EUROPEAN REVIEW

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Wroclaw trailed by four points going into Heat 14, as Bewley had just combined with Maciej Janowski for a 5-1 over Leon Madsen in the previous race to halve the home side’s deficit.

But disaster struck in the first nominated race, with Bewley initially escaping as he received a nudge from Jonas Jeppesen, before on the exit of turn two, Jeppesen clipped the rear wheel of his team-mate Jakub Miskowiak, bringing down the Czestochowa rider.

Unfortunately for Bewley, Jeppesen’s riderless bike proceeded right into his path, and Bewley had no way of avoiding it, which launched him into and over the fence and into the neutral zone behind.

Remarkably he retained consciousness and even more remarkably he escaped without broken bones, although he did remain in hospital for checks on an injury to his left leg, before leaving hospital on Tuesday to continue his recovery.

When the meeting got back underway, Czestochowa closed out a 49-41 win and are now third in the table, whilst Wroclaw are back under threat for their play-off place, with a second home defeat.

Bewley scored 6+1 from five completed rides, whilst Tai Woffinden scored 5+1 from five.

Elsewhere, Robert Lambert top-scored for Torun but they were unable to halt the Lublin steamroller as the home side ran up a 55-35 home win and are now ten points clear at the top of the table.

Lambert scored 12 from six rides for the visitors, who are fifth in the table and with a three-point advantage over seventh-placed Grudziadz, who have one meeting in hand after their match at Gorzow was postponed. It was re-arranged for this Friday, July 8.

And Leszno gained their expected comfortable win at Ostrow with a 57-33 victory as Piotr Pawlicki top-scored in his first league match back from injury.

Bewley’s Friday night crash meant he was sadly unable to take his place in the first round of the Speedway Euro Championship, which produced a highly entertaining meeting in Rybnik.
Former champion Leon Madsen hit back from scoring just one point from his first two rides to dominate the latter stages, and he took victory in the Final ahead of Janusz Kolodziej, Patryk Dudek and Mikkel Michelsen.
The defending champion had won his first four rides but he went from second to fourth in the Final, and he and Kolodziej are tied on 14 points with Madsen on 13 as the series heads to Germany on August 6.

Adam Ellis had a nightmare start to the meeting with a chain breakage on the line in his opening ride, but after two last places he was then involved in some fierce action later in the meeting and finished with a couple of third places to his name.

In Division One, leaders Bydgoszcz were given a tough test by Lodz before winning 46-44 with a 15-point maximum from youngster Wiktor Przjemski. There was also a spectacular accident in this meeting and thankfully Daniel Jeleniewski escaped largely unscathed despite losing his helmet in his crash with Marcin Nowak.

Elsewhere, Zielona Gora defeated Landshut 56-34 in a meeting which made the majority of its headlines beforehand as the home side sacked manager Piotr Zyto and replaced him with Marek Mroz.

Kronsno are in third place, albeit some way behind the top two, after defeating bottom club Rybnik 51-39, whilst on Monday Gdansk climbed to fourth by winning 49-41 at Gniezno, who now seem set to be involved in a relegation fight with Rybnik.

In Division Two, Tom Brennan scored 7+2 from five rides as Rawicz defeated Opole 49-41 to move level on points with their opponents at the top of the table.

Daugavpils are third, four points behind with one match in hand, after they beat bottom side Pila 59-31 with Ellis scoring 7+1 from four. The other match saw Poznan beat Rzeszow 49-41.