Through this news page I hope to keep you all informed as to my comimg and goings in my speedway activities. If you have any quiries or have a subject that you would like to discuss with me you can email me at directly  Fundinove@aol.com  and maybe we will also include it here on the web site to get the views of others.

Newsletter: June 2008

Hello dear readers,

I guess it's time to let you know what has happened to me since my last newsletter.
The speedway season is now "in full swing". In my latest letter I mentioned "The 60 000 pounds race" to be held at Poole. I understand that it was not such a great speedway (in spite of the big money) and the winner himself wrote on his website that the money was split before the final. I do not think such behaviour belongs to our sport.... The crowd was cheated and the riders themselves must feel bad. Later I read in "Speedway Star" that the speedway control board was investigating, but then I've heard no more....

Each year I try to see at least one S.G.P. and when I was asked to be guest speaker for "The VIP Club" at the Swedish G.P. in Gothenburg, I jumped to the chance as it would also mean I could see the racing and meet some of my friends. Ullevi stadium -celebrating it's 50th year- was once my home track for my Swedish club "Kaparna", but as a speedway track, it's never been my favourite. Still I enjoy watching racing there, it's big, long and fast. The race Director, my friend, Ole Olsen told me that the track was perfect at Friday's practice, but he was disappointed the way it broke up during the G.P. I don't think it was so bad and the riders should know conditions are the same for everyone; Being the worlds best riders, surely they could do better then most of them did....

The young Swede, Fredrick Lindgren was -to me- the only rider making the cut up ruts work for him. Fredrick was -again for me- the moral winner of the night, winning all his races but being without luck in the final. Winner of the final, Rune Holta, a Norwegian riding for Poland....why Rune, and what did it feel like standing on the podium listening to the Polish national anthem while lots of countrymen were waving Norwegian flags?

World Champion, Nicki Pedersen rode a clever race, knowing a place in the final would keep him at the top. Sorry I can not say the same about the Swedish number. one, Andreas Jonsson, Andreas was already clear for the semi final and didn't even have to ride in his 5th heat, when being second behind Tomasz Gollob he run in to the rear wheel of Pole and crashed badly.
Before the G.P. I was paraded around the track accompanied by two beautiful blond girls in a open sports car. It made me feel young and forgetting I turned 75 the day before... Together with Ioana and my family I celebrated my birthday in Tranas, the town that saw me grow up.

I do have a large family and 50+ of us had a wonderful and most memorable day; It started with me opening a museum dedicated to my speedway career. I do not think many can say they had a museum for a birthday present.

At the beginning of April I went on a new long motor bike trip together with my friend Christer Gerlach. Christer has made his life and work to drive around the World and write articles and books about his adventures, but he has never ridden a motor bike other then around his native Stockholm. We did + 12000km in a month, riding through Italy, Greece, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It was cold in the mountains of Greece and Turkey, hot in the Arab countries. The cost of petrol was well over one English pound in Turkey, in Egypt it was 10 pence, in other words, a trip full of contrasts.....
The Greek coast road is one of the most beautiful I have seen, in Turkey we visited the ruin towns of Troy and Effesus, also Marmaris - the birthplace of Santa Claus. In Syria, we saw, Palmyra and Krak de Chevaliers, plus of course the chaotic city of Damaskus.

First stop in Jordan was Madaba -known in biblical times as Dibon- it was here God showed Moses, The Land of Canaan and it was also here John the Baptist met Jesus and where John was later beheaded.
We rode along "The Dead Sea" and through the desert of Lawrence of Arabia. As the Arab counties wont allow it we could not ride the short route across Israel from Aqaba to Egypt, it's only a few miles long; Instead we had to take a ferry boat to Nuwaybi. As the ferry is very unreliable we had to wait two days in Aqaba for our passage to Sinai. The riding through beautiful but empty desert north to Suez, where the only crossing of the Suez canal is, was exciting, for one thing, I had a puncture of my rear wheel..…

After a couple of days in Cairo visiting the pyramids and museums, we did a long loop through the Sahara desert, riding from oasis to oasis, all very interesting. 1500km later we arrived to Luxor. Of course we spent a couple of days there looking at all the sights. From Luxor we had to travel in a military convoy, just the two of us plus 50-60 coaches full of foreign tourists, all the way along the Red Sea back to Sinai.
I enjoyed every minute and every kilometre of our trip, thank you Christer for your company and your friendship.

Right now my thoughts are with John Chaplin, my friend and author of "my book". John is undergoing chemo-therapy for cancer, he is responding well to treatment but it will be some time until he is fully OK. Hope to see you soon, John.

Kindest regards to all of you and have a nice summer with lots of speedway and fun.

Ove and Ioana.

Above: Ove with his beautiful wife Ioana