EUROPEAN REPORT - SGP Teterow

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Both riders sailed into the semi-finals in a meeting where track conditions were tricky and gate positions were imbalanced, but it all went wrong in different ways as both failed to make the Final.

After the 20 regular heats, Bewley was in second place on 11 points to give himself first pick of gates for the semi, having won three of his five races including a brilliant effort in Heat 15 to get the better of Jason Doyle and Patryk Dudek.

Lambert, meanwhile, was just one point behind on ten, and was one of only four riders to avoid suffering a last place with gates two and three both proving to be extremely tough.

He had gate four for his semi-final, with Bartosz Zmarzlik off the inside, but the problems began when Lambert went level with Zmarzlik into the third bend, and then found himself caught in mid-track enabling Doyle and Anders Thomsen to go either side of him.

Lambert them found himself mired at the back as Zmarzlik and Doyle made it to the Final – but there was every expectation that Bewley would make it through from the second semi-final, sitting on the advantageous inside gate.

But in a freak occurrence just before the time limit expired, Bewley’s bike stalled and as he frantically tried to re-start it the time ran out and he was excluded.

Jack Holder and surprise package Kim Nilsson duly went into the Final, where Zmarzlik took his second GP win of the season ahead of Doyle, Holder and Nilsson.

Tai Woffinden experienced frustration of a different kind as his meeting opened up with two last places. A change of machinery led to a substantial improvement but seven points from his final three rides weren’t quite enough to progress, as he lost out to Nilsson on countback.

After four rounds, Zmarzlik leads the series on 70 points, 12 clear of Holder with Doyle (54) and Fredrik Lindgren (52) completing the top four.

Lambert is in seventh place on 42 points with Bewley one place and one point further back on 41, whilst Woffinden is ninth but has more ground to make up as he is on 32.

The latest round of PGE Ekstraliga fixtures featured four home wins out of four, although leaders Wroclaw had a far trickier night than had been expected against Grudziadz.

The meeting was delayed due to rain and eventually abandoned after nine races with Wroclaw 31-23 in front, although GKM didn’t get the rub of the green on several occasions.

Bewley had a straightforward evening with 7+1 from three rides, whilst Woffinden scored 4+1 including a win and a last place.

Lublin are four points behind Wroclaw after recording the biggest score of the weekend in a 59-31 win over Torun, for whom Emil Sayfutdinov scored nearly half of their points with 15.

Zmarzlik collected a 12-point maximum for the home side and Holder top-scored with 13, whilst it was a tough night for Lambert on his old home track as he picked up just four points from five rides.

Elsewhere, Thomsen scored a 15-point maximum and Oskar Fajfer (12+3) was also unbeaten from five rides as Gorzow were easy winners over Krosno, taking a 57-33 victory.

Meanwhile injury-hit Leszno held Czestochowa closer than expected at the halfway stage, before the home side pulled clear to win 53-347 with Kacper Woryna, Leon Madsen, Maksym Drabik and Mikkel Michelsen all in double figures.

In Division One, Zielona Gora maintained their unbeaten record with a massive 55-34 win at Ostrow, led by Krzysztof Buczkowski on 13 points.

They are four points clear of Bydgoszcz who also enjoyed success on the road with a 46-44 win at Poznan thanks to a brilliant 15-point maximum from 18-year-old Wiktor Przyjemski.

There are three clubs in the bottom four places on six points, including Lodz who suffered a third successive home defeat, this time at the hands of Rybnik who were easy 55-35 winners with Brady Kurtz scoring a 15-point maximum.

Elsehwere, Landshut raced to a 51-39 home win over Gdansk with Nilsson keeping up his good form from the GP with 11+1 from five rides, moving the German club up to fourth place on nine points.