EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 11

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Having won the first of two rounds in Manchester, Bewley this time had to play the supporting role to title contenders Brady Kurtz and Bartosz Zmarzlik, but it was still a very strong weekend which saw him add 20 points to his overall total.

Bewley took the honours in the afternoon Sprint Race which took place in difficult, dusty conditions, and he then recovered from running a last place in his first ride of the GP to reel off three wins.

A further success in Heat 19 would have taken him straight into the Final but he finished second to Jack Holder there, meaning he had to go through the Last Chance Qualifier, which he did with a good start from gate one to join Zmarzlik and Kurtz, and the other LCQ winner Fredrik Lindgren in the Final.

Zmarzlik was clear favourite on home territory and with the preferable inside gate, but Kurtz conjured a brilliant start from gate two to take his maiden GP win, whilst Bewley held second place for two laps before being rounded by Zmarzlik who ran out of time to challenge for the lead.

Kurtz’s win brought the series gap back to 11 points, exactly as it had been heading into Saturday, as Zmarzlik had picked up two points in the Sprint, and those two seem increasingly likely to fight out the title with four rounds remaining.

Zmarzlik is on 113 with Kurtz on 102, with a gap then to Lindgren on 87 and Bewley chasing hard on 81, with Holder on 77.

Those five have broken away with the remaining two qualification places for 2026 currently held by Max Fricke on 56 and Andzejs Lebedevs on 51 – with Robert Lambert just behind on 47 after another tough meeting which saw him unable to reach the Last Chance Qualifiers.

Lambert crashed during practice and scored five points in the main meeting, missing out on the LCQs by a point, and he will be very eager for a turnaround in Malilla before the mid-season break.

The weekend action in the PGE Ekstraliga saw Lambert involved in the match of the round as Torun secured a narrow local derby victory at local rivals Grudziadz.

Lambert scored 7+1 from five rides in a meeting which provided plenty of drama and also a pause to racing due to flares being thrown from the visitors’ section of the crowd.

The first ride for Lambert saw Michael Jepsen Jensen excluded for breaking the tapes, Lambert winning the re-run, and Torun held a comfortable lead before coming under pressure in the closing stages.

Mikkel Michelsen got the better of Jaimon Lidsey and Vadim Tarasenko from the back in Heat 14 before Emil Sayfutdinov and Patryk Dudek secured the result with second and third places behind Max Fricke but crucially ahead of Jepsen Jensen in Heat 15.

Dudek and Sayfutdinov both scored 11+1 for Torun with Michelsen on 11, whilst Fricke led the GKM scoring on 12+1, but the defeat left them outside the all-important top four places.

They are two points behind Wroclaw, who raced to a comfortable win as expected over bottom club Rybnik, for whom Nicki Pedersen could only manage a single point.

Kurtz returned from injury with a 12-pont maximum whilst Bewley picked up seven from four rides in a 57-33 victory, with former Wroclaw riders Maksym Drabik and Gleb Chugunov scoring 14+1 and 10 for the visitors.
League leaders Lublin enjoyed a straightforward evening against Gorzow with a 55-35 win, with Zmarzlik (9) only needing to take three rides, whilst Holder scored an 11+1 paid maximum.

Zielona Gora are up to third in the table with a win and bonus point against Czestochowa, racing to a 50-40 victory at home, and it leaves the visitors five points adrift of the top four with only six matches remaining.

Leon Madsen was in good form against his former club with 13+1 and Przemyslaw Pawlicki added 11, whilst his brother Piotr (14) and Kacper Woryna (12) led the way for Czestochowa.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga there was a big shock at Tarnow where Tom Brennan’s Bydgoszcz team were on the receiving end of a surprise 54-36 defeat.

Brennan himself had a solid enough day scoring eight from five rides, but the absence of Kai Huckenbeck who had been injured at Gorzow did have a key impact on his side, as Timo Lahti (12) led a strong effort from the home side, who have now moved up to third from bottom and still have a chance of finishing in the top four.

Bydgoszcz’s defeat was good news for Leszno who are now two points clear at the top after winning 49-41 at Lodz with Janusz Kolodziej (12) and Grzegorz Zengota (11+1) both in the major points.
There was a dramatic derby at Ostrow, who shared the points in a 45-45 outcome with Poznan where the visitors rescued the bonus point despite having been eight points down after six races.

Ryan Douglas was outstanding for Poznan with 16 points, whilst SEC qualifier Frederik Jakobsen scored 13, and there was an excellent debut for Anders Rowe in the No.8 berth with 7+2.

One day earlier, Krosno consolidated third place in the standings with a 53-37 win over Tarnow led by a 12-point haul from Kenneth Bjerre and 10+1 from Jakub Jamrog.

In the National Speedway League, Landshut made it six points in the space of four days, following up their rearranged win at Opole on Thursday by defeating Krakow 51-39 on Sunday.

But there was a major injury blow for Leon Flint, who impressed with 11 from five rides but crashed in his final outing and now faces time out with shoulder damage.

Charles Wright scored 7+2 for the home side, who are up to fourth in the league table, whilst Richard Lawson kept up his great form for Krakow with 14 from six outings.

Elsewhere Pila were 48-39 winners over Opole with Wiktor Jasinski scoring a 15-point maximum a result that leaves them two points behind leaders Gdansk with Gniezno a further point adrift with a match in hand.