EUROPEAN REPORT - SEC Gustrow
ADAM ELLIS is into the top ten of the Speedway Euro Championship standings after a positive performance in Gustrow on Saturday. Ellis won his first two rides at the German venue and was in contention to reach the Semi-Final right up until his last outing.
Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography
He eventually finished on seven points to move up to 12 in total, which is just six points outside the top five at the halfway stage of the series.
The GB racer was one of three unbeaten riders after two outings apiece as he joined Janusz Kolodziej and Mikkel Michelsen at the top of the standings on the night.
He got the better of Antonio Lindback, Dimitri Berge and Jan Kvech to open up with a win, and then held off the challenge of Andzejs Lebedevs and Leon Madsen in a thrilling Heat 6.
Gate positions then worked against him and he took a point from Heat 9 from the inside to remain in contention, but was squeezed out in his remaining two outings.
He had a chance heading in Heat 19 but an ultra-tough race was won by Koloziej ahead of Patryk Dudek, with Kacper Woryna passing Ellis for third place.
Kolodziej made it back-to-back wins at Gustrow with a hugely impressive 17-point haul but it was also a great night for Michelsen who finished second with 14 and saw all of his immediate title rivals falter.
Michelsen has a nine-point lead over Madsen with two rounds remaining after his fellow Dane’s run of ten successive Finals came to a shock end as he scored just four points. The series resumes in Bydgoszcz on September 9 with the finale at Pardubice on September 22.
Meanwhile poor weather in Poland made for a quiet weekend, with all but two fixtures postponed across all three leagues.
The only action which was possible came on Friday, and remarkably both meetings ended in 45-45 draws.
Gorzow shared the spoils with Torun in a meeting which was close throughout and ended with three successive shared races.
Robet Lambert won Heat 14 for the visitors after a battle with Oskar Fajfer, but his team-mate Pawel Przedpelski crashed out after a strong move by Anders Thomsen, with the Torun man excluded.
The decider was also stopped when Szymon Wozniak came down after contact with Patryk Dudek, and a terrific re-run ended with Wozniak re-passing Dudek for the win whilst Emil Sayfutdinov kept Martin Vaculik at the back.
Lambert scored ten points for Torun, joining Dudek and Sayfutdinov in double figures as Torun finished the regular campaign fifth in the table, with Gorzow third.
Elsewhere it was also 45-45 between Czestochowa and Grudziadz, a result which officially ruled GKM out of the play-offs.
But they did produce a strong fightback and ended the meeting with two successive 4-2s headed by Gleb Chugunov and Max Fricke to secure a share of the spoils on the night.
Fricke scored 14 from five rides for the visitors with Maksym Drabik collecting 13 for the hosts, who finish in fourth place, with GKM seventh and failing to make the play-offs for a ninth successive season – although they did stave off the prospect of relegation.
The Krosno/Leszno and Wroclaw/Lublin matches scheduled for Sunday were both called off and will now take place on Wednesday.
Division One’s final round will now take place this weekend, with three matches on Sunday and Zielona Gora v Rybnik taking place on Saturday, and plenty of action is also planned in Division Two.