EUROPEAN REPORT

Images courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

The defending champions won 54-35 at Zielona Gora with a clinical performance, World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik winning four of his five rides whilst reserve Wiktor Przyjemski scored a four-ride paid maximum.

Zmarzlik dropped his only points when he suffered disqualification for a back-straight incident which saw Jaroslaw Hampel come to grief and be collected by team-mate Piotr Pawlicki, with Hampel suffering a broken wrist.

Dan Bewley was part of a winning Wroclaw team at home to Grudziadz as they took a 50-40 victory in an entertaining meeting.

Bewley scored 8+2 from five rides to back up Artem Laguta’s 15-point maximum, but the efforts of Vadim Tarasenko and Max Fricke kept the visitors in contention.

Meanwhile Torun, struggling without the injured Emil Sayfutdinov, were beaten 48-42 at home by Gorzow despite a 12+1 total from Robert Lambert, with Patryk Dudek also contributing 13+1.

But with a Semi-Final place also available for the ‘lucky losers’ there is incentive for Torun to keep things close in the return, and hope Grudziadz slip up at home to Wroclaw.

The Semi-Final line-up in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga has been confirmed, and the big drama is that the top two in the regular league table will now face each other in the last four.

Leaders Ostrow safely overcame Lodz 51-39 in the second leg for an 18-point aggregate victory, with Chris Holder top scoring on 12+1.

But second placed Bydgoszcz were beaten overall in a frantic battle with Poznan, whose 15-point first leg lead was wiped out in the early stages only for the visitors to fight back strongly.

Poznan saw Ryan Douglas crash out of Heat 15 but Aleksandr Loktaev was the hero in the re-run as he passed Mateusz Szczepaniak for the 3-3 his side needed to keep a two-point aggregate lead, with the match finishing 51-38 to the hosts.

Bydgoszcz still progress to the Semi-Finals after an overall loss of 88-90, which gave them a better score than both Lodz (81) and Krosno (85), the latter going down to a 51-39 defeat at Rybnik, who will now face Poznan in the Semi-Finals.

In the National Speedway League, Tarnow are through to the Final after a 48-42 win over Pila, with Timo Lahti scoring a 12-point maximum.

Pila were without the injured Adam Ellis, and Tarnow won 100-80 on aggregate and they will now face Gniezno or Opole in the Final.

Tuesday evening saw the line-ups for the Bauhaus-Ligan semi-finals confirmed, with Dackarna overcoming the absence of Brady Kurtz to ease into the last four at the expense of Smederna.
The Malilla club won 59-31 at home to overturn an eight-point first leg deficit, and Bewley with 10+2 was one of four riders in double figures.

In-form Lahti scored 16+1, Rasmus Jensen added 15+1 and Andzejs Lebedevs piled up 13+4, with Michael Jepsen Jensen top-scoring for the visitors on 9+1.

In the other Quarter-Final, Indianerna trailed by four points heading into the meeting with Piraterna but they turned that around with a 56-34 win on the night.

Gleb Chugunov top-scored with 13+1 from five rides whilst Przemyslaw Pawlicki raced to 15 from six for the visitors.

Indianerna will now face Lejonen in the Semi-Finals with Dackarna taking on Vastervik, and the first legs take place next Tuesday.

There were three meetings in the Polish U24 Ekstraliga, all of which resulted in comfortable home wins with the hosts also taking the aggregate points.

Gorzow lead the table and have secured a place in the Final thanks to a 54-36 win over Krosno, but their opponents are yet to be confirmed.

Leszno are in second place having defeated Zielona Gora 52-38, but they are only one point ahead of Wroclaw, who have one match remaining and are already expected to take the bonus point when they visit second-bottom Grudziadz next week.

Tuesday’s other match saw Torun race to a 57-33 win over Czestochowa in a mid-table clash, with Anders Rowe scoring six including two race wins for the hosts.

Finally, Ledebevs is in pole position to win the Speedway Euro Championship after his win at Gustrow on Saturday, leaving him six points clear in the standings heading to the finale at Chorzow on September 21.

Lebedevs overtook Leon Madsen in a thrilling Final at the German venue as the list of realistic title contenders was reduced to four, with Madsen and Kacper Woryna on 33 points compared to Lebedevs’ 39, and Piotr Pawlicki has 32.

Jensen and Dimitri Berge finished third and fourth on the night having reached their first Final, but defending champion Mikkel Michelsen is now out of title contention after crashing out of the meeting in his fourth ride when he suffered a broken chain whilst leading.