EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP Gorzow

After the event in Poland, the series stops for the SON with the run-in of the last five rounds then getting underway in mid-August. Great Britain also has two representatives in Friday’s SGP3 Final with William Cairns and Cooper Rushen both competing.

The World Championship for 250cc riders will be settled ahead of the weekend’s Grand Prix, and both William Cairns and Cooper Rushen will be taking part.

Bartosz Zmarzlik heads to what is effectively his home GP with a comfortable 17-point lead at the top of the standings, following his history-making victory in Malilla a fortnight ago.
And his closest challenger is Great Britain’s Robert Lambert, who still awaits his first GP win but is not far behind Zmarzlik in terms of his consistency.

The Edward Jancarz Stadium has been a regular stop on the GP calendar in recent years since hosting its first event in 2011, only missing out in two seasons since then.

Zmarzlik, who spent most of his Ekstraliga career at Gorzow before his switch to Lublin, unsurprisingly heads the winners’ list at the venue, with victories in 2014, 2020 and 2023.

From the current field, Martin Vaculik (2012 and 2018), Fredrik Lindgren (2020, in the second round of a double header) and Tai Woffinden (2017) have also been victorious.

Lambert’s record in Gorzow has seen him reach the semi-finals in both of his appearances in 2022 and 2023, but he awaits his first Final appearance.

Whilst he holds second place overall, he has Jack Holder breathing down his neck just one point adrift on 68, with those two riders having a healthy gap on Mikkel Michelsen, Vaculik and Lindgren who complete the top six.

Dan Bewley is currently ninth on 42 points, ten adrift of sixth-placed Lindgren, and he reached the semis in Gorzow in 2022 but exited the meeting before that stage last year, taking eight points from the meeting.

Woffinden, meanwhile, urgently needs to make ground as he has just 21 points so far. He has reached the semi-finals in eight of his nine appearances at Gorzow, and has converted five of them into Finals.

Elsewhere in the line-up, Max Fricke continues to substitute for long-term injury victim Jason Doyle, and Maciej Janowski makes a GP return as Andzejs Lebedevs is out with broken ribs. Gorzow rider Oskar Fajfer is named as Wild Card.

The weekend also features the SGP3 Final with Great Britain duo William Cairns and Cooper Rushen both competing.

The 250cc event features the world’s top under-16 riders with Cairns having scored a maximum in his semi-final at Teterow, matching the achievement of Bydgoszcz racer Maksymilian Pawelczak in the other semi.

In an indication of the progression route which now exists, last year’s SGP4 (Youth World Cup) winner Elias Jamil Jensen now competes at SGP3 level.

Prior to the Grand Prix, Woffinden and Bewley have PGE Ekstraliga action to command their attention, with the only meeting of the weekend being Wroclaw’s re-arranged home clash with Czestochowa on Friday.

The two sides are level in the league table in third and fourth places respectively, both on nine points, and the meeting winners will take three points as they drew 45-45 when they met in Czestochowa earlier in the season when Wroclaw completed a dramatic late comeback.

Woffinden and Bewley face Danish racers Leon Madsen and Mikkel Michelsen in advance of the Grand Prix, with speculation in Poland linking Michelsen to a possible move to Wroclaw next season.

It’s a packed weekend of racing in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga featuring the final two matches of Round 9, and then a full programme in Round 10.

The schedule opens with a clash of fifth versus sixth as Poznan host Lodz on Friday, followed by a chance for Rybnik to take over at the top as they travel to struggling Rzeszow who are currently second from bottom.

In Round 10 on Saturday, Tom Brennan lines up for bottom club Gdansk who are in major relegation danger and are now without the injured Nicolai Klindt, who is out for the season.

They host Poznan, whilst Rybnik are on the road again as they travel to Ostrow who are just below them in the league table.

On Sunday, league leaders Bydgoszcz will be hopeful of an away win when they visit Lodz, and they should certainly have the bonus point within their capabilities as they lead 57-33, whilst Krosno will look to gain ground in the promotion race when they host Rzeszow.

There are two meetings in the National Speedway League this weekend with Opole hosting Tarnow in Round 7 on Saturday, with the visitors having the chance to go top of the table with a win.

Meanwhile on Sunday the bottom two meet as Pila host Daugavpils, which means a clash between British riders Adam Ellis – subject to fitness after his withdrawal at Ipswich on Thursday – and Steve Worrall.