Right now we´re busy preparing next season. Bike maintenance, fixing the bus, new covers and suit. We have just been offered to move in to "NE Veteranservice", a mechanic business run by Nils Eriksson. Now we have access to his useful machines, plus his experience.
This year we´ll put in a little more. For the first time I have two bikes and a bus, which feels a bit more calm and comfortable. In fact it is even the first of my own personal design, nice it is.
Check back to News to see what´ going on. See you!
/Joel
100103; X-mas clean up time...
A heavy clean up was needed. Get in some new ideas, new paint. Less stuff in favour of updates. You will be able to follow Joel´s development, but also speedway in general.
We wish to do our bit to get more people to discover speedway.
We´ll write about races and other things going on, commenting things concerning speedway and once in a while stick out our noses. Feel free to comment, if you share our views or not.
For our foreign visitors we will gradually have the little films presented in english.
We hope that you, if you just discovered it or if you´re already familiar with speedway, will find it easy to navigate, worthy and entertaining to visit us.
We wish all speedway friends a prosperous 2010!
/Ernst
100103; Resumé
2009 was my first year on a 500 bike. I got a pretty good start. In my first race Gnistorna (Eng: Sparks) won against all odds and with only one point more. I did four points.
I had my first heat win against Eldarna. The track was new to me, really rough. I collected 9 + 2 points. My debute before the "Gnistorna" fans was a long nervous waiting. Finally I got two heat, got home safe in the first and gave a little more in the second, rode up to a third place, close to a second. But it was great to bring home one point.
To enjoy a Division 1 league win in my first season was fantastic.
A big thank you to everyone who supported me from sponsors to friends in Gnistorna.
/Joel
100118; Gnistorna at home 2010
Here are the dates for our meetings home at Malmö Motorstadion. Always on a wednesday and always at 19 hours. If you are visiting south of Sweden one of these dates, we will be happy to welcome you to our oval.
April 28, Gnistorna - Nässjö
May 19, Gnistorna - Hultsfred
June 2, Gnistorna - Indianerna U
June 16, Gnistorna - Eldarna
July 7, Gnistorna - Stjärnorna
July 14, Gnistorna - Filbyterna
July 28, Gnistorna - Smederna
August 18, Gnistorna - Team Värmland
September 1, Gnistorna - Gasarna
/Ernst
100118; Gnistorna on tour 2010
May Wednesday 5, maj Stjärnorna - Gnistorna. Orionparken, Hallstavik
May Wednesday 12, Filbyterna - Gnistorna. Linköpings Motorstadion
May Wednesday 26, Smederna - Gnistorna. Ikaros Stadion, Eskilstuna
June Saturday 12, Team Värmland - Gnistorna. Tallhults Motorstadion, Hagfors
June Sunday 27, Gasarna - Gnistorna. Arena Avesta
June Wednesday 30, Nässjö - Gnistorna. Motorstadion Skogsvallen, Nässjö
July Sunday 25, Hultsfred - Gnistorna. G&B Arena in Målilla
August Sunday 8, Indianerna U - Gnistorna. Sannaheds Motorstadion, Kumla
August Saturday 28, Eldarna - Gnistorna. Huddinge Motorstadion.
/Ernst
100201; New pages launched
Now we have one new page looking back and another about this year 2010. It is mostly pictures and just short comments. There is one in the family that talks and writes a lot and it is not me.
We are happy to announce new sponsor "Swinx", a software that will improve your business, small or big . We are also pleased to now have building and construction company "Carlssons Bygg" among our sponsors - A warm welcome!
/Team Joel Blomstrand Speedway
100217; Get the motor running...
Last sunday we had one bike ready to start up. Because of the polar weather, it had to be done in the garage. After a few attempts - did it compress! and lowering ignition a bit, Joel managed to spin the back wheel with enough power to get the motor running. It was a nice sound and great feeling. A few details left and one bike is race ready. The second bike will be start ready any day. Weather though is worrying, will the tracks be ready when season is supposed to start?
/Ernst
100325; Springtime coming 2...
A week skiing is over. My company is skiing whereever they want, yours truely heads more or less where the ski takes him. Downhill skiing must be perfect practise for a speedway rider - no breaks and half of the brain left in the garage! Joel prefered off-pist together with his cousin Linus Ottosson, who is succesful in another action filled sport, namely Skeleton. The road home was also "not pisted" for some 500 km - That "hurry slowly" is a good filosophy proved true as a number of cars were waiting in the ditches along the road for a breakdown lorry. We escaped that experience. During the last days, the sun hit harder and it looked more like water skiing. But that was on the other hand a reminder of the great times to come. A little luck with the weather and the enthusiastic attendance from members of our speedway club MKT and the "speedway wonder" in south Sweden has quite an improved speedway park to offer when the season takes off. See you there!
/Ernst
100325; Springtime coming 1...
Both bikes has been started. Just a few details left to get fixed before the first round... Isn´t this always the case?
Guards has arrived from Just Concepts in England. Very nice fibre glass work, recommended! Just a little tip: If you go for your own design, find a colour code to attach to the order. You´ll make life easier for the manufacturer and spare him some grey hair. We experience colours differently, light affects the impression and there´s a difference how colours appear on a computer screen and the printed colour. So the result can be very different from what you expected. Colour code is the medicine!
Visited a big tools store, stood there drooling over a sturdy tools cart filled with smart tools.
Woke up from the dream and purchased an acceptable used cart and filled it with those used tools that has perfectly done the job so far. To quote loosely Robert with twenty years in speedway racing: Leave the extra vaganza for later and first invest in engine maintenance, metanol and travells!
/Ernst
100330; Interview before season starts...
A local paper made a visit in the middle of the last preparations for the season. In swedish yes, but maybe there is someone out there who knows the language!?
Bikes has been in pieces and now everything is in place. Driver and bikes also has new suits.
Own work and sweat isn´t enough, but with the help from individuals and companies, we can now look forward to yet another season.
On Friday we are in for the first training rounds in Malmö. Let´s hope for a sunny day.
See you on the oval 2010!
/Joel
100406; The opening 2010
So, we´ve started 2010. We had a training camp in Malmö with "Randers" from Denmark. The bikes were ready in time. With a few adjustments the first day I could slide away. It was a bit stiff the first rounds, but loosened up as the day went on. You have to shake off the little problems and focuse on that what you came for - to go sideways.
I´ll miss the next camp because of a medical examination, bad timing, could have been worse. But following week end I will join the others in Gnistorna again for three days with Mats Olsson. Looking forward to this. He checked me for license in 2007. I learned a lot from him then I´m sure I´ll do this time too.
/Joel
100405; Behind the curtains...
There are some new pictures in the Gallery - Take a look behind the curtains, after the lights gone out and the audience gone home.
/Joel
100406; Norway next...
Now, all settled - There will be some racing in Norway. The club is Kongsberg NMK and they´re in league 2. I´m sure this is going to be both educating and fun. This year I´m also planning to do some open races too. You got to keep on, to ride often to grow and of course I hope to deserve a couple of stints with Gnistorna in Div 1. My first season in Div 1 was fairly good with 18 heats and 18 points. I had an average of 4 points, got zero on one meating and 9 + 2 in another, but on the whole I was pretty eaven.
I found my name on a world ranking list as nr 1000 something out of 1600. The competition is hard, though there are not many licensed speedway riders round the world, many of them are very good. If you want to have a look, then the list is here...
The first meeting in Norway for Kongsberg NMK will be april 24:th in Riska. Wish me good luck!
/Joel
100407; Pictures from the opening 2010
You will find the pictures under "Gallery" in the menu.
/Joel
100420; Silencers, environmental issues and speedway...
Sometimes we need an alarm clock to wake up. It is comfortable to keep on in old shoes. But, now we have got us an alarm clock with the new silencer rules.
We can´t ignore environment issues, of course - Instead we must gain respect for our passion, namely speedway. This means we have to be well informed, show respect for critical opinions, which don´t means chicken out like a weather vane, but get heard. We must show the non-informed what speedway is - Metanol burns up to carbon dioxide and water, correct me if I´m wrong! We lubricate with margarin, well ricin, but you get the point. A collegue measured the noise inside the oval, it was under threshold value.
But FIM and national motor federations, in Sweden SVEMO - Shouldn´t they be in the drivers seat? Well yes, but unfortunately that is not always the case. It´s like the ivory tower - Too far away from reality. Tough comment, yes, but it is necessary, in the interest of speedway.
With the new silencer rules our national federation SVEMO has made, or just followed a FIM obviously hastily and badly prepared decision. I don´t know what´s worst. Manufacturers can´t catch up delivering, silencers lower the effect and most worrying overheat engines with a high risk of damage and accidents. Now you can claim that the engine damage could have another cause and there is surely lots of things to claim in defending the new silencers. My point is, noone knows yet. Simply because it is, just right, so ill prepared. The responsibility is pushed over to riders and teams, and they just have to obey and dig up the purse. This is not democracy, it is from top and down and they miss the hole point in taking in the knowledge from tuners, riders, mechanics etc.
And that doesn´t reward in respect for either speedway, or our organisations. It´s easy to make decisions when others has to take the note. Unfortunately this is not the first time, wonder sometimes if this has become a culture. Maybe this debate can lead to a new attitude from FIM and national feds, that will impress and gain respect, preferably also among those who question motorsport. Start by stopping the new silencer rules!
/Ernst
100420; New silencer roadtested
I have tested one of the new silencers, namely Prodrive. It looks nice! According to one tuner the Prodrive have a somewhat better construction than the other two on the market, but it isn´t ready yet. We mounted the silencer as far back as possible adviced by another tuner, to get less effect loss. In the depot we didn´t notice any big difference in sound level compared to the old Kings around. But on the track the difference was evident. It sounded a little like a 4 stroke moped, not exciting for us who likes a hairy rumble. But of course we can´t ignore our neighbours round the track.
Maybe there was a little more power from bottom, a little more smooth revving, but with full throttle engine was obviously slower than the others. Worst of all, with a cold wind and only +5C, the engine still got worryingly heated. It took some time to chill off, despite the cold wind. What will it be like on a hot summer day. You wonder if money is going to pay travels and methanol or - engine damage?
/Joel
100420; Sparks on fire!
Gnistorna (Sparks) had an inspiring weekend with great trainer Mats Olsson. We started friday night with an introduction, riders experience and the purpose of the camp - gaining tempo. Saturday began with free riding and Mats could see all riders in action, which was followed by improvement tips. Then exercises tightened with driving outside and inside cones to get you driving different lines round the course. That doesn´t sound too hard, but when the corners come rushing at you around 100km/h, then the track space is really shrinking and there´s no time to hesitate.
Of course there was lots of start training too. Beeing first away from tape is important, but we have seen lots of runner up riding that ended with a heat win.
A heat where positions changes is maybe even more exciting for the spectators. When the tape rises, the adrenalin level is high and it is easy to get too eager and forget to ride your bike even if it´s just a training race and just go full. But Mats hade a cure for that too. You only have to listen, give it a go and hang in. So, thank you for a really great weekend, Mats. Also thank you to all of you who came and helped getting this camp function so smoothly. Without non-payed volunteers, speedway would be nothing. Some pictures from the occasion (thanks to Tony) is here...
/Ernst
100427; First stop Norway!
Thursday meant miscellaneous preparation for the tour. Friday at seven we went on the road and around midnight we arrived at Riska Speedway Arena. You must not be fainthearted if you plan to race in Norway - Roads are looong and tracks are short! If you have a tendence for dizzines you can even have your privat "CBT" exercise crossing all bridges with 10000 meters (may have exaggerated just a bit, cos I got a little dizzy) to the ground.
Just like home here´s a growing bunch of enthusiasts spending a lot of time and money in developing speedway in Norway.
The course in Riska is short, which we so far has limited experience of and the surface, even less. A heavy rain during the night gave the track staff a difficult job and they worked there ass off to get the best out of it.
We´re looking for experience and experienced we were. You just have to try what you have to find suitable adjustments and the best way around the track. Joel started off with determination from track four, passed two riders and ended second. This looked promising. In his second heat he started even better, now from track three. He again passed two riders, with a chance to take on the leader and win the heat. Unfortunately that project blew up on the third lap, when the back wheel found a hole, got a good grip which ended in the fence. There were others who were to get the same experience. Luck comes and luck goes... It would of course have been nice to go home with more points but we got what we came for - experience and fun. There was time enough to socialize. Thanks Riska Speedway for a great weekend. Next time we´re in Drammen, come on Kongsberg!
/Ernst
100503; Next stop; Hallstavik!
Time for my premiere in this years Div 1. Namely Wednesday 5:th of May against Stjärnorna. Looong journey again, but track is short. Think we will stop by a motormuseum or music event, while we´re on the road, get a short vacation. Rest of the team are Robert, filling in as team captain, Göthberg is on as is Tebäck, Thörnblom, Olof and Vispen. And team manager, the grand master Gunnar Hurtig.
This will be fun.
/Joel
Nov 11: Resume
Best season so far! We got more sponsor support, a bit bigger budget. This was my first year with a bus, a second bike and extra engines. I could do more races, a must to improve.
I did Norwegian Second League for Kongsberg MK and Division 1 in Sweden for Gnistorna as well as stints in other swedish teams. So, it´s been a few miles on the roads in Sweden and Norway.
It has also been a chance getting to know other riders. I had a week training at Oslo speedway arena, and we did some work on the track as well to sort of repay for their generousity. We spent the evenings barbequeing, fighting mosquitos and trading unbelievable stories. We even went fishing with no success.
The goal for this season was to broaden experience and - mission accomplished. I have done many different tracks and conditions and I also got great training help from really good people and former top riders.
Kongsberg MK ended 3:rd and Gnistorna finished 4:th.
Best results in a single meeting: Sweden, 12 points. Norway; 14 points.
Unfortunately results as "hired" rider doesn´t count, so my official score this season doesn´t really show what I have accomplished.
Anyways, I have improved in everything this year, I have better self esteem, I´m faster. I got lots of cred and appreciation from trainers and team managers encouraging me.
The result that do counts is the fact I´m in Allsvenskan with Gnistorna next year.
See you!
/Joel
Nov 11: A busy year
We have to apologize for not updating you english speaking visitors for such a long time. Though you are not that many for the time beeing, you´re not less important.
We´re still low budget and after all just a family affair, so time is tight. Anyway, we will try and get better at deliver short news. Next follows a resume of 2010, which was a great year.
