WEEKEND PREVIEW - SoN2 / SoN Final

Image courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

SoN2 takes place on Friday, featuring the cream of rising Under-21 talent from eight nations, whilst the senior SoN Final will be staged on Saturday.

Great Britian head into the Under-21 event keen to make their way back up the rankings after suffering a night to forget in last year’s Final at Riga.

Had the 2024 event not come to the UK, they would have faced a year out of the competition, but their riders are now determined to take the opportunity presented to them.

The GB team is captained by Leon Flint and also includes Dan Thompson and British Under-21 Champion Sam Hagon, all of whom have plenty of experience of the Belle Vue track.

The three riders are all regulars in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership in Rising Star berths for Birmingham, Ipswich and Leicester respectively, and Flint is also competing in the individual SGP2 series this season.

With the competition extended this year to feature eight nations, the meeting will be decided purely on the basis of the 28 regular races, with no Final. Each nation races each other once, meaning they will all take seven rides in total.

Despite tracking a much-changed line-up, holders Poland are once again expected to be at or near the top of the standings as they chase an incredible 11^th successive gold at this level of competition.

SGP2 regulars Wiktor Przyjemski and Bartosz Banbor are joined by Jakub Krawczyk as they look to emulate the recent achievements of Mateusz Cierniak and Bartlomiej Kowalski, who took gold along with Przyjemski last year.

There is likely to be a strong challenge from Denmark, represented by Jesper Knudsen, Bastian Pedersen and Villads Nagel, whilst Australia include two UK league regulars in Keynan Rew and James Pearson.

Sweden are back in the competition this year and include Philip Hellstrom-Bangs, who showed a liking for the NSS in 2021, whilst Germany will rely on the track knowledge of Belle Vue’s Norick Blodorn, and the Czech Republic include one of their big hopes for the future, Adam Bubba Bednar. Latvia also compete, although their top rider Francis Gusts is ruled out by injury.

Attention then switches to the FIM Speedway of Nations Final on Saturday, with Australia the defending champions after their victory at Vojens in 2022.

Max Fricke and Jack Holder were the successful pairing for the Roos in that meeting as they edged out GB’s Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley in the Final, and all four riders are involved again this Saturday.

Lambert and Bewley are joined by Tom Brennan, who was part of their 2021 gold medal glory when a declared Under-21 rider had to take at least one outing, whilst the Australian duo are joined by Brady Kurtz.

However, Australia did not win their semi-final as it was Denmark who took the honours in wet conditions on Wednesday through their combination of Mikkel Michelsen, Anders Thomsen and Rasmus Jensen.

Semi-Final 1 was won by Sweden with Fredrik Lindgren in excellent form along with Jacob Thorssell, as they finished ahead of Poland who remarkably are still chasing their first-ever victory in this format.

The SWC champions have made a change for the Final with Patryk Dudek replacing Maciej Janowski, whilst World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik is expected to be fit after a heavy crash on Tuesday, and he will link up with his Lublin team-mate Dominik Kubera.

The remaining qualifying places from the semi-finals were taken by Germany and Latvia who came through their respective race-offs. Both include current GP riders in Kai Huckenbeck and Andzejs Lebedevs who were both in excellent form in midweek.

Historically the SoN Final started as a two-day event, but two years ago it switched to a one-off meeting, with all nations meeting each other over a 21-race programme. The meeting leaders go straight to the Final whilst second and third race off for the other Final place, and throughout the contest the scoring system runs 4-3-2-0, meaning especially in the crucial deciding races, avoiding last places is of paramount importance.

Although this is a blank week for the PGE Ekstraliga, there are two meetings in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga on Sunday.

The leaders Ostrow travel to Lodz, and they are only four points ahead for the bonus point, whilst the bottom two meet as Gdansk host Rzeszow in what is effectively last chance saloon.

The hosts are seven points adrift at the foot of the table, and lost the reverse fixture 52-38. The meeting features two riders with SoN involvement as Brennan lines up for Gdansk, whilst Danish team manager Nicki Pedersen races for Rzeszow.

There is also action in the National Speedway League on Sunday as leaders Gniezno visit Landshut.