EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP Manchester

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

With a total of 44 points available from two GPs and one sprint race, the events on Friday and Saturday could have a major bearing on the overall outcome of this season’s title battle.

Bartosz Zmarzlik’s win in Prague last month put him back on to top of the standings, with an eight-point advantage over Brady Kurtz who has not raced since his crash in the semi-final at the Marketa Stadium.

Kurtz now goes into successive GPs on his home track in the UK, with a further round at Wroclaw to follow, whilst Zmarzlik’s sole ‘home advantage’ event will come at Gorzow where he spent most of his Polish racing career before switching to Lublin.

There are also high hopes for British success, with Dan Bewley looking to exploit home comforts of his own, and nobody in the line-up knows the National Speedway Stadium circuit better than him.

Having won two previous British GPs at Cardiff, Bewley now has the chance to shine in Manchester – as does Robert Lambert, who finished second in a GB one-two last year, as well as teaming up with Bewley for SoN glory at Belle Vue, and winning the recent British Final on the same circuit.

In terms of the title race, Bewley goes into Friday’s Round 4 in sixth position in the standings, eight points off the top three, whilst Lambert is a further seven points behind in eighth after his disappointing night in Prague.

Meanwhile the Wild Card position goes to Charles Wright following his runners-up position in the British Final, and the Oxford and Redcar man does have plenty of track knowledge to call upon as a former Aces rider.

Track reserve positions are taken by Chris Harris and Adam Ellis, again by virtue of their finishing positions in the British Final. Harris was last a GP regular back in 2016 and was also a track reserve at Cardiff in 2019, whilst Ellis’s wild card appearance in 2022 was curtailed due to injury after one ride.

Manchester becomes the fifth venue to stage the British Grand Prix, following on from Hackney, Bradford, Coventry and Cardiff, with the Welsh capital having been the home of the event since 2001.

Due to the Grand Prix double, there is no PGE Ekstraliga action this weekend although there are several meetings in the other two divisions in Poland.
Thursday evening saw Poznan edge to a 46-44 win over rivals Ostrow, who fought strongly despite being without the injured Luke Becker.

The home side sealed the result with a 3-3 in Heat 15 when top scorer Ryan Douglas (12) and Matias Nielsen packed in behind Frederik Jakobsen and ahead of Grzegorz Walasek to move their side to within two points of the top four in the league table.

Elsewhere in the second tier, the top two are both in action on Sunday with leaders Leszno hosting second-bottom Lodz, whilst Tom Brennan will line up for Bydgoszcz against bottom club Tarnow.

The visitors are currently without a point this season, although that may have changed by the time of the meeting as they have a re-arranged Round 2 fixture at home to Ostrow on Saturday, whilst Krosno also host Rzeszow in a meeting between third and fourth in the table.

In the National Speedway League, Richard Lawson is the only GB rider to be racing this weekend as he travels to Pila with Krakow on Sunday, whilst Daugavpils have two home matches in two days.
The Latvian club take on Opole on Saturday, with Gdansk providing the opposition on Sunday.