EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 14

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Brennan scored in every ride of the meeting which managed to beat the weather with forecasts of heavy rain largely not materialising, and track covers being in place until two hours before start time.

Conditions did still play a part at times, and ironically Brennan’s best ride came in Heat 17 when he surged around Mateusz Cierniak for second place when the track had been made greasy by one of a couple of downpours during the event.

Brennan also battled strongly with Dimitri Berge in Heat 10 before missing out to the Frenchman, and he also led Michael Jepsen Jensen in Heat 16 before the Dane came through and also won a titanic battle with Leon Madsen for the race win.

Patryk Dudek took his first-ever SEC round victory by winning a re-started Final after Szymon Wozniak had crashed out, with defending champion Andzejs Lebedevs and Kacper Woryna completing the podium. Dudek and Woryna are level at the top of the standings on 15 points.
There were two heavy first bend crashes, both resulting in injuries, as Przemyslaw Pawlicki broke his collarbone after a tangle with Wozniak in Heat 5, whilst Frederik Jakobsen came to grief in alarming fashion in Heat 18, ending up on the top of the fence before bouncing back onto the track.

The Dane suffered concussion, broken teeth and jaw damage but remarkably no broken bones, which was quite an escape given the nature of the accident.

It is, though, a further blow to Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga club Ostrow who already have Luke Becker and Oliver Berntzon on the sidelines.

Whilst Brennan was on SEC business, his colleagues in the GB Under-24 set-up were doing a fine job to edge out the Czech Republic and make it into the Final of the European U24 Team Championship.

A super-strong Denmark team won the Qualifier at German venue Ludwigslust, scoring 51 points in difficult track conditions with the weather affecting proceedings.

But GB took advantage of the Czechs losing the previously unbeaten Daniel Klima to a mid-meeting crash, and their strength in depth proved crucial as they collected 33 points compared to their rivals’ 29, and the hosts on seven.

There was only one race win, that coming from Leon Flint in his last ride, but they also scored every time, with Drew Kemp picking up nine points, Flint and Dan Thompson both had eight, Sam Hagon scored six, and reserve Jake Mulford had two from one ride.

They now proceed to the Final at Macon on July 26 – again clashing with an SEC round for Brennan – where GB will face Denmark, Poland and holders France.

The weekend league action was heavily affected by the weather, but those meetings which did take place generated several talking points.

Robert Lambert had the weekend off after Torun’s trip to Czestochowa in the PGE Ekstraliga was postponed, and it will now take place on the eve of the Latvian Grand Prix on August 1.

Dan Bewley, meanwhile, had an excellent performance in Wroclaw’s 51-39 win over Grudziadz which was rather more hard-fought than the scoreline suggested, as the away side surprisingly led by two points with six races to go.

Bewley dropped a point to his Belle Vue team-mate Jaimon Lidsey in Heat 3 but was otherwise unbeaten as he finished on 11+3 whilst Artem Laguta scored a 13+2 paid maximum – and Brady Kurtz scored 10+1 despite an exclusion after a clash with Max Fricke.

That result means Wroclaw will definitely be in the top four play-offs, as of course will be champions Lublin who raced to their tenth win in eleven matches by demolishing Rybnik away from home.

It was a 58-32 triumph for the league leaders as an hour’s delay to start time after rain failed to have any impact upon their preparations.

Bartosz Zmarzlik scored 14 from five rides with Dominik Kubera on 11+2, and the visitors could even afford two falls for Wiktor Przyjemski, a tapes exclusion for Cierniak, and Fredrik Lindgren being ruled out in his last ride.
Przyjemski, incidentally, was involved in controversy the following day when he was red-carded out of the Polish U21 Championship Pairs Final on his home track, having caused Leszno’s Kacper Mania to crash on the straight in Heat 17 when he appeared to look for his rival and move across his path – and that effectively decided the meeting as Leszno took the honours.

The other Ekstraliga match was the eagerly awaited derby between Zielona Gora and Gorzow, but there were all sorts of off-track issues including flares and fireworks being hidden underneath the air fence, which resulted in a police investigation and a delay to the meeting of an hour.

The hosts were without Pawlicki after his SEC accident, and they then saw reserve Oskar Hurysz suffer a broken leg in a big crash with Oskar Paluch.

But they still dug in to win the meeting 50-39, and they also took the bonus point, with Leon Madsen (14+2) and Damien Ratajczak (13+2) leading the way.

Zielona Gora remain fourth in the table with 15 points, whilst nearest challengers Grudziadz have nine, with three matches to go. Czestochowa have a match in hand but are also likely to contest the play-down section along with Gorzow and Rybnik.

Only one match took place in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga over the weekend and Brennan was in decent form for Bydgoszcz as they won 50-40 at third placed Krosno to take over at the top of the table.

The result effectively seals them a top two finish, with their home match against their main title rivals Leszno coming up later this month.

Brennan scored 8+1 from four rides, although given the solid nature of the Bydgoszcz scoring, he was not called upon to ride in either Heat 14 or 15.

There was also just one fixture in the National Speedway League where Daugavpils defeated Krakow 51-39, which puts them clear in the top four, and four points adrift of leaders Gniezno. Richard Lawson scored 6+1 from five rides for the visitors.