EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP Torun

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Lambert’s brilliant breakthrough victory in Vojens a fortnight ago took him above Swedish star Fredrik Lindgren and into second place in the standings.

He is guaranteed a bronze medal finish at minimum, which will make him only the third British rider to secure a top three finishing position overall during the GP era, following on from Mark Loram and Tai Woffinden.
But with a ten-point advantage over Lindgren, he is strong favourite to finish second, and he will do so regardless of what his opponent scores as long as he reaches the semi-finals and finishes at least third in that race – a result he has achieved in three of his last four Torun GPs, although he is yet to reach a Final there.

With Lambert having been a Torun rider in the PGE Ekstraliga for the last four seasons, there could not be a better place for him to seal the perfect ending to what has been an increasingly strong campaign.

Meanwhile GB’s other representative Dan Bewley could also end the year in the top three, although this would take an unlikely set of results in Torun.

Bewley importantly has his top six position secured, meaning there is no need to worry about next weekend’s GP Challenge, and he currently sits 16 points behind Lindgren so he does have a mathematical chance of moving up, although a more realistic target is the fourth place currently held by Martin Vaculik, who is three points ahead.

Having reached the semi-finals on his two previous GP appearances in Torun, Bewley is now hoping to elevate himself to a Final there for the first time.

World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik is 22 points ahead of Lambert and has already won at Torun on three separate occasions, the only rider in history to take GP success at the Marian Rose Arena on more than one occasion.

The battle for the top six currently sees the injured Mikkel Michelsen in that position on 101 points, and he remains four points ahead of Jack Holder – who has only scored four points in the last two GPs, and needs five in Torun to overhaul the Dane.

And even that might not be enough for the Australian depending on the result of Dominik Kubera, who starts the meeting nine points behind Holder and also has the chance to make the top six.

This weekend will also see the crowning of the SGP2 champion with Poland’s Wiktor Przyjemski looking to become the 18^th rider from his country to take gold at World Under-21 level.
Przyjemski is eight points ahead of nearest rival Nazar Parnitskyi, meaning a Final appearance will be enough to take the title. Mikkel Andersen is two points behind Parnitskyi in third place.

There will be two British representatives in the meeting as Dan Thompson is called up to an SGP2 round for the first time as a replacement for injured Danish racer William Drejer.

Thompson starred in the SON2 Final in Manchester earlier this summer when his hopes were cruelly dashed by injury in a third ride crash when he and Leon Flint had a great chance of taking GB to gold.

He was named as third reserve for SGP2 and with Slater Lightcap replacing Sebastian Szostak and second reserve Tate Zischke currently sidelined, it means Thompson is next in line to compete.

Flint starts the meeting in 13^th place in the standings on 11 points, but a top ten finish is still a realistic prospect if he can make the semi-finals in Torun.

The line-up for the Ekstraliga Grand Final has finally been completed after Wroclaw defeated Gorzow 50-40 in Wednesday’s heavily delayed play-off semi-final second leg.

Artem Laguta scored an 11+1 paid maximum for the hosts with Bewley matching that score total from five rides, whilst Maciej Janowski showed no ill effects from his Chorzow crash as he scored 10+1, and home specialist Bartlomiej Kowalski also scored 11.

Vaculik, with 13+1, and Anders Thomsen on 10+1 led the scoring for Gorzow, whose hopes were ended with three races remaining in the second leg as Wroclaw completed a 96-84 aggregate victory.

Dates have immediately been confirmed for the Grand Final, with Wroclaw hosting Lublin on Sunday evening (September 29), and that meeting will be preceded by the first leg of the third-place play-off between Gorzow and Torun. The deciders will then take place on Saturday October 5.

Naturally Lublin are strong favourites although their recent away form has not been impressive, but the evidence of the semi-final against Torun suggests Wroclaw will need more than the 49-41 home win they managed against Lublin in early August if they are to have a chance, although it should be noted that they only went down by 10 points in the corresponding away fixture.

Gorzow will start as favourites in the third-place battle as they won home and away against Torun in the regular rounds, including 51-39 in the home meeting way back in Round 1, and they will go into the meetings having parted company with long-serving coach Stanislaw Chomski who led them to the title in 2016.

Other significant news from Poland this week is that Tom Brennan’s future for 2025 has been secured as he has agreed to join Bydgoszcz in the Metalkas 2 Ekstraliga.

Brennan, who was one of the bright spots for relegated Gdansk this season, moves on to the defeated play-off finalists who will launch another bid for promotion with Brennan replacing Tim Sorensen in the Under-24 berth.