EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 10

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Bewley, who had won previous British GPs in Cardiff in 2022 and 2024, sent the Belle Vue crowd wild on Friday night by taking Round 4 of the series in sensational style for his fifth GP success overall.

He looked to be heading out of the meeting when he was stuck in third place during his Last Chance Qualifier, but after overcoming Mikkel Michelsen he then took the widest of lines to gain ground on Jack Holder, and flew past him heading into the last two turns.

That was a great showcase of the racing which the National Speedway Stadium provides on a regular basis, and the Final was another belter with Bewley making the start from gate two but then coming under threat from title chasing duo Bartosz Zmarzlik and Brady Kurtz, with the three riders putting on a thrilling duel from which Bewley emerged on top.

The first Last Chance race saw the elimination of Robert Lambert, who was in the mix to go through but wasn’t able to get on terms with Fredrik Lindgren, whilst the first British race win of the meeting came from wild card Charles Wright, who had the crowd roaring their approval with his Heat 9 triumph over Michelsen, Anders Thomsen and Dominik Kubera.

Bewley’s win lifted him briefly into third place in the overall standings, but Round 5 on Saturday turned out to be a very different story as he was left in a battle just to make it into the Last Chance Qualifier.

A win in his last ride moved him on to six points, level with four other riders, but with Andzejs Lebedevs failing to take the win he needed in Heat 20, Bewley and Kubera went through at the expense of Thomsen, Lambert and Lebedevs on the basis of number of race wins followed by fastest times.

That was a bitter disappointment for Lambert, who did win a race on Saturday but was unable to show his 2024 Speedway Of Nations form for Great Britain, and it leaves the World No.2 eighth in the standings, three points off the all-important top seven cut-off.

Bewley, meanwhile, still had the chance to make it a memorable double, but this time his hopes were ended in a hugely competitive Last Chance Qualifier where Lindgren took the win in a four-way scrap as Max Fricke, Michelsen and Bewley all went out.

Lindgren joined Holder as going through from the LCQs to join Zmarzlik and Kurtz, the former looking dominant and the latter racing on despite a heavy crash with Lindgren in his fourth ride.

The Final was sensational with Kurtz taking the lead, Zmarzlik going wide from gate four to generate speed, and the World Champion then switched brilliantly inside the Australian heading into the second lap before racing clear for his 29^th GP victory, as Kurtz took second place with Lindgren third.

At the halfway stage of the series, and heading to Gorzow this weekend, Zmarzlik is on 93 points with Kurtz 11 behind on 82, followed by Lindgren on 70 with Holder on 68 and Bewley fifth on 61.

Due to the double GP, there was no Polish Ekstraliga action at the weekend for Lambert and Bewley to attend to, but there were several fixtures in the other two divisions.

Sunday’s schedule saw Bydgoszcz make it six wins out of seven this season in Metakas 2. Ekstraliga with a big 58-32 home victory over Tarnow, in which both Szymon Wozniak and Aleksandr Loktaev scored paid maximums.
Tom Brennan scored 7+2 from four rides on a good day for the British rider, and his side are just behind Leszno on points difference after they also racked up major scoreline at home.

Leszno beat Lodz 60-30 with Ben Cook marking his return from injury with 12 points, and it would not be a surprise to see Leszno and Bydgoszcz fighting it out for promotion at the end of the season – although Krosno may also feel they can have a say.
They defeated Rzeszow 51-39 with Tobiasz Musielak top-scoring on 13 from five rides, and it leaves them two points behind the top two but with a match in hand.

Elsewhere on Saturday, Tarnow took their first points of the season with a 57-33 home win over Ostrow, Timo Lahti leading the way on 13, and that result coupled with Lodz’s heavy defeat took them off the bottom of the table.

In the National Speedway League, Gdansk are three points clear at the top after winning 50-40 at Daugavpils on Sunday, whilst rivals Gniezno did not have a fixture.
That was the second home meeting in two days for the Latvian club, with the first having proved more successful as Daugavpils did defeat Opole 51-39.

Biggest score of the weekend was recorded by Pila, who slammed Krakow 64-26 although the visitors were without Richard Lawson who had picked up a knock in a fall at Oxford on Thursday.

Meanwhile Lambert put his Grand Prix disappointment behind him to give a fine performance for Vastervik in Sweden on Tuesday as they moved second in the Bauhaus-Ligan table.

The 51-39 victory at Rospiggarna also saw Brennan in good form, and it moved them ahead of Lejonen in the standings.

Lambert was unbeaten from his first four rides, scoring 10+2, only missing out in Heat 15 when the meeting was well and truly in the bag.

Brennan himself contributed a strong nine-point haul from five outings, winning two of them, in a meeting where Ryan Douglas provided the main opposition with 13+1.

They moved up the table after Lejonen were edged out 47-43 in a close contest at Eskilstuna as Smederna maintained their 100 per cent start to the season, making it six wins out of six.

Dackarna are up to fourth after Rasmus Jensen scored an 11+1 paid maximum from four rides in a thumping 61-28 win over bottom club Piraterna, who remain scoreless from their six fixtures.

The remaining meeting in Round 6 saw Indianerna move clear of Vargarna with a 51-39 home win as Patryk Dudek raced to 14 points from five rides, whilst away reserve Jaimon Lidsey scored 15 from six.