EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 5

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

The door was open as leaders Lublin’s match at Grudziadz had been rained off, enabling Torun to take over should they extend their unbeaten start to the campaign against a home side who had lost all of their opening four fixtures.

They looked set to do so as they opened up a six-point lead, but they were reeled back in and with the scores level going into the last race, a 4-2 to Zielona Gora from the in-form Przemyslaw Pawlicki (14) and Jarek Hampel (9+1), split by Patryk Dudek but ahead of Mikkel Michelsen, gave the hosts a 46-44 victory.

Robert Lambert scored 8+1 from five rides for Torun on a mixed day where he started with a win, then suffered a last place, and then picked up a paid win, but it was Dudek (13) and Emil Sayfutdinov (11+1) who were the top scorers.

Torun’s defeat enabled Wroclaw to move to within one point of them as they took their third win of 2025, with comfortable 56-34 victory over Gorzow.

Brady Kurtz and Artem Laguta led the way with paid-13 apiece whilst Dan Bewley picked up seven from four rides, starting with a win but then sitting out the nominated races with all of the Wroclaw top five scoring solidly.

Martin Vaculik scored 10+1 for Gorzow, who are third from bottom and now three points adrift of the top four.

The other meeting saw Czestochowa comfortably defeat Rybnik 51-39 with Piotr Pawlicki’s great form continuing as he scored a 14+1 paid maximum.
But the main story was the drama involving ROW’s Nicki Pedersen, who clashed with his own team-mate Rohan Tungate and was then involved in an incident with Pawlicki, who overtook the Dane who then fell, and it was Pedersen who was excluded by the referee. Tungate scored 13+1 for the visitors.

In Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga, Tom Brennan enjoyed an excellent day for Bydgoszcz as he scored 10+1, including two race wins and a paid win, in their 49-41 win over Krosno, a result which takes them to the top of the table on race points difference.

With Brennan in double figures and Szymon Wozniak (13) and Krzysztof Buczkowski (12+2) also in good form, it was enough to defeat a visiting side who did not provide a scorer over eight points.

Elsewhere veteran Grzegorz Walasek (13) along with Luke Becker (12+1) led the way for Ostrow in an emphatic 58-32 win over Lodz which got them off the mark in the standings at the third time of asking. Walasek had joined the club on loan from National Speedway League side Opole.

It means Tarnow are the only pointless side in the division, although they have only raced two meetings so far. There was no action in the third-tier last weekend.

Lambert, Bewley and Brennan all returned to the UK to contest the British Final on Monday, and it was Lambert who took the national honours for the second time in his career, ending Bewley’s three-year run at the top prize.

Brennan was always up against it after running a last place in Heat 1, and he finished on six points, whilst Bewley and Lambert both scored 14 although on several occasions they had to work their way through from the back.

Bewley’s only point dropped came against surprise package Anders Rowe who held him off throughout Heat 4, but he responded to defeat Lambert in a terrific Heat 6 battle.

They were joined in the Final by fellow former winners Charles Wright and Chris Harris, and the four riders then produced surely the greatest British Final race in history, and one of the very best for the sport as a whole.

The number of overtakes during the race was well into double figures with all four riders leading over the final lap and a quarter – and going into the final two turns, any of them could have won it.

Lambert had passed Bewley to lead at the end of lap three, only for Harris to slice through on the inside, and then as he went wide it was Wright who took the advantage. Lambert then put everything into an outside blast on the final bend, which just took him to the flag ahead of Wright, whilst Bewley held the inside to snatch third place back from Harris.

The result means Wright, who last rode in a Grand Prix back in 2019 when he had previously taken the British title, will be back in Manchester on June 13/14 for a pair of Wild Card appearances.

Lambert and Brennan then headed straight for Sweden and the second round of Bauhaus Ligan fixtures for Vastervik as they hosted Malilla.

An opening race last place wasn’t what Lambert had expected, but he then scored 11 points from his remaining four rides including wins in Heats 13 and 14 which confirmed a hard-fought home win.

Vastervik took the honours 47-43 with Brennan racing in the reserve berth and taking three rides for five points, including a big win in Heat 5 over Frederik Jakobsen and Tomas H Jonasson.

Elsewhere, Bartosz Zmarzlik scored a 15-point maximum for Lejonen in their 48-42 win over Indianerna, for whom Wozniak, Becker and Dudek all scored heavily but were unable to stop the World Champion.

Rospiggarna defeated Vargarna 48-41 despite conceding a 5-0 in Heat 14 when the previously unbeaten Laguta was excluded along with team-mate Vadim Tarasenko. Laguta’s 14+1 were backed up by 13+1 from Ryan Douglas for the hosts.

The meeting between Piraterna and Smederna was postponed with track conditions deemed unfit for racing.