy Riders weekly will keep you posted from the races up coming weekend.

ICY RIDERS reportage world wide

Last week a reportage about the making of the film "ICY RIDERS" was broadcasted via satellite. It is a new motorsportshow presented by the FIM-organisation. We were very impressed by the quality of the show and as it was the premiere episode we feel extra privileged to have participated. The broadcasters who aired the show was,

1. Orange Sports, France and poland
2. Cable/Satellite Sportcomm / OTE, Greece
3. Cable/Satellite, Sports TV Portugal
4. Cable/Satellite ASPN - Sport Club 2
5. Cable/Satellite Slovenia/Czech
6. Cable/Satellite Setanta Sport UK and Ireland
7. Cable/Satellite Fox Sports Australia
8. Namibian Broadcasting Corporation
9. Namibia (Sub Saharan Africa)
10.Al Jazeera Sport, Middle-east/North Africa

We sure hope that more will follow.

Inzell and DVD-presales

The team WC races are over and the final result look like follows. World Team Cup Final 2009 in Inzell, Austria:

1. Russia 55
Nikolai Krasnikov 26
Jounir Bazeev 19
Daniil Ivanov 10

2. Austria 46
Harald Simon 1
Markus Skabraut 11
Franz Zorn 34

3. Germany 37
Günther Bauer 32
Stefan Pletschacher 5
Florian Fürst 0

4. Sweden 31
Posa Serenius 14
Stefan Svensson 17
Per-Anders Lindström dnr

source: www.isracing.net
For those who want to look at live footage from the races, please go to this link.
The interest for Icy Riders seems to be global. Everywhere from Russia to Australia there is people who like to own a copy! We are very excited and hope that we can contribute to the spreading of the sport. The website is very visited and it is in both English and Swedish.