EUROPEAN REPORT - SGP Torun

Images courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Lambert secured runners-up position overall in the final Grand Prix of the season at Torun last weekend, whilst third place on the night for Bewley elevated him to fourth in the final standings.

It’s the first time in the Grand Prix era that two British riders have finished in the top four, and the last time a better result was achieved was way back in 1989 when Simon Wigg and Jeremy Doncaster finished second and third behind Hans Nielsen in the one-off World Final at Munich.

Lambert was already guaranteed a medal but faced a nervous wait before the colour was determined, as he missed out on a semi-final place on his home Polish track, with a last place in Heat 17 proving costly as he finished on seven points.

That meant the door was ajar for Fredrik Lindgren to re-take the runners-up spot, but the Swede had little margin for error and needed to finish either first or second in the Final to do so.

In the end he fell just short as World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik again made a strong finish to the meeting to take his 26^th GP victory ahead of Leon Madsen, with Bewley in third despite Lindgren’s efforts to make his way through.

Bewley had won three of his five races in the qualifiers, whilst also suffering a most contentious exclusion with a crash when Patryk Dudek charged through on the inside leaving the GB man with no other options in order to avoid a more serious accident.

But Bewley had revenge in the second semi-final as he and Zmarzlik knocked out Dudek and Jack Holder, completing an unusual situation in which the riders finishing fifth to eighth in the standings after 20 heats defeated those who finished first to fourth in the semis.

The overall scoreboard saw Zmarzlik as champion on 179 points, 35 ahead of Lambert on 144 who edged out Lindgren for silver with the Swede on 141. Bewley totalled 127 to put him ahead of Martin Vaculik on 122, whilst Holder just completed the top six on 106 ahead of the injured Mikkel Michelsen (101) and Dominik Kubera (98) who will now look to the GP Challenge.

In SGP2, Wiktor Przyjemski clinched the title when he won his semi-final, which put him out of reach of Ukrainian racer Nazar Parnitskyi in the overall standings.

Norway’s Mathias Pollestad took victory on the night In Torun after crashes for Philip Hellstrom-Bangs and Parnitskyi in the Final, and that was enough to move him into the bronze medal spot overall.

Great Britan duo Dan Thompson and Leon Flint both scored six points, missing out on the semi-finals on countback, with Thompson particularly unfortunate as he was leading Heat 3 before the race was stopped due to a crash, and reserve Oskar Paluch won the re-run.

Flint’s result moved him up to tenth place in the overall standings on 18 points, and Thompson will look to secure a place in the full series next year, with rounds to come at Malilla, Riga and Vojens.

The first leg of the PGE Ekstraliga Final took place at Wroclaw on Sunday where the brilliant efforts of Bewley and Artem Laguta weren’t quite enough to see the home side take a victory.

Title favourites Lublin raced to a 47-43 win with a solid display even though none of their riders reached double figures, Zmarzlik topping their scores on 9+1.

The World Champion made a key move in Heat 13 to defeat Bewley and Maciej Janowski and also create room for Lindgren, for a 5-1 which at that stage made it 44-34 before Wroclaw reduced the margin in the latter races.

Laguta, who has been outstanding throughout the season, dropped just one point from six rides to finish on 16+1, and Bewley wasn’t far behind on 13+2 including two wins and two paid wins, but they lacked any consistent support with home specialist Bartlomiej Kowalski enduring a nightmare meeting as he scored just one.

There were also emotional scenes at the Olympic Stadium as Tai Woffinden officially bid farewell after over a decade with the club – with his destination now revealed as Rzeszow, who will be looking to secure promotion from Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga.

The third place play-off looks to be under the control of Torun, who were 46-43 winners at Gorzow in the first leg with Emil Sayfudtinov (12) and Dudek (10) leading their scoring, whilst Lambert collected eight points from five rides.

Vaculik was the individual star of the meeting for Gorzow with 14 points from five rides, but it was an unhappy farewell for Szymon Wozniak who scored just three and was then confirmed to be joining Bydgoszcz next season.

Lejonen have clinched the Bauhaus-Ligan title in Sweden, ending the reign of Dackarna with a 49-41 win at Gislaved in the second leg of the Final for a 12-point aggregate victory.

It was a first title in 15 years for the home club who were confirmed as champions when Mateusz Cierniak and Kacper Woryna raced to a 5-1 in Heat 13.
Kubera scored a four-ride paid maximum (11+1) with Cierniak matching that score from five rides, whilst Andzejs Lebedevs scored 11+1 from six outings for Dackarna, with Bewley ending on seven from five.

Meanwhile Francis Gusts scored a 14+1 paid maximum as Wroclaw defeated Gorzow 50-40 to clinch the Under-24 Ekstraliga title.

The hosts did it without Jakub Krawczyk following his crash in SGP2 last weekend, with their margin of victory on aggregate being eight points, despite a fine performance from Gorzow reserve Adam Bednar who scored 14+1 from six rides.