EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 20 SGP Wroclaw

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Bewley finished third at Wroclaw on Saturday, taking that position for a fourth successive Grand Prix, but with his major rival for third place Fredrik Lindgren suffering a nightmare meeting, Bewley has taken over in the box seat for Bronze.

Whilst Lindgren failed to reach the Last Chance Qualifiers for the first time, despite a win in his final ride, Bewley recovered well from a last place in his first outing to score a solid eight points on his home track putting him comfortably through on the leaderboard.

In the second LCQ he finished ahead of Jason Doyle, Mikkel Michelsen and Maciej Janowski to join LCQ1 winner Jack Holder in the Final along with, inevitably, title contenders Bartosz Zmarzlik and Brady Kurtz.

Zmarzlik had scored an imperious 15-point maximum in the qualifying races, including a pass on Kurtz when they met in Heat 19, but the Pole surprised many with his choice of outside gate for the Final.

And when Kurtz launched off the inside gate to take the lead, Zmarzlik instead found himself in a scrap with Holder and Bewley, and by the time he had established himself in second place he ran out of time to mount a strong challenge on Kurtz, who secured an incredible fourth successive GP win, a feat only previously achieved by Tony Rickardsson back in 2005.

It all means that Kurtz trails Zmarzlik by three points with one round remaining, exactly as was the case heading into Wroclaw, because Zmarzlik had also added two points from third place in the Sprint Race.

That race was won by Bewley to give him further assistance in his battle with Lindgren, and he has a five-point advantage over the Swede as they head to Vojens.

Robert Lambert was second in the Sprint, with his main rival for seventh place overall Max Fricke fourth in that race. There looked set to be a major move in the Australian rider’s favour when he scored 11 points in the qualifiers whilst Lambert disappointingly scored just three as he missed out on the Last Chance Qualifiers, not helped by a controversial exclusion from Heat 15 after a fall on turn two.

But significant damage was averted when Fricke crashed out of the first Last Chance Qualifier and consequently collected just seven GP points from the meeting compared to Lambert’s two.

It appears a clear head-to-head between Fricke and Lambert for the final automatic 2026 place, with three points between the riders in seventh and eighth places. Fricke with 75 is 11 behind Andzejs Lebedevs, whilst Lambert with 72 is nine ahead of Anders Thomsen.

Away from the Grand Prix, there were several meetings in Poland over the weekend which resolved play-off issues, with some clubs’ seasons now at an end whilst others have more to fight for.

In the Ekstraliga Play-Down phase, Zielona Gora slammed Rybnik 58-32 for a 102-78 victory on aggregate, with Przemyslaw Pawlicki scoring a 15-point maximum and reserve Damian Ratajczak adding an 8+4 paid maximum.

The other Play-Down winners were Czestochowa who ensured their top-flight status with a 47-43 win at Gorzow to complete a ten-point victory overall.

Jason Doyle scored a 15-point maximum and Piotr Pawlicki added 13+1, and it turned out to be Doyle’s farewell appearance for the club as he has now been confirmed as a marquee new signing for Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga club Krosno on a two-year deal, with the club clearly keen to make an even stronger promotion challenge next year.

Doyle raced for Krosno in their last top-flight campaign of 2023, when they were relegated, but the last time he competed regularly outside the top tier was when he rode for Lodz in 2014.

The season is now over for Zielona Gora and Czestochowa, whilst Rybnik and Gorzow will meet in a further play-off where the losers will be relegated, and the winners will face the losers of the second tier Play-Off Final. That tie will unsurprisingly be between Bydgoszcz and Leszno, who have been the two outstanding teams all season, and both progressed easily into a decider.

Tom Brennan enjoyed his best performance in the Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga with a 13+2 paid maximum in Bydgoszcz’s massive 65-25 win over Krosno, a meeting which also saw Kai Huckenbeck and Krzysztof Buczkowski unbeaten.

Leszno, who finished top of the table, eased past Rzeszow 54-35 for an 18-point aggregate victory, led by paid-13 scores for Nazar Parnitskyi and Ben Cook.

They will start as favourites for the Final, especially having won in Bydgoszcz earlier this season, whilst it will be a second successive Final for Bydgoszcz after their agonizing defeat to Rybnik in 2024. The difference this time around is that even defeat in the Final still offers a further chance for promotion with the Play-Off against the Ekstaliga Play-Down winners to follow.

In the lower half of the table, Ostrow got the job done in Lodz with a four-point aggregate victory led by 12 points from Luke Becker, whilst there was a race win for Anders Rowe at No.8 as he scored from four in a meeting which Lodz won 49-41 on the day.

Lodz will now face the losers from the Poznan/Tarnow tie, which is due to be resolved on Sunday with just two points between the sides, and the losers of that Play-Down decider will be replaced by the National Speedway League winners.

In that competition, Gdansk are safely through to the Final after a 60-30 home win over Daugavpils to give them progression by an aggregate score of 104-70, with Benjamin Basso and Niels-Kristian Iversen both scoring 11+1

However, the other Semi-Final is intriguingly poised after a shock result in last Sunday’s re-arranged meeting in Pila as the home side defeated favourites Gniezno 53-37, despite a 10-point haul from Adam Ellis. This means they will require a significant turnaround in this weekend’s second leg.

In Sweden, the Play-Off Semi-Final between Indianerna and Vastervik, featuring Lambert and Brennan for the visitors, was postponed due to the weather, with the first leg rearranged for next Monday. This may cause Brennan to miss the meeting should Ipswich finish top of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership as a semi-final for the Witches at Belle Vue on the same night would take priority.

Meanwhile in the other Semi, Smederna raced to a 50-40 win over Lejonen at Eskilstuna, with Michael Jepsen Jensen (13), Gleb Chugunov (11+1) and Maksym Drabik (11+1) all in double figures. Zmarzlik scored 14 for the Gislaved side, dropping his only point to Drabik.