EUROPEAN ROUNDUP

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Patryk Dudek (12+2) and Pawel Przedpelski (10) were also in double figures whilst Emil Sayfutdinov won his first three rides before sitting out the closing stages, whilst for the visitors their top two of Martin Vaculik and Anders Thomsen scored just three points between them.

The strength of Lambert’s campaign is measured by his position in the final averages, where he is headed only by Bartosz Zmarzlik, Leon Madsen and Artem Laguta.

Polish averages are traditionally calculated on points per ride, but applying standard British criteria shows those are the only four riders over the 9.00 mark with Lambert on an impressive 9.08.

It also suggests that Madsen (9.66) can count himself highly unfortunate to have missed out on a Grand Prix place for next season, especially as he was only 12 points outside the top six and missed the penultimate round due to injury.

The Ekstraliga title itself was decided on Monday, 48 hours after the originally scheduled date with bad weather in Lublin causing a re-arrangement.

But that merely delayed the celebrations for Lublin who wrapped up their third successive gold with a 52-38 win over Wroclaw to win by 18 points on aggregate.

The outcome was never in doubt with Lublin racing to a hat-trick of 5-1s in Heats 2, 3 and 4, and they extended their lead to 20 points on the night by Heat 10.

The next race saw the title officially clinched by Jack Holder, who split Bartlomiej Kowalski and Dan Bewley, with the home side then resting some of their big guns over the closing races enabling the gap to be reduced.

Zmarzlik won all three of his rides whilst Dominik Kubera (10+2) and Fredrik Lindgren (10) were in double figures.

Laguta was again outstanding for Wroclaw with 14+1 from six rides, and Bewley wrapped up his season with 6+2 from five. His final ranking in the averages was 17^th, on a UK-equivalent figure of 7.88.

The 2025 World Championship line-up was resolved with the final eight places determined by the results of the GP Challenge followed by the nominated picks.

Lambert and Bewley had no reason to worry about either, with their places secured after finishing in the top six this year along with Zmarzlik, Lindgren, Vaculik and Holder.

Those riders will be joined by Brady Kurtz, Thomsen, Kubera and Max Fricke who finished in the top four of a weather-affected Challenge in Pardubice, with Jacob Thorssell unlucky to miss out in fifth place on ten points.

Tom Brennan’s debut in the event saw him score four points, courtesy of four third places.

Two of the four nominated positions were handed to Jason Doyle and Mikkel Michelsen, both of whom saw their campaigns ended by injury when well placed in the standings, and both were fully expected to return.

The other two places went to Kai Huckenbeck and Jan Kvech, who finished 12^th and 15^th respectively in the 2024 series, and 13^th and 9^th respectively jn the GP Challenge.

It means the absentees from this year’s GP line-up will be Madsen, who has been named as first reserve for 2025, Szymon Wozniak, and Tai Woffinden who loses his place as a full-time GP rider after a 12-year run. He has been named as third reserve, with Dudek as second reserve.

There is one complete newcomer in Kurtz, save for his Wild Card and reserve appearances in Melbourne, with Fricke and Thomsen returning to the series – Fricke having raced the majority of 2024 as an injury replacement for Doyle.