EUROPEAN REPORT - SGP3

Great Britain will have double representation in this Friday’s SGP3 Final at Gorzow.

The World Championship for 250cc riders will be settled ahead of the weekend’s Grand Prix, and both William Cairns and Cooper Rushen will be taking part.

Cairns raced to a brilliant 15-point maximum in his semi-final at Teterow, whilst Rushen squeezed through on six points, and Seth Norman missed out after suffering mechanical trouble.

The trio then raced at Gdansk on Tuesday and finished an excellent second in the opening round of the European 250cc Pairs, finishing just three points adrift of winners Poland.

Rushen (15) and Cairns (14) split the points almost equally, with Norman scoring one from one outing, and they finished well clear of third placed Denmark.

It completed a good weekend of experience for the younger GB riders, with the trio of Ashton Boughen, Luke Harrison and Freddy Hodder only narrowly missing a medal in the European Under-19 Pairs at Pila, as Boughen finished second in a three-rider run-off after an excellent performance.

Weekend racing in the PGE Ekstraliga was reduced to three matches with Wroclaw v Czestochowa rained off and re-arranged for this Friday – which meant some unexpected time off for Dan Bewley and Tai Woffinden.

The main interest in the league table with Lublin racing clear is over the fight to stay in the league – with just six points covering the remaining seven clubs behind the runaway leaders.

There was a key result for Leszno, who are still bottom but won 56-34 over Torun who suffered more away-day trouble although they did at least hang on for the bonus point.

Robert Lambert scored 9+1 from five rides for the visitors, whilst Grzegorz Zengota was the hero for the hosts with 16 from six.

The result did move Leszno off the foot of the table briefly, but Sunday saw Grudziadz defeat Zielona Gora 47-43 with Max Fricke scoring 12+2 against his old club. They did, though, fall just short of the bonus point, which keeps Zielona Gora one point in front of them, and two clear of Leszno.
The top-of-the-table clash turned into a total mismatch with Gorzow suffering their heaviest home defeat for over 20 years, going down 56-34 against Lublin, who had Bartosz Zmarzlik, Jack Holder and Dominik Kubera all in double figures.

Meanwhile in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, the big talking point came in the Gdasnk v Ostrow fixture with the away side taking a 50-38 win which leaves the hosts in serious danger of relegation.

Tom Brennan scored 6+1 from five rides but Gdansk lost the services of Nicolai Klindt, who was wiped out by team-mate Bartosz Glogowski in his second ride, and suffered a broken arm.

Chris Holder scored a 12-point maximum for Ostrow who had surprisingly lost 43-47 at home to Poznan one day earlier, despite a 14+2 haul for Holder from six rides.

Elsewhere, Bydgoszcz took over at the top with a big 59-31 win over Krosno, with Krzysztof Buczkowski racing to a 15-point maximum, whilst lower down the table Lodz topped the 60-point mark with an emphatic 61-29 victory over Rzeszow.

In the National Speedway League, Gniezno enhanced their position at the top with a 49-41 win at Opole, inspired by a 14-point haul from Sam Masters, whilst Tarnow’s strong home form continued as they defeated bottom club Pila 51-39.

Tuesday’s action in the Swedish Bauhaus-Ligan saw Lambert top-score for Vastervik in a massive 65-25 win over Piraterna.

Lambert collected 12+2 from five rides, dropping his only point to Przemyslaw Pawlicki in Heat 1, but the visitors were outclassed with Jacob Thorssell scoring a 12-point maximum at reserve.

Bewley was also in double figures for Dackarna but his 12+1 at Lejonen came from seven outings, including a hat-trick of wins in mid-meeting.

The home side, who still lead the standings, won 49-41 with the visitors using all possible options with extra races for Bewley in the absence of the injured Andzejs Lebedevs,

Meanwhile Brennan played a part in Indianerna’s 60-30 win over Rospiggarna, scoring 6+3 from four rides in a meeting which saw Szymon Wozniak, Gleb Chugunov and Patryk Dudek all score paid maximums.

The other meeting on Tuesday resulted in another hefty home win as Smederna defeated Vargarna 62-28 with big points from Vadim Tarasenko and Michael Jepsen Jensen.

In the Under-24 Ekstraliga, Wroclaw recorded the biggest score of the night with a 61-29 win over bottom placed Lublin, with Connor Bailey collecting a solid 6+2 including a win in his final ride.

Krosno were only just behind in the scoring, defeating Torun 60-30, whilst Leon Flint scored 7+1 for Czestochowa in their 54-36 win over leaders Leszno which also saw them overturn a 14-point deficit for the aggregate point, and moves them to within one point of top spot.

Elsewhere Dan Gilkes picked up 5+1 for Grudziadz in a narrow 46-44 win at Zielona Gora – which also gave a tied aggregate score – with the visitors’ reserves scoring 23+2 between them.