EUROPEAN REPORT - Week 7

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

The holders are now two matches behind after their scheduled trip to Gorzow was postponed due to a poor forecast.

That allowed Robert Lambert’s side to take over at the top by virtue of a 52-38 home win over Grudziadz with the GB racer scoring 7+3 from five rides.

They had to wait until Heat 7 to break the deadlock, where Lambert and Patryk Dudek raced to a 5-1 over Michael Jepsen Jensen, and the same combination repeated the feat in Heat 9 against Max Fricke and Jaimon Lidsey to pull their side clear.

Dudek scored a 12+3 paid maximum for Torun with Mikkel Michelsen (13) and Emil Sayfutdinov (12+1) also in the big points, whilst Jepsen Jensen picked up nine for the visitors.

Wroclaw were also winners over the weekend with Dan Bewley scoring 10+2 in a much-anticipated clash at Rybnik which the visitors won 50-40.

The meeting was all about Brady Kurtz’s return to his club of last year, and he duly scored heavily against his former side with 14 from five rides.

Kurtz dropped his only point to Maksym Drabik in Heat 13 whilst Bewley picked up two wins as Wroclaw covered for an off-day for Artem Laguta who picked up just 3+1, and the result took them clear in third place in the table.

The other fixture to be completed saw Zielona Gora race to a dramatic 48-42 at Czestochowa, with their winter signing Leon Madsen taking centre stage against his old club.

Madsen didn’t receive the warmest of welcomes from the home crowd but did most of his talking on the track with 13+1, and in-form Przemyslaw Pawlicki picked up 13 as the away side took the win.

There was a huge surprise before the meeting when Jason Doyle was declared fit to race following his Warsaw crash – but the Australian’s meeting would have a disastrous end when a Heat 14 tangle with Rasmus Jensen saw him come down heavily again and return to hospital.

Jensen’s disqualification was also a talking point, but it didn’t affect the outcome as Zielona Gora secured the result despite a 14-point haul for Piotr Pawlicki.

Bydgoszcz remain top of Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga after a straightforward 62-28 home win over Poznan, with Kai Huckenbeck (15) and Szymon Wozniak (13+2) both scoring maximums.

Tom Brennan scored 4+1 from four rides for the home side with Ryan Douglas picking up nine for Poznan.

Bydgoszcz are two points clear of Leszno and Krosno, with Leszno racing to a 49-41 home win over Ostrow thanks to a huge 17-pont haul from Janusz Kolodziej.

With Krosno v Tarnow having been postponed the previous Thursday, the other fixture of the weekend saw Nicolai Klindt mark his debut for Rzeszow with a 14+1 paid maximum in a 49-41 win over Lodz, with Keynan Rew adding 13 points. Andreas Lyager scored 14 for the visitors.

In the National Speedway League, two British riders were in top form as Richard Lawson scored a 15-point maximum for Krakow who picked up their second win of the season by overcoming Landshut 48-42.

Lawson reeled off five straight wins whilst the visitors were led superbly by British GP wild card Charles Wright who scored 14+2 from six rides. Leon Flint took two outings and scored two points.

Elsewhere in the third, tier, Niels-Kristian Iversen scored a 15-point maximum for Gdansk in their 54-36 win over Daugavpils, and they now lead the standings, whilst Pila were 47-42 winners at Ostrow thanks to a 14-point haul from Wiktor Jasinski.

Tuesday’s action in Sweden saw Vastervik collect a 47-43 win over Piraterna, which was somewhat more comfortable than the final score suggests as the visitors took late 5-1s in Heats 13 and 15.

Lambert scored 10 from five rides for the hosts, with Fredrik Lindgren racing to a 15-point maximum, and Brennan added 5+2 from five, whilst Przemyslaw Pawlicki underlined his form with 13 for the Motala club.

Elsewhere, Smederna made it three wins out of three as a race victory for Madsen in Heat 10 proved crucial as it preserved a two-point lead over Indianerna with rain falling.

No more racing was possible after a lengthy delay, so the Eskilstuna side were declared 31-29 winners with Madsen (7) and Drabik (8) leading the way, whilst Bartlomiej Kowalski won both of his outings for the visitors.

Rospiggarna were 47-41 winners over Dackarna, who were hit by the news earlier in the week that Nicki Pedersen had stood down from racing in Poland. Huckenbeck (12+1) and Laguta (11+1) top scored for the home side, who overcame the loss of Wiktor Przyjemski after a crash in his second ride.
In the weekend SGP2 and SGP3 qualifiers there was good news for Great Britain in both, as a curtailed event at Glasgow saw Jake Mulford make it through to the World Under-21 series with seven points from his three rides.

But there was frustration for Joe Thompson, called into the meeting as a replacement for his injured brother Dan, as he was one of four riders who finished on six points and could only be separated by a ballot.

That was ‘won’ by Antoni Mencel who took the final qualifying place from the meeting along with Mikkel Andersen and Jan Przanowski.

Ashton Boughen scored five points on his home Championship track whilst Sam Hagon notched nine at Pardubice in a meeting won by Mathias Pollestad ahead of defending SGP2 champion Przyjemski.

15-year-old Cooper Rushen will compete in this Friday’s SGP3 Final at Prague having won the first semi-final in Slovenia on 13 points, and he has a shot at becoming the World Youth Champion with the event taking place on 250cc machinery.