EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 21

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

A 52-38 victory at home gave Torun a decent margin to defend in what always looked likely to be a close semi-final, and the second leg arguably proved to be smoother sailing than they had been expecting.

There were important wins in the early stages from Patryk Dudek, Emil Sayfutdinov and Mikkel Michelsen as Wroclaw were unable to make significant inroads, never building their lead on the night above four points until it was almost too late.
And when Lambert won Heat 9 with Dudek second in a massive 5-1 for Torun over Brady Kurtz and Maciej Janowski, the scores on the night were level at 27-27 and Wroclaw were right back to where they started.

Lambert added a second place in Heat 12 to finish with six points overall, before a 5-1 from Janowski and Artem Laguta in Heat 13 briefly gave the home side hope, as they cut the aggregate gap to six points.

But being eight down on the night, Torun had the tactical advantage of being able to use the flying Dudek in both of the last two races, and his 5-1 with Michelsen in Heat 14 secured the tie in the visitors’ favour.

It finished 47-43 on the night, and 95-85 on aggregate to Torun, with Dudek scoring 15+2 whilst Michelsen collected 10+1. Meanwhile it was a quiet meeting for Dan Bewley with five points for the hosts, as Kurtz (11) and Laguta (10+1) topped their scoring.
Torun now prepare for a Final showdown against Lublin, leaving Wroclaw to face Grudziadz in the match for bronze, after the defending champions saw off GKM 50-40 at home in a meeting which was far closer than many had anticipated.

After Heat 8 the scores were level on the night, with Lublin just four up overall, but they did ease clear in the second half of the meeting.

There was still some drama at the end when Bartosz Zmarzlik was excluded from Heat 15 for slamming into his team-mate Bartosz Banbor, who picked himself up to win the re-run ahead of Michael Jepsen Jensen and Vadim Tarasenko.

The meeting at Lublin also featured the retirement announcement of former World No.2 Jarek Hampel, who spent four seasons with the club in 2020-23 at the start of their period of domination, and he will have a Farewell meeting early next month.

Meanwhile Gorzow have the advantage at the halfway stage of the seventh-place play-off which serves as a relegation decider, as they won 51-39 at Rybnik with Martin Vaculik scoring 13+1 and Anders Thomsen (13) and Andzejs Lebedevs (10+1) also in double figures.

The result answered some questions from the Gorzow fans towards their riders, and they will be clear favourites to win the tie and send Rybnik back into Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, but Gorzow themselves will then face another play-off against the second tier’s runners-up.

Rohan Tungate scored 12+2 for Rybnik in their final home meeting of the season, and it has already been confirmed that Chris Holder will be rejoining rivals Ostrow next year to team up with Tai Woffinden.
The first leg of the Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga Final turned out to be a classic encounter with Bydgoszcz and Leszno fighting out an incredible meeting of two halves.

The hosts, who had finished second in the table, opened up with two 5-1s, and despite conceding maximum points in Heat 3 they went 24-12 up after six, and at the completion of Heat 10 it was 37-23 in their favour.

Remarkably Leszno charged back in the final five races on the day with a 4-2 in Heat 11 being followed by back-to-back 5-1s and then a further maximum from Janusz Kolodziej and Ben Cook in Heat 15 to level the scores at 45-45.

The result makes them firm favourites to book an immediate return to the Esktraliga, with Kolodziej top-scoring on 12+3 backed up by Cook on 11+1 and Grzegorz Zengota on 10+1.

Szymon Wozniak reached double figures for the home side with 10, but it was a frustrating day for Tom Brennan who scored 3+1 from four rides.

Elsewhere, Poznan confirmed their place in the second tier for next season with, as expected, a comfortable 58-32 win over Tarnow to win by 28 points overall. That means the seventh-place play-off will be between Tarnow and Lodz, with the losers to be relegated.

The line-up for the National Speedway League Final is now known, and there was something of a surprise as Pila defended their first leg lead over Gniezno to set up a title and promotion decider with Gdansk.

The home side made good inroads into a 16-point first leg deficit when they moved 14-4 up on the day, but Pila staged a strong recovery and Glasgow’s Villads Nagel scored 11+1 to help them to a 45-45 result in the second leg.

Adam Ellis scored 7+1 from five rides for Gniezno who miss out again on promotion despite being amongst the favourites.

In Sweden, the Bauhaus-Ligan semi-finals turned out to be one-sided affairs with Vastervik racing to a massive 59-31 win at Indianerna in Monday’s re-arranged first leg despite the absence of Brennan who was on UK duty with Ipswich.

Lambert scored a 15-point maximum and Fredrik Lindgren was also unbeaten with 14+1 against a home side who were even more decimated by the absences of Dudek, Wozniak and Bartlomiej Kowalski.

Not surprisingly the second leg was a formality with Vastervik winning 65-25 on the night as Lambert completed another unbeaten performance with 14+1, and Brennan returned to the side with 7+1 from four rides.

Vastervik will face Smederna in the title decider after the Eskilstuna club backed up their 50-40 first leg win with a 43-35 success in the return fixture against Lejonen at Gislaved, in a meeting brought to a halt two races short due to track conditions.

It was an impressive display by Smederna who were without Leon Madsen and managed to overcome a strong home team who still included the likes of Zmarzlik, Dominik Kubera and Kacper Woryna.

Finally, the European Under-19 Pairs gave the Great Britain riders plenty of experience although it was little surprise that Denmark and Poland dominated at Plzen.

Nagel, Mikkel Andersen and Bastian Pedersen totalled 28 points for the Danes, five clear of Poland, whilst the remaining five nations were separated by just five points.
The Czech Republic defeated Germany in a run-off for third after both scored 17, Sweden were on 15 with GB on 14 and Ukraine 12.

Will Cairns top-scored with eight points from five rides, including a win in his first outing, and Jody Scott also took the flag when he came in against Ukraine. He scored three, along with Luke Harrison, who emerged unscathed from a spectacular fall on a difficult track in Heat 11 but bravely pushed home for a point.