EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SGP2

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Four places are available from each of three meetings in France, Italy and Germany, with organisers then able to select three permanent wild cards for the main series which gets underway 24 hours before the Swedish Grand Prix in Malilla next weekend.

British Under-21 Champion Sam Hagon travels to Germany to race at the Ludwigslust venue, where his rivals include Adam Bubba Bednar who was a track reserve at the Czech GP recently, Philip Hellstrom-Bangs who remains one of Sweden’s top prospects, and Ukranian racer Nazar Parnitskyi.

Meanwhile Dan and Joe Thompson make the trip to Italian venue Terenzano, where their qualifier line-up includes the experienced Latvian racer Francis Gusts and last year’s SGP3 second-placed rider Villads Nagel.

Leon Flint and Ashton Boughen race at Macon in France in a strong field which includes reigning SGP3 champion Mikkel Andersen along with Polish youngster Wiktor Przyjemski, who many feel could follow in the footsteps of Mateusz Cierniak and give that nation another SGP2 champion.

Poland have provided the SGP2/World Under-21 winner in nine of the last eleven seasons, with the only exceptions being Australian duo Max Fricke and Jaimon Lidsey.

Robert Lambert was the last GB rider to reach the podium, finishing third in 2016 and 2018, whilst the late Lee Richardson was the last British winner back in 1999.

Another competition to get underway this weekend is the Speedway Euro Championship, with the first round taking place at Hungarian venue Debrecen as Mikkel Michelsen defends the title.
There are no full-time GB representatives this year although Tom Brennan is third reserve, and Saturday’s meeting already sees the first two reserves taking part due to injuries for Dimitri Berge and Janusz Kolodziej.

Michelsen is likely to again face stern competition from his regular title rival Leon Madsen, whilst former Grand Prix riders Maciej Janowski, Anders Thomsen and Patryk Dudek are also expected to be in the mix.

Several SEC riders also have Polish fixtures to contend with either side of the Debrecen meeting, and Friday’s schedule kicks off with leaders Lublin looking for an eighth straight victory as they host Grudziadz, who have signed Michael Jepsen Jensen on loan from Poznan as a replacement for the injured Jason Doyle.

Elsewhere, Czestochowa are looking for a third straight win as they take on Leszno who are expected to include Ben Cook in their team as a replacement for Kolodziej.

That meeting features Michelsen, Madsen and Kacper Woryna for the hosts, along with Andzejs Lebedevs for the visitors, who are all involved in the SEC.

Sunday’s action sees second-placed Wroclaw, featuring Dan Bewley and Tai Woffinden – who will be racing for their national title on Saturday at Belle Vue – visiting Zielona Gora.

Wroclaw trail leaders Lublin by five points heading into the meeting but they do have a three-point cushion over Gorzow and Torun.
And those two sides meet in the final fixture of the weekend at the Marian Rose MotoArena, where Lambert will be looking to keep up his excellent form in his clashes with Thomsen and GP rivals Martin Vaculik and Szymon Wozniak.

PGE Ekstraliga authorities have confirmed their decision over the recent Gorzow/Grudziadz non-event, when the meeting was heavily delayed and then abandoned after a track test.

A ‘double walkover’ has been announced which sees the two sides receive minus 40 race points, and no match points from the meeting. There will also be no aggregate bonus point from the return fixture.

The programme in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga features two Round 5 matches on Friday, and two Round 6 matches on Sunday, as Poznan – who have only raced four times so far – begin to catch up on their fixtures.
They have two home matches in three days as Friday sees them face second-placed Bydgoszcz, whilst on Sunday they take on Rzeszow who they would move ahead of with a victory.

Ostrow host Lodz on Friday, but the outstanding meeting of the weekend sees the top two clash on Sunday as leaders Rybnik, who are currently two points clear, travel to Bydgoszcz.

There are no meetings in the National Speedway League this weekend.