EUROPEAN PREVIEW

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Woffinden’s accident occurred when he was competing in a ‘sparring’ match for his new club Rzeszow, who signed the treble World Champion from his long-time PGE Ekstraliga home of Wroclaw in a bid to propel them into promotion contenders. Woffinden will be in the thoughts of all clubs and riders as the league season begins, especially in Poland where he made such a name for himself with Wroclaw.

The Ekstraliga resumes with one familiar club missing, after the formerly dominant Leszno were relegated in 2024, with their place taken by Rybnik who won a dramatic promotion play-off final with Bydgoszcz.

There is also a major change to the format this year with the main aim being to finish in the top four, who will contest the title play-offs rather than the top six. Meanwhile, any of the bottom four have a chance of being relegated although the club finishing fifth have the opportunity to select their opposition in the semi-finals, a privilege also afforded to the league leaders.

The challenge for all is to find a way to stop the powerful Lublin side from recording a fourth straight title, and they will do so with an unchanged spearhead of four Grand Prix riders – Bartosz Zmarzlik, Fredrik Lindgren, Jack Holder and Dominik Kubera. SGP2 champion Wiktor Przyjemski along with Bartosz Banbor also give them massive strength at reserve.

Wroclaw have been runners-up for the past two seasons and will hope to go one better with Dan Bewley leading the charge alongside former World Champion Artem Laguta and long-serving Maciej Janowski, whilst Woffinden’s replacement is Brady Kurtz who returns to the Ekstraliga after helping Rybnik go up last year, and is a rider very much making his mark on the international stage having now qualified for the GP series.

Meanwhile Robert Lambert remains with Torun where he is club captain, and with Mikkel Michelsen joining from Czestochowa to join Emil Sayfutdinov and Patryk Dudek, they are also tipped to be in the top four after finishing third last year.

Elsewhere, Zielona Gora re-established themselves in the top flight in 2024 and have now added Leon Madsen to a roster which includes Jarek Hampel, Przemyslaw Pawlicki and Rasmus Jensen, whilst Grudziadz are largely unchanged having effectively replaced Jason Doyle with Michael Jepsen Jensen, the rider who came in when the Australian was injured last year. Jepsen Jensen joins Max Fricke, Vadim Tarasenko, Jaimon Lidsey and former U21 Champion Jakub Miskowiak who makes his debut for the club as they look to build on a positive ’24 campaign.

There are more question marks over Czestochowa who lost both Madsen and Michelsen over the winter, along with Maksym Drabik, and have instead recruited Doyle for a second spell with the club as well as bringing in Piotr Pawlicki from Zielona Gora, with Kacper Woryna back as skipper and Mads Hansen also in the main body.

It’s been a tough winter for Gorzow whose glory days with Zmarzlik at the forefront seem behind them, and Szymon Wozniak is also a key departure, although they still do boast a credible top three with Martin Vaculik, Anders Thomsen and new signing Andzejs Lebedevs.

That leaves newly promoted Rybnik, who have worked hard to build a team capable of staying in the division after immediate relegation in 2020. This time around they are headlined by the signings of ex-World Champions Nicki Pedersen and Chris Holder, whilst Rohan Tungate stays with the club for the step up, and Drabik and Gleb Chugunov have also joined.

Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga also operates with eight teams and a similar play-off structure to the top flight, and one of the headline moves features GB racer Tom Brennan who impressed in a struggling Gdansk team last season and now joins promotion chasing Bydgoszcz.

After agonisingly missing out on a top league return, the club have also moved to bring Wozniak back to his first club, with Alexandr Loktaev also coming in to join the established Krzysztof Buczkowski and Kai Huckenbeck.

Relegated Leszno may have lost Lebedevs but Janusz Kolodziej remained with the club and should be a dominant force in the second tier, whilst Grzegorz Zengota and Ben Cook remain in the squad and Josh Pickering is an exciting addition with the Bulls likely to challenge strongly to go straight back up.

Rzeszow lost Pedersen to Rybnik but felt they had more than replaced him with Woffinden as well as Pawel Przedpelski and Keynan Rew, both of whom were also in top-league squads last season, whilst Jacob Thorssell and David Bellego are also in what remains a solid line-up.

Movement elsewhere included Tobiasz Musielak’s switch from Ostrow to Krosno, who also include high-scoring Dimitri Berge, Jakub Jamrog and Kenneth Bjerre, whilst Ostrow themselves have signed both Luke Becker and Oliver Berntzon from Lodz to compensate for the losses of Musialak and Chris Holder.

Lodz have taken Andreas Lyager from Bydgoszcz along with the experienced Vaclav Milik who is due back from injury, whilst Poznan have made interesting signings of Bartosz Smektala and Norick Blodorn, with Ryan Douglas remaining with the club to lead their challenge.

Tarnow were promoted from the National Speedway League last autumn but endured a difficult period financially, and survival in the second tier will be their aim with a team including new signings Matej Zagar and Mateusz Szczepaniak, along with Timo Lahti.

There is British interest once again in the National Speedway League, which features seven clubs in 2025 including newcomers Krakow, who have been absent for the past five years, along with relegated Gdansk.

Krakow’s signings include Richard Lawson who has a great chance to establish himself on one of the biggest tracks in the county, and his team-mates include Birmingham newcomer Jonas Jeppesen.

Meanwhile Charles Wright, who was so unfortunate when racing for Wroclaw in the closing stages of the 2023 campaign, returns to Polish league racing with German club Landshut, whilst Leon Flint takes an U24 berth at the same club, who are led by former GP racer Kim Nilsson.

Adam Ellis has been on the move in the winter, switching from Pila to Gniezno where he joins Sam Masters.

Elsewhere, relegated Gdansk are led by Niels-Kristian Iversen who remains with the club, Edinburgh signing Oskar Polis has rejoined Opole. Latvian side Daugavpils also return to the league.

The Bauhaus Elite League in Sweden returns in early May with the same eight clubs who competed in 2024.

The defending champions are Lejonen, who track essentially the same line-up this year with a significant Polish emphasis as they include Zmarzik, Kubera, Woryna and Hampel.

The bigger change comes at Dackarna, the side who took the crown in 2023 before being runners-up last year, with the likes of Bewley, Kurtz and Douglas departing, whilst Nicki Pedersen is amongst the new arrivals whilst Lebedevs and Rasmus Jensen stay with the club.

Vastervik were third last year and Lambert remains with them for 2025 in what was set to be a heavily GB oriented squad as Woffinden was to stay on board, and they have also signed Brennan who lined up for Indianerna last season. Lindgren is also involved in what is still a strong line-up.

Elsewhere, Ellis has a place with Rospiggarna where he will again team up with Masters along with Laguta.

Luke Becker has moved from Vastervik to Indianerna, who were fourth in 2025, whilst a much changed Piraterna team are now led by Tungate and Przemyslaw Pawlicki.

Smederna have signed Madsen and Ben Cook after losing Tungate and Jepsen Jensen, whilst last season’s bottom club Vargarna have signed Lidsey, Musielak and Iversen.