The Finnish national speedway team are one of the teams that compete in international team motorcycle speedway.
History The Finnish speedway team competed in the inaugural Speedway World Team Cup in 1960, finishing fourth in the Scandinavian round at Odense, Denmark. The team consisted of Kalevi Lahtinen, Antti Pajari, Timo Laine, Valle Seliverstov and Aulis Lethonen.
From 1960 to 1985, the team failed to progress from their qualifying group for the World Cup, due to the fact that they were drawn together in qualifying with two of the world's strongest speedway nations, Denmark and Sweden. The system changed in 1986 but it was not until the 1990 Speedway World Team Cup that the team progressed from qualifying to round two. The team reached the final of the Speedway World Pairs Championship six times, in 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1987 and 1989.
The team reached the World Cup race-off (the round before the final) in 2002 and 2003 but experienced an inert period for nearly two decades. However, an improvement ensued when Finland reached the final of the 2022 Speedway of Nations and they won their first medal when they won the bronze at the 2023 European Pairs Speedway Championship.
Major tournament finals Speedway of Nations YearVenueStandings (Pts)RidersPts2022VojensVojens Speedway Center1. Australia (30+6+7) 2. Great Britain (32+2)3. Sweden (30+3)4. Denmark (28)5. Czech Republic (27)6. Poland (26)7. Finland (16) Timo Lahti 14 Jesse Mustonen 2 Timi Salonen 0
World Pairs Championship YearVenueStandings (Pts)RidersPts1977ManchesterHyde Road1. England (28)2. Sweden (18)3. West Germany (18)4. Czechoslovakia (17)5. New Zealand (17)6. Finland (14)7. Australia (12) Ila Teromaa 7 Kai Niemi 71979VojensVojens Speedway Center1. Denmark (25)2. England (24)3. Poland (20)4. Australia (19)5. United States (14)6. New Zealand (12)7. Finland (7) Kai Niemi 7 Ila Teromaa 01980KrskoMatija Gubec Stadium1. England (29) 2. Poland (22)3. Denmark (21)4. Sweden (18)5. New Zealand (16)6. Finland (14)7. Yugoslavia (6) Ila Teromaa 8 Kai Niemi 61982SydneyLiverpool Speedway1. United States (30) 2. England (22)3. Denmark (21)4. Australia (16)5. Finland (16) 6. New Zealand (13)7. Czechoslovakia (8) Kai Niemi 12 Ari Koponen 41987PardubiceSvítkov Stadion1. Denmark (52) 2. England (44)3. United States (36)4. New Zealand (36)5. Czechoslovakia (30)6. Finland (19)7. Australia (21)8. Italy (19)9. Poland (14) Olli Tyrväinen 11 Kai Niemi 81989LesznoAlfred Smoczyk Stadium1. Denmark (48) 2. Sweden (44)3. England (37)4. West Germany (36)5. Finland (31)6. Hungary (22)7. Czechoslovakia (25)8. Italy (15)9. Poland (11) Kai Niemi 18 Olli Tyrväinen 13
International caps (as of 2022) Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders are largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era. RiderCapsAarnio, Tero7Hautamäki, Pekka7Helminen, Markku3Katajisto, Kalle3Kokko, Petri3Koponen, Ari17Lahti, Timo3Laukkanen, Kai15Mäkinen, Jari1Makinen, Rauli2Niemi, Kai22Nieminen, Kauko18Olin, Matti7Pajari, Antti14Pellinen, Mika4Reima, Tomi13Teromaa, Ila8Teromaa, Pepe3Tuoriniemi, Veijo3Tyrväinen, Olli19Ylinen, Vesa14
References
See also Motorcycle speedway