EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP PRAGUE

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

The Czech GP is scheduled for Saturday evening, weather permitting, and it will be the 30^th time the series has raced at the Marketa Stadium.

First used in 1997, the GP has been ever-present in Prague since then and will reach its 30^th meeting this year due to staging double-headers during the pandemic-hit seasons of 2020 and 2021.

It’s a venue which has been particularly kind to Tai Woffinden in the past, as he completed a hat-trick of wins in 2013, 2014 and 2015, whilst Nicki Pedersen and Jason Crump have also triumphed on three occasions.

In the current field, World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik won both events in 2020, Jason Doyle was successful in 2016 and 2017 and Martin Vaculik completed a double in 2022 and 2023. Fredrik Lindgren took the top step of the rostrum in 2018.

Zmarzlik leads the current standings on 50 points with Jack Holder on 48 and Doyle on 47- but Doyle is out of the meeting after his crash at King’s Lynn last Thursday.
The former World Champion suffered rib and shoulder injuries and is replaced by first reserve Max Fricke, who lost his place in the series at the end of last season despite finishing ninth overall.

Robert Lambert starts the meeting fourth overall on 41 points, and last year saw him reach his first semi-final in five appearances at Prague.

Dan Bewley is sixth on 28 points, and he has reached the semi-finals both times he has competed at Prague, but was unable to convert either into a Final.

Woffinden, meanwhile, has had further success in recent years on a track where he has made eight Finals in 13 appearances, including finishing second in both 2020 events, and in 2022. He only scored three points at the Marketa last year, and urgently needs a lift from his current position of 13^th with 16 points.

Weekend action in the PGE Ekstraliga is down to three matches with Gorzow v Leszno postponed due to a poor weather forecast.

That follows on from the chaotic scenes on Tuesday with the Gorzow/Grudziadz fixture called off with a 0-0 double walkover declared, and fines being issued to all riders.

Grudziadz are back in action on Friday when they visit Czestochowa, where the home side could leap up from eighth to fourth in the table with a win.

Lambert is in action for Torun on Sunday when they host Zielona Gora, with the two sides currently separated by just one point in the table.
Meanwhile the top two clash in the standout fixture of the weekend as unbeaten leaders Lublin host Wroclaw, with Woffinden and Bewley looking to pull off a shock result against their GP rivals Zmarzlik, Lindgren, Holder and Dominik Kubera.

Those fixtures, however, could be subject to change if the weather intervenes in Prague on Saturday and the Czech Grand Prix is rescheduled.

The weather has already caused the postponements of two Metalkas 2 Ekstraliga matches on Saturday, where Tom Brennan was scheduled to race for Gdansk at Rybnik, along with the fixture between Ostrow and Poznan.

Sunday’s scheduled matches see second-placed Krosno travel to Lodz, whilst Rzeszow host Bydgoszcz. Krosno have made a change ahead of their meeting with the signing of Kenneth Bjerre to replace the injured Dimitri Berge.

There are several scheduled fixtures in the National Speedway League, starting on Friday with Gniezno hosting Landshut.

Gniezno then travel to Opole on Saturday, whilst on Sunday Dan Gilkes is declared in the Pila team to host Landshut, and Steve Worrall will be in action for Daugavpils at Tarnow.