EUROPEAN PREVIEW - PGE Ekstraliga Final

Image courtesy of Taylor Lanning Photography

Can the home side take the league crown for the fourth year in succession, or will Robert Lambert help Torun to end that domination and, in the process, put them on top for the first time since way back in 2008?

The tie appears to be perfectly poised after the first leg when Torun, who have a good record against Lublin at home, raced to a 54-36 win on their home track.

But the strength of Lublin around their own circuit is well known to all, and they have hit their 55-point target on numerous occasions already this season.

One of those came back in early June, the previous clash between Lublin and Torun, which saw Lublin win 55-35. A repeat of that scoreline on Sunday would see them take the title by just two points on aggregate.

Lambert scored 7+1 from five rides in that meeting but has been in better form in the closing weeks of the season in the build-up to the FIM Speedway of Nations.

Much could also depend on the performance of SEC Champion Patryk Dudek, who will be back in the GP series next year, as well as Emil Sayfutdinov and Mikkel Michelsen.
For Lublin, the big question mark concerns the fitness of key reserve Wiktor Przyjemski, who has been struggling since his big crash in Sweden last month.

That could pile the pressure on their GP quartet of Bartosz Zmarzlik, Fredrik Lindgren, Jack Holder and Dominik Kubera in a Final which really does appear too close to call.

More predictable is Saturday’s third place Play-Off between Grudziadz and Wroclaw, with the visitors having a massive 61-29 advantage from the first leg.

That should be easily enough to see Wroclaw to the bronze medals, on a track where they won 47-43 in the league encounter back in May. Dan Bewley scored 9+1 in that meeting and this will be his last competitive meeting prior to SoN action in Torun next week.

GB’s other SoN representative Tom Brennan will also be racing this weekend as he lines up for Bydgoszcz in an intriguing addition to this season’s calendar.

The Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga runners-up host the Ekstraliga’s seventh-placed club Gorzow in the first leg of what is to be known as the ‘barrage’ – a two-legged encounter with the winners securing the remaining place in next season’s top-flight.

The event has not been staged since 2019, ironically when Gorzow were also defending their position, and the last time the lower-league side won was 2008 when Gdansk defeated Rzeszow.

Realistically the current Ekstraliga side should be favourites, but with Gorzow making headlines for the wrong reasons summer and uncertainty over riders’ futures, some observers believe Bydgoszcz could still take the opportunity to win promotion at the second attempt.

Gorzow certainly have race winning potential in Andzejs Lebedevs, Martin Vaculik and Anders Thomsen, and the interest will be in how the likes of Brennan, Kai Huckenbeck and Szymon Wozniak perform as they look to win on the day and take a lead to Gorzow next week.

And another exciting aspect of the tie is the appearance of the highly-rated Maksymilian Pawelczak, who turned 16 last Sunday and will now line up for at reserve for Bydgoszcz