EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 16

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Lambert, who has three big Grand Prix meetings coming up as he looks to secure a top seven place in the standings, has enjoyed positive results of late in both Poland and Sweden.

His latest Polish match saw him card 14+1 from five rides as one of two unbeaten Torun riders in their 60-29 demolition of Gorzow. Patryk Dudek also collected a paid maximum with 13+2, with the biggest drama of the meeting coming when Gorzow’s Andzejs Lebedevs was excluded from Heat 13 when Emil Sayfutdinov came down, with the Latvian most unhappy with the decision.

Torun remain level on points with Wroclaw but with a match in hand, with the third-placed team winning 50-40 at Zielona Gora as Dan Bewley topped the scorechart.

Bewley carded 11 points from five rides, with one win and four second places, in a meeting which saw the home side lost their star youngster Damian Ratajczak when he crashed heavily during the pre-meeting warm-up.

In a weekend of straightforward wins for the top sides, leaders Lublin strolled to a 55-35 victory in Czestochowa with Bartosz Zmarzlik scoring a 15-point maximum whilst Wiktor Przyjemski was also unbeaten from four rides. That result means Lublin are guaranteed the league leadership heading into the title play-offs, but the identity of the fourth team to participate remains uncertain.

Zielona Gora’s defeat was good news for Grudziadz, but their trip to bottom club Rybnik was rained off and re-arranged for this Sunday where they will look to continue their bid for fourth place.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga the match of the weekend was the top two clash between Bydgoszcz and Leszno, and it was the away side who raced to a statement victory.

Despite trailing in the early stages, Leszno came on strong to win 48-42 with Ben Cook top scoring on 12+1, whilst Tom Brennan won his first ride for Bydgoszcz but finished on five points from four rides.

The result all-but guarantees league leadership for Leszno ahead of the promotion play-offs, where they will be joined by Bydgoszcz and, in all likelihood Krosno and Rzeszow, although the latter two are yet to be confirmed.

There was a big surprise in the bottom of half of the table where injury hit Ostrow defied those problems to win 54-35 at Lodz to end the home side’s hopes of a top four finish.

Ostrow were also due to race at home to Rzeszow on Sunday, but this meeting was postponed.

The top two teams in the National Speedway League both raced over the weekend with contrasting results, as Gdansk won 50-40 at Opole on Friday to go two points ahead of Gniezno, who missed their chance to respond on Sunday.

They lost 47-43 at third placed Pila, despite having held a six-point lead in the early stages, but there was still a good performance from Adam Ellis who top-scored for the visitors with 11 points from five rides.

Tuesday’s action in Sweden saw Vastervik defeat Lejonen 53-36 with Lambert keeping up his strong run as he collected 10+1 from four rides, dropping his only point to Zmarzlik.

Brennan enjoyed a decent evening as well as he picked up 8+1 from five rides taking Vastervik to the top of the table with two matches to go prior to the play-offs. Zmarzlik scored 13+1 for Lejonen.

Elsewhere, Ellis was in the major points again with a bumper 15+2 haul from six rides as Rospiggarna demolished Piraterna 66-24 at Hallstavik.

The only rider to prevent Ellis from scoring a paid-18 full house was Daniil Kolodinsky, who beat him in Heat 11 as one of only two race wins for the visitors.

The other meeting on Tuesday produced a close contest after a rain delay, with Dackarna winning 47-43 at Indianerna courtesy of a 5-1 in Heat 15 from Pawel Przedpelski and Lebedevs over the previously unbeaten Dudek.

Brennan’s continental scoring came after the toughest of evenings in the second round of the Speedway European Championship, where he failed to score from five rides at Gustrow.
The German circuit offers a unique challenge and whilst Brennan was often in scoring positions going into the first bend, he received a brutal lesson in racing the circuit and found himself overtaken.

Leon Madsen won a classic meeting ahead of Wild Card Kai Huckenbeck, with both riders overtaking Dudek in the Final, but the Pole still leads the standings by four points from Kacper Woryna after a solid night of scoring.

Meanwhile in France the European Under-24 Team Championship went ahead despite heavy rain which resulted in the cancellation of practice.

Poland produced a big finish with wins in each of the final block of races to finish on 48 points, led by Przyjemski on 14, and that enabled them to edge out Denmark with 45, for whom Mikkel Andersen – son of former GP rider Brian – scored 13.

Great Britain’s Dan Thompson won his first ride, although thereafter they were fighting for second and third places as they took bronze overall with 23 points.

Thompson and Leon Flint both scored seven with Sam Hagon on five, whilst Jake Mulford and Luke Harrison scored two points each from three and two rides respectively.

GB’s third place was never under threat from the host nation at Macon as France scored just four points – all from Mathias Tresarrieu.