EUROPEAN PREVIEW

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Having successfully negotiated the recent qualifier in Germany, GB and Denmark have progressed through to face the holders Poland along with the French in the Final.

GB will be represented by Leon Flint, Sam Hagon, Luke Harrison, Dan Thompson and Jake Mulford, with the latter named as reserve.

Denmark are unchanged from the team which dominated the Semi-Final, and they will expect to challenge strongly with their line-up of Bastian Pedersen, Jonas Knudsen, Mikkel Andersen, Villads Nagel with reserve Benjamin Basso also expected to be tactically deployed.

Poland include current and former SGP2/World Under-21 champions Wiktor Przyjemski and Jakub Miskowiak along with previous rostrum finishers Damien Ratajczak and Bartlomiej Kowaslski.

The French team is led by Mathias Tresarrieu, who recently impressed in the World Long Track round at Marmande, and they also include one of their big hopes for the future, Tino Bouin.

Elsewhere this weekend, Tom Brennan heads to Gustrow in Germany for the second round of the Speedway Euro Championship on Saturday.

Brennan picked up six points from the opener at Bydgoszcz earlier this month and he now faces a different test on an unfamiliar track, and one which is the smallest on the calendar with the potential to throw up surprises.

Round 1 winner Patryk Dudek is joint series leader, and has twice been on the Gustrow rostrum before, whilst Kacper Woryna who also has 15 points overall has never been in the top six at the venue.

The only previous Gustrow winner in the meeting is defending champion Andzejs Lebedevs, who was successful in 2024 and picked up 12 points at Bydgoszcz along with Michael Jepsen Jensen.

There’s a busy programme of domestic racing in Poland this weekend with all three leagues heading towards a decisive time ahead of the play-offs. In the PGE Ekstraliga the main issue is the battle for the fourth play-off place, where Zielona Gora currently lead Grudziadz by three points, but they have a much tougher run-in.

The penultimate round of fixtures sees Zielona Gora host third placed Wroclaw on Sunday, with the bonus point already virtually sealed after Wroclaw’s 60-30 win in the reverse fixture, and Dan Bewley will be keen for another successful meeting for the visitors.

Grudziadz, meanwhile, will be looking for maximum points against bottom side Rybnik, having won the home fixture between the clubs 51-39. The declared teams for the meeting interestingly have Nicki Pedersen back in the ranks for GKM, with Gleb Chugunov not named.

Torun are safely in the top four play-offs, and Robert Lambert will look to build on an impressive recent run when they host second-bottom Gorzow on Friday in a meeting which puts him up against Lebedevs, Martin Vaculik and Anders Thomsen who are all GP rivals. The two teams fought out a 45-45 draw earlier in the campaign.

The other match in Round 13 sees runaway leaders Lublin travel to Czestochowa, who did hold them to an eight-point margin when they travelled east earlier in the campaign.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga there’s a clash of the top two sides in the table in what may be a rehearsal for a promotion play-off final.

Bydgoszcz, featuring Brennan, are two points behind Leszno with three matches remaining but they have home advantage over the leaders, although Leszno do have a 52-38 advantage for the bonus point.

Elsewhere Krosno are safely in the top three but fourth place is up for grabs, although Rzeszow are favourites currently on 15 points and with a match in hand on Poznan who have 12.

Rzeszow travel to bottom club Ostrow on Sunday, with Anders Rowe set to line up for the injury hit home side both in that fixture and in their away trip to Lodz on Friday.

However, the status of the relegation play-down section in the second tier is currently uncertain given the issues at second-bottom Tarnow with reports that senior riders Matej Zagar and Timo Lahti are walking away from the club.

In the National Speedway League, the current leaders Gniezno, including Adam Ellis, race away at third-placed Pila on Sunday.

Second placed Gdansk are level on points and matches raced, but they have two fixtures this weekend as they host bottom club Opole on Friday, before travelling to Germany to face Landshut on Sunday with the home side set to include both Charles Wright and Leon Flint.

A further round of Swedish Bauhaus-Ligan matches took place on Wednesday, and Smederna are top of the table despite a 37-35 defeat at Indianerna in a meeting which was cut short due to rain, where the scores were also level on aggregate.

Vastervik are one point behind after a 51-38 win at Piraterna where the weather also played a part, with Lambert scoring 11 points for the visitors although he suffered a crash in his fourth ride.
It was an excellent night for Brennan, though, who top scored with 11+1 from five rides, whilst Fredrik Lindgren also scored 11.

The top two are clear of Lejonen in third place, and although they have a match in hand they crashed to a 57-33 defeat at Vargarna who moved off the bottom with that result.

The main reason was the absence of Lejonen’s Polish trio of Bartosz Zmarzlik, Dominik Kubera and Kacper Woryna, with both Jaimon Lidsey and Marcin Nowak scoring paid-13 for the hosts.

Elsewhere, Rospiggarna are into the top four thanks to an emphatic 55-35 win at Dackarna who drop to sixth. Kai Huckenbeck scored a 14+1 paid maximum and Ellis chipped in with 6+2 from five rides.