EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SEC Round 1

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

And this season there is strong British interest as Tom Brennan is included in the line-up having secured one of five permanent wild cards after a good performance in his qualifier where he was unlucky not to make it through.

Brennan rode in the final round of the series last year at Chorzow but he now gets a shot at the full campaign, starting on his home track in Poland, which also takes in meetings at Gustrow, Leszno and Pardubice.

As usual, the winner of the series secures a place in next year’s GP, and defending champion Andzejs Lebedevs will be going for a third title amidst some strong competition.

Leon Madsen, Kacper Woryna and Patryk Dudek were all prominent contenders last year and are expected to be in the shake-up again, along with Michael Jepsen Jensen and Przemyslaw Pawlicki who have both been in fine form so far in 2025.

Piotr Pawlicki and Norick Blodorn have been withdrawn due to injury and are replaced by Marko Levishyn and Rasmus Jensen, who finished seventh overall last year.

Meanwhile Great Britain’s Under-24s are in Germany this weekend for the European Team Championship Qualifier. They race at Ludvigslust on Saturday facing teams from the host country, Czechia and Denmark.

GB are represented by Leon Flint, who will be making his return from injury, along with Dan Thompson, Sam Hagon, Drew Kemp and Jake Mulford, with Jordan Jenkins having been ruled out of contention due to his ongoing knee injury.

Denmark track a strong side including Benjamin Basso, Jonas Knudsen and Glasgow newcomer Villads Nagel along with youngsters Bastian Pedersen Mikkel Andersen.

The Czechs are not to be under-rated as they are led by Grand Prix rider Jan Kvech, along with new Plymouth signing Daniel Klima and SGP2 rider Adam Bubba Bednar.
The top two teams from the Qualifier join Poland and hosts France in the Final at Macon later this month.

A second round of Swedish Bauhaus-Ligan fixtures took place this week, with Smederna and Dackarna the big winners from the back-to-back Tuesday/Wednesday schedule.

Smederna had beaten Vastervik 51-39 at Eskilstuna and they then raced to a 47-43 win in the away fixture 24 hours later with Jepsen Jensen, Gleb Chugunov and Maksym Drabik all in double figures.

Robert Lambert had a slow start to the meeting for Vastervik with just one point from his first three rides, but he did recover to end on six, whilst Brennan was involved in two 5-1s as well as taking a race win, as he finished on 7+2.

Dackarna backed up their 51-39 win at Vargarna with a thumping 62-28 victory at home, with Jensen scoring a paid maximum from four rides.

Elsewhere Lejonen beat Rospiggarna 56-34 after an eight-point defeat in the away match, with Dominik Kubera and Mateusz Cierniak both unbeaten, whilst Piraterna gained a narrow 46-44 win over Indianerna with Przemyslaw Pawlicki top-scoring on 13+1.

The weekend schedule in Poland has been affected by the weather, with Friday’s clash between Czestochowa and Torun an early call-off, meaning no meeting for Lambert.

Bottom club Rybnik do host leaders Lublin in a meeting which should see a routine away victory, although ROW have shown signs of improvement lately.

On Sunday, Dan Bewley is scheduled to be in action for Wroclaw as they race at home to Grudziadz, who still have an outside chance of breaking back into the top four.

But their main rivals for that place, Zielona Gora, are three points in front and with every chance of extending the margin as they host troubled Gorzow in a derby clash where the home side already have the advantage for the bonus point.

Brennan is due to be racing on Sunday after the SEC as Bydgoszcz travel to Krosno in an important Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga fixture, with the home side three points behind in third place. Bydgoszcz won the reverse fixture 49-41 at home.

Leaders Leszno will race their Round 11 fixture against Poznan next weekend, so Krosno/Bydgoszcz fixture is a chance for the visitors to take over at the top if they can take an away win.

Elsewhere, Lodz host bottom club Ostrow with both sides having little to no chance of challenging for the top four. Anders Rowe could feature for the visitors.

The opening match of the round took place on Thursday where Rzeszow defeated Tarnow 48-42 to open up a seven-point gap on the teams outside the current top four.

This weekend’s National Speedway League programme has been decimated by the weather, with meetings at Gdansk and Pila postponed, but Daugavpils are scheduled to host Krakow in Latvia on Sunday with Richard Lawson lining up for the visitors.