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By Youthstream
Kimi Räikkönen, Sami Hyypiä and Keith Flint visited Valkenswaard during the Grand Prix of the Netherlands last weekend. Youthstream’s President Mr. Giuseppe Luongo had the opportunity to spend some time with all these celebrities and exchange some experiences on Easter Monday at Valkenswaard.
2007 F1 World Champion Kimi Räikkönen entered the 2011 FIM Motocross World Championship as the team owner of the ICE1RACING Team with Toni Eriksson and Ludde Söderberg as the official riders in the MX1 and MX2 classes. Räikkönen, who is now racing the World Rally Championship and in May will enter the Nascar, decided to attend the second Grand Prix of the season to spend some time with his MX team and give some good pieces of advice to his riders. Räikkönen counts with the experience of seven times Enduro World Champion Kari Tiainen, who shares his long experienced career with his young riders developing his role as team manager.
Sami Hyypiä, football defender of Bayer Leverkusen and former player of Liverpool, with whom he won the UEFA Super Cup in 2001 and 2005 and the Champions League in 2005, also visited the Grand Prix of the Netherlands last weekend.
And Keith Flint, the singer of the well-known group Prodigy, met Mr. Giuseppe Luongo at the VIP Pit Lounge of the Grand Prix of the Netherlands on Easter Monday. The British singer admitted that he is a motorcycle fan and he enjoyed the experience of watching the best motocross of the world from the VIP Pit Lane.
Source: Motocrossmx1 - Ice One Racing
ICE1RACING ready for Spanish Championship the next weekend – Kimi Räikkönen speeding up the training in Fuengirola
The motocross team ICE1RACING prepares for the first race of the Spanish Championship, which will be raced in Talavera near Madrid this weekend February 27th. Kimi Räikkönen took part of the training of the team in Fuengirola early this week.
The motocross team of Kimi Räikkönen, ICE1RACING opened the season ten days ago with a practise race in Alicante and is now already preparing for a new event. ”The season in Spain starts very early, since the teams are eager to test their conditions”, clarifies the team manager Kari Tiainen and continues ”here we have summer in the middle of the winter , so we need to take all the advantage out of that.”
The training center in Fuengirola, started by Kari Tiainen, has served as the training facility for many Finnish riders during the past years. ”Juniors spend their school breaks within the sport and stock good riding days before the snow melts from Finland”, says the ICE1RACING junior team leader Vesa Kytönen. Kytönen, who is also himself the world champion in enduro, works with the junior team of six young riders. ”The goal of the ICE1RACING team is to bring the sport back to the level it used to be in Finland. Training camps like this are the steps we need”, agrees Kytönen.
The owner of the team Kimi Räikkönen visited the junior team spring camp in Fuengirola early this week. ”Him being here is naturalyy a bog thing for our young riders and gives them boost”, smiles Kari Tiainen. ”Kimi enjoys riding and spends a lot of time with the riders. I’m sure he leaves something for the riders to think about on his visits.”
Source: ICE1RACING
The idea of the new team was born in August after Finlands WRC-rally in Tommi Mäkinen's sauna in Puuppola.
- We chatted with Kimi in the sauna. Kimi knew Ludde (Söderberg) from before and was thinking about how he could help young motocross-drivers like him to go forward in their career, Kari Tiainen told.
This is how the first step was taken and Ice1Racing was put up with a fast schedule. The driving force was Räikkönen's genuine interest in running a motocross-team.
- Kimi has always been interested in motocross. He has been dreaming for a long time about starting a Finnish motocross-team, Riku Kuvaja tells.
Räikkönen will not participate in the everyday activity but according to Tiainen he has enough interest in the team's matters.
The team's goal is to open up a road to the top on long-term for Finnish drivers.
- We are satisfied if we are in the top 10 in some race. We have long-term goals, Tiainen says.
- We could think about drivers from other Scandinavian countries in the future.
Tiainen won't exclude the possibility of Räikkönen himself performing in his team's colors.
- I'm sure it would be possible, Kimi has taken part in the tests with us. If Kimi would drive, he probably should do it in some class in Finland. There's no point in going to the WC-serie although it would be a funny ad-gimmick.
Ice1Racing will race the full serie. The first race takes place in Bulgaria on April 10th.Source: Ilta- SanomatCourtesy: Nicole
Kimi Räikkönen couldn't attend the exhibition in Helsinki on Thursday due to illness. They had arranged the press conference of their Ice One Racing -motocross-team to be held there.
Riku Kuvaja assured MTV3 that Räikkönen will participate in rally Sweden although he is sick now.
Räikkönen's team will start in motocross WC-serie in MX1- and MX2 -classes this year. The team will use Kawasaki bikes.
Kimi Räikkönen's own motives for starting the team are human and come from his own heart.
- I have always wanted to drive motocross more than anything else. When I was a kid it was my dream. The idea of my own team has been born during the years, Räikkönen told.
Ice One Racing motocross-team's team manager is 7-time world champion in enduro, Kari Tiainen, who will take the team's two young bikers up to the top of the world. Räikkönen and Tiainen who both are the most successful motorsportmen in Finland want to contribute in this way by lifting up young Finnish talents. The team has their training center in Spain and they will start on February 13th with an international training race and their serie begins on April 10th from Bulgaria, Sevlievo.
The bikers in the team, Toni Eriksson (MX1) and Ludde Söderberg (MX2), are top names in Finland despite their young age and are both champions in their own class. The boys' goal is also clear.
- We go to the world championship serie for points and we want to be in the top. We are working for that, Söderberg said.
Ice One Racing team also has a junior team where 6 young bikers will drive in different series in Finland's Cup.
Source: MTV3
Courtesy: Nicole
Kimi Räikkönen's own stables Ice1racing published on Thursday, motocross championship series of the Finnish team.
Raikkonen drive themselves Championship rallies Ice1racingin driver, and now the company to extend the two-wheel side.
Kawasaki bikes using Ice1racingin motocross team says more goals on Thursday.
Source: MTV3
Tuesday, 23.11.2010 at 23.16
Räikkönen's motocross team is expected to be located in Costa del Sol.
Will Kimi become a team manager in Costa del Sol?
It was reported already earlier in the week that Kimi Raikkonen is planning to put up a motocross team.
Now Fuengirola.fi site reported that Räikkönen has been seen in Fuengirola watching places with multi world champion Kari Tiainen.
Tiainen owns big bike-teams on Fuengirola's and Mijas' borderline where the terrains offer good opportunities for training for motocross.
According to Fuengirola.fi Riku Kuvaja has been seen in Fuengirola. Source: IL
Courtesy: Nicole
Vauhdin Maailma November, paper edition
Kimi Räikkönen who has gone through a hard school this season in WRC-serie doesn't fear new challenges. According to very reliable sources Vauhdin Maailma has got Räikkönen is founding a Finnish team to motocross WC-serie 2011.
The project is called "Team Räikkönen" and it has been prepared behind the scenes for a longer time. The goal is to have two Finnish drivers out of which one would be in the toughest MX1-serie and the other one in MX2-serie.Räikkönen's motocross team will compete with KTM-bikes. Very respectable and skillfull persons are involved in the team's operative activity, for example 7-time world champion Kari Tiainen.
Räikkönen himself has been asking the promising super talent Harri Kullas as a driver to his team but the 18-year old biker already has a signed contract for next season with another team so the cooperation will not come true. At the moment on top of Räikkönen's list is Toni Eriksson, a recent MX1-serie's national champion who won on the side the MX3-serie's WC-start and also Ludde Söderberg who got a trophy from MX2-serie's national serie and who won a race in Europe's start. Also Antti Pyrhönen has been included and the young promise Juuso Matikainen hasn't either been excluded from the game.
Kimi Räikkönen is not going to compete in the serie himself although he is known as an enthusiastic hobby-motocrossbiker. In the background he has an unselfish will to help Finns rise to the top again in one of our most traditional successful sports. It has been too long since for example Heikki Mikkola, Pekka Vehkonen or Miska Aaltonen held up Finland's flag in international cross-arenas.
Motorsport Federation's CEO Kurt Ljungqvist confirmed to Vauhdin Maailma that the rumours about Team Räikkönen's plans for the motocross WC-serie are true.
- I have helped so much in this matter that I asked the International Motorsport Federation if there would be a place for a new team like this immediately. The reply was quick and straightforward; no problems, it can be arranged, Ljungqvist tells.
- We are talking about a very serious project. Why wouldn't it come true? Especially when thinking about how tough professionals are involved in this starting from Kari Tiainen.
The funding won't be a problem since they have Räikkönen's fortune over tens of millions. It's also clear that the F1-champion's name will significantly help in getting sponsors for the team and the drivers. According to Ljungqvist it costs about 500.000 euros per season to run a team with two bikes in motocross.
- It's the input for the first year when nothing isn't ready yet and they have to get everything starting from bikes to garage-tents. After that it's much more cheaper to run a top team.
Vauhdin Maailma didn't get hold of Kimi Räikkönen for his comment on the matter.
Olli Koivusalo
Courtesy: Nicole
19.11.2010 klo 
Kimi Räikkönen is going to start his own team in motocross WC-serie, Vauhdin Maailma tells. Räikkönen gets help from 7-time world champion Kari Tiainen among others.
- I have been helping in this matter so much that I asked the International Motorsporting Federation if there would be room for a new team like this in the WC-serie at once. The reply was quick and straightforward: no problems, it can be arranged. It would be a project that would be very seriously taken. Why wouldn't it happen? There are tough professionals involved in this starting from Kari Tiainen, Kurt Ljungqvist from Motorsport Federation confirms in Vauhdin Maailma.
Kimi's intention is to have two Finnish drivers; one in MX1- and the other in MX2-serie. The budget for two bikes in one year would be about half a million euros in the first season.
According to Riku Kuvaja starting a new cross-team is everything but certain.
- It's all still in the beginning. They have asked us if we are interested and there has been some talk about it but nothing concrete has yet happened, Kuvaja told Iltalehti on the phone.
KARI MELART
VILLE-VEIKKO VALTA
ville-veikko.valta@iltalehti.fi Courtesy: Nicole
Kimi Räikkönen, Sami Hyypiä and Keith Flint visited Valkenswaard during the Grand Prix of the Netherlands last weekend. Youthstream’s President Mr. Giuseppe Luongo had the opportunity to spend some time with all these celebrities and exchange some experiences on Easter Monday at Valkenswaard.
