The final round of the FIM Snowcross World Championship will be held in Falun, Sweden, this Saturday.
The Swedish leaders of the standings, Peter Ericson –first- and Johan Eriksson –second- will ride in front of their home crowd, and their confidence will be surely very high.
Finn Tomi Ahmasalo will try to chase them from his third place in the points standings; Ahmasalo won a heat at Oppdal, in the last Snowcross World Championship meeting, but it is the current World Champion Peter Eriksson who won the event.
Arctic Cat mounted Viktor Stenman is fourth in the points standings, but he has as many points as Ahmasalo. The Swedish can be a dangerous opponent for the Finn, as he is aiming at completing an all Swedish top three in the World Championship.
Fredrik Granberg is another top Swedish rider, who clinched a nice podium result in the last round at Oppdal; he was third overall, and now he is fifth in the World Championship standings.
It will not be easy for runner up Johan Eriksson to make up 28 points on consistent leader Peter Ericson, who looks forward to equal Janne Tapio’s tally of two Snowcross World Titles –Tapio injured early in the season, and that put an end to his 2007.
Falun will be a breathtaking final round on Saturday, 31 March. The day will start at 9.00 am with the practice sessions, and the first race will be at 3.00 pm.
Falun is a wonderful city in the heart of Sweden; it is 230 kms North-West of Stockholm, and it is very famous for its rich history in copper mining, and for the Falu Red paint production. This colour is very well known in Sweden, and it is mainly used for painting wooden houses.
2007 FIM Snowcross World Championship standings after the first three rounds:
1 ERICSON Peter SWE LYNX 139
2 ERIKSSON Johan SWE POLARIS 111
3 AHMASALO Tomi FIN SKI-DOO 102
4 STENMAN Viktor SWE ARCTIC CAT 102
5 GRANBERG Fredrik SWE SKI-DOO 91
6 OLOFSSON Daniel SWE SKI-DOO 78
7 EVENSSON Marcus SWE POLARIS 72
8 HONKA Jussi FIN ARCTIC CAT 58
9 ÖHMANN Emil SWE LYNX 54
10 KORSUMÄKI Niko FIN LYNX 51
11 TOPPALA Hannu FIN POLARIS 45
12 PLONER Alessandro ITA POLARIS 42
13 LANG Dan SWE LYNX 36
14 BACKMAN Jorgen SWE ARCTIC CAT 36
15 STRAND Stein Kristian NOR SKI-DOO 30
16 HERTEN Fredrik FIN SKI-DOO 28
17 LINDBAECK Magnus NOR POLARIS 27
18 BITI Jostein NOR LYNX 25
19 GRUBER Harald ITA LYNX 24
20 TAPIO Janne FIN LYNX 22
21 NÄKKÄLÄJÄRVI Jarmo FIN ARCTIC CAT 19
22 TAMNES Mads NOR SKI-DOO 18
23 MERLI Christian ITA LYNX 18
24 NILSEN Lars Ostby NOR SKI-DOO 17
25 HERTEN Viktor FIN SKI-DOO 16
26 LJUNGBERG Andreas SWE LYNX 13
27 DALENG Vidar NOR POLARIS 12
28 HEGGELI Bjorn Terje NOR SKI-DOO 8
29 LUNDEN Flemming NOR SKI-DOO 7
30 CONTESSI Michele ITA ARCTIC CAT 5
31 GURNDIN Peter ITA SKI-DOO 4
32 PETTERSEN Jorn Tore NOR SKI-DOO 2
The Snowcross meetings are organized as follows:
2 X Free Practice/2 Groups
10 minutes
20 riders per Group
1 X Qualifying Race/2 Groups
7 laps
20 riders per Group
1 X Last Chance Qualifying Practice
15 minutes
All remaining non-qualified riders
2 X Races
12 laps
20 riders
Snowcross facts:
The riders’ minimum age is 16
The track length is between 500 and 1600 metres
The track average width is about 7 metres
The average speed during a Snowcross World Championship race is 60 kph
Most of the Snowcross World Championship riders practice Motocross as training
There is an autograph session in each round of the Championship
In each round there is a Press Conference with the top three riders of the Races
Youthstream is the company that manages the exclusive television, marketing and promotional world wide rights of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the FIM Motocross of Nations, the FIM SuperMoto World Championship, the FIM SuperMoto of Nations, the FIM Snowcross World Championship, the UEM Motocross European Championship and the UEM SuperMoto European Championship.
- Daniele Rizzi -