EUROPEAN REPORT - SGP Malilla

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

It turned out to be a night for glory for World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik whose 24^th GP victory took him clear in the list of all-time winners, and also gave him a healthy 17-point advantage in the 2024 title race.

Zmarzlik pulled off a string of spectacular moves to take the win, including a Semi-Final battle with Lambert which will rank as one of the races of the season, and he then re-passed Max Fricke on the second lap of the Final.

Lambert finished third in that race to match his result from Warsaw, and crucially he was ahead of fourth-placed Jack Holder which moves him one point ahead of the Australian overall.

And there is then a further nine-point gap to Mikkel Michelsen in fourth, which means Lambert is firmly in contention for his first-ever top three finish overall.

Elsewhere in the line-up, Dan Bewley was unable to replicate his 2023 triumph on his home Swedish track, but he did put on a strong performance to reach the Semi-Finals before falling victim to the unfavourable outside gate.

Bewley collected nine GP points and is currently ninth in the standings on 42 points overall, still just ten adrift of the top six.

But the GP troubles continued for Tai Woffinden who was only able to add four GP points to his total and is now 15^th overall on 21 points in total.

There was only one meeting in the PGE Ekstraliga last weekend, which was a 53-37 win for Gorzow over bottom club Leszno which moved the hosts up to second place.

Anders Thomsen scored 12 points for Gorzow, a total matched by Grzegorz Zengota from six rides for the visitors, but Leszno’s injury problems worsened when Andzejs Lebedevs was brought down by Oskar Fajfer and suffered broken ribs.

That will make the Latvian a doubt for the upcoming GP at Gorzow, whilst Fajfer - who ironically will be the Wild Card for that meeting- was given a yellow card by the referee for his unsuccessful move on the third bend which caused the incident.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, there were three comfortable home wins with leaders Rybnik defeating Poznan 52-38 as Jakub Jamrog scored a 14+1 paid maximum and Brady Kurtz returned from injury with a 12-point maximum from four rides.

Tom Brennan took the No.8 position for Gdansk in their trip to Krosno, with the hosts taking a big 57-33 win. Brennan scored 5+2 from five rides, with Niels-Kristian Iversen leading the resistance with 13 from six, whilst Norbert Krakowiak led the Krosno scoring on 12+2.

Ostrow then defeated Bydgoszcz 51-39 on Sunday with Frederik Jakobsen and Gleb Chugunov both scoring 12+1, whilst Krzysztof Buczkowski racked up 16 from six for the visitors which enabled them to hang on to the aggregate bonus by a single point, and means they are level on points with Krosno, two behind the leaders.

In Sweden on Tuesday Bewley returned to action for Dackarna but was unable to prevent a 51-39 home defeat at the hands of Lejonen, for whom GP riders Dominik Kubera (12+1) and Zmarzlik (12) were the top scorers. Bewley was top scorer for the home team with 11+1 from six rides.

Lambert, meanwhile, put on another tremendous showing for Vastervik with 14 points from five rides in their 53-37 win at Piraterna, dropping his only point to Pawel Przedpelski in Heat 1.

Elswehere, Rospiggarna were 50-40 winners over Indianerna with Brennan scoring six points from five rides for the visitors, whilst Chris Harris scored 1+1 from three as Vargarna dropped to a 54-36 home defeat against Smederna.

In the Under-24 Ekstraliga, Connor Bailey scored five points from three rides for Wroclaw in a 58-31 win over Grudziadz, for whom Dan Gilkes was unable to get on the scorecard from three outings.

Torun were 52-38 winners in Czestochowa, with Anders Rowe scoring 4+1 for the visitors whilst Leon Flint scored 4+2 for the hosts.

Tuesday’s other two results saw Leszno win 47-43 at Zielona Gora to extend their advantage at the top of the table, whilst Krosno defeated second placed Gorzow 48-42.