EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP Vojens
THE famous Danish venue of Vojens is the scene for the 2025 World Championship title decider with many issues still to be resolved in the tenth and final round of the series.
Recent years have seen the majority of season finales staged at Torun, but with the Polish circuit turning its attentions to the FIM Speedway of Nations at the end of the month, it is instead a 50-year anniversary special at Vojens, which opened on September 21, 1975.
Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography
The weekend will see champions crowned in SGP, SGP2 and SGP4 over Friday and Saturday, with Vojens on the Grand Prix calendar for the 19th time.
Clearly the main focus is on the World title battle with Brady Kurtz just three points behind Bartosz Zmarzlik as he bids to become the first rider to ever take the title in his debut season of GP racing, ignoring the inaugural campaign of 1995.
Kurtz has already equalled the record for consecutive GP wins with his astonishing run of form seeing him win four on the trot, a feat only achieved by Tony Rickardsson back in 2005.
Zmarzlik, though, is also eyeing history as he looks to become the first rider to win four World titles in succession, and also to equal the record of six overall currently held by Rickardsson and Ivan Mauger.
First or second place in Vojens will guarantee Zmarzlik the title, whereas Kurtz would be champion if he wins the GP with Zmarzlik third or lower, or if he outscores the Pole by four or more championship points.
The race is also on for bronze with Great Britain’s Dan Bewley currently five points ahead of Fredrik Lindgren as he chases his best-ever final GP placing.
A podium place at Vojens would guarantee Bewley third overall, or by remaining up to five GP points behind Lindgren on the night and scoring at least five himself to cover off the outside threat of Jack Holder.
The other major issue is the seventh-place battle for the last qualification place for 2026, which is currently held by Max Fricke just three points ahead of Robert Lambert.
The GB racer, who was second overall last year and memorably won at Vojens, still has a great chance as he needs to score at least 12 GP points, and outscore Fricke by four, to jump back into the top seven, which would avoid the need to wait for the outcome of the remaining selected places.
The SGP2 title race on Friday is effectively a showdown between defending champion Wiktor Przyjemski of Poland, and Ukraine’s Nazar Parnitskyi, with four points between the riders heading into the meeting.
Przyjemski has been the title favourite again in 2025 but his preparations have been severely affected by a heavy crash in Sweden last month which saw him airlifted to hospital.
He hasn’t raced since August 19 having suffered a broken ankle, but he now intends to ride through the pain as Parnitskyi looks to secure the biggest result in Ukranian speedway history, having recently finished second in round three of the SEC on his home track of Leszno.
Great Britain duo Dan Thompson and Jake Mulford will be racing in their final SGP2 event, as they have both turned 21 and will be ineligible for next year.
Thompson is looking to move up from 13th in the standings with 13 points after he reached the Last Chance Qualifier in Riga, whilst Mulford will also want to sign off on a high as he currently sits 17th with just one point from each of the two rounds so far.
Meanwhile there are also three crucial league clashes in Poland on Sunday with issues at the top and bottom of Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga amongst those to be resolved.
Leszno and Bydgoszcz meet in the second leg of their play-off Final with the scores level at 45-apiece after last weekend’s dramatic opening encounter.
There’s no doubt that Leszno, as league leaders, will be favourites to win on their own circuit and book an immediate return to the Ekstraliga after their relegation this time last year.
They won 52-38 when they hosted Bydgoszcz in the league stage way back in April, with the visitors’ scoring dominated by Szymon Wozniak and Kai Huckenbeck, and it’s an important meeting for Tom Brennan as he looks to keep his side in the promotion hunt.
Even defeat in this play-off Final would not be the end of the story as the losers will meet the seventh-placed Ekstraliga team – likely to be Gorzow – in another eliminator to determine the final make-up of next year’s league.
At the other end of Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, survival matters are in hand for Tarnow and Lodz who race the first leg of their play-down Final, with the aggregate losers to be relegated whilst the winners will be safe.
That is because there is only one promotion place from the National Speedway League, which will go to the winners of the Final between Pil and Gdansk, who race their opening leg this Sunday.