EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP Riga

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Lambert heads into the ninth of this season’s eleven rounds having reduced the gap between himself and leader Bartosz Zmarzlik to 15 points since the mid-summer break, and he is tied with Fredrik Lindgren as they look to chase down the Pole.

A challenge for the title cannot be ruled out if Lambert can take big points from Riga and then Vojens next weekend, whilst in the race for the top three Mikkel Michelsen is five points behind him, with Martin Vaculik and Jack Holder also within range.

Dan Bewley is just outside the top six at this stage, and he needs to make up nine points on Holder, or eleven on Vaculik, in order to book an automatic place in the 2025 series.

Riga stages a Grand Prix for the second time, with the return of Latvia to the competition – having previously staged events at Daugavpils – having come last year, when Zmarzlik was the winner as he passed Lindgren to win the Final.

Lambert has finished fifth or higher in seven of the eight rounds this season, the only outlier result coming in Gorzow where he scored just three points.

Last year he just missed out on reaching the Semi-Finals, whilst Bewley did make it into the top eight on the night but exited at that stage.

A busy weekend at Riga also sees Round 2 of the SGP2 series take place on Friday, with Leon Flint representing Great Britain.

Poland recorded a one-two-three at the opening round in Malilla with Wiktor Przyjemski, Bartosz Banbor and Sebastian Szosztak monopolising the podium, whilst Flint goes into the meeting placed ninth in the standings on eight points.

Meanwhile there is an important event in Germany on Saturday as Gustrow plays host to the second qualifying round of the European Under-19 Championship.

Great Britain youngsters Luke Harrison and Ben Trigger are both in the line-up as they look to qualify for the Final at Herxheim next month.

The weekend also sees the continuation of the battle for league titles in Poland, with the PGE Ekstraliga play-offs reaching the Semi-Final stage.

Both semis get underway with their first legs on Sunday, starting with the clash between Torun – who made it in dramatically as ‘lucky losers’ - and league leaders and overwhelming favourites Lublin.

Lambert goes up against GP rivals Zmarzlik, Lindgren, Holder and Dominik Kubera, whilst Anders Rowe is also in the Torun team with Wiktor Lampart currently on the injured list.
But the big news is the track return of Emil Sayfutdinov, a month after his horrific crash at Sheffield when racing for Ipswich.

Torun did defeat Lublin 48-42 when they met in early July, with Sayfutdinov scoring 13 in that fixture, whilst Zmarzlik recorded two last places as he finished on eight.

The other Semi-Final is Gorzow v Wroclaw which is expected to throw up a closer contest over two legs between the teams who finished second and third in the regular league table.
The visitors will again be without Tai Woffinden, who has been ruled out for the remainder of the season, and they will need Bewley, Artem Laguta and Maciej Janowski to all be scoring well against a home side who include Martin Vaculik, Anders Thomsen and Szymon Wozniak.

Their regular contest took place just one month ago, and Gorzow won it 55-35 to only miss out on the bonus by two points.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, the Semi-Finals are at the second leg stage, starting with Rybnik v Poznan on Saturday.

This contest looks to be weighted in favour of Rybnik, who won the first leg 47-43 on their opponent’s track, whilst Poznan are set to be weakened by the loss of Ryan Douglas with an arm injury.

The other Semi-Final on Sunday sees Ostrow host Bydgoszcz, and the league leaders face a major catch-up mission as they trail by 18 points after going down 54-36 away from home last week.

And on Saturday the battle for the National Speedway League title gets underway with Tarnow, including the in-form Timo Lahti, taking on league leaders Gniezno in the first leg of the Final.