EUROPEAN PREVIEW - SEC

Photography courtesy of Steve Hone Photography

Round 4 of the series in the Czech Republic will confirm the champion, which if it is leader Patryk Dudek will also secure a Grand Prix place in 2026 for the Pole.

Dudek holds a six-point lead over defending champion Andzejs Lebedevs, having won two of the first three rounds in Bydgoszcz and Leszno.

There have only been four occasions in SEC history when the leader going into the last round has not won the title, and six points is the highest margin which has ever been overturned, which happened in 2016 when Nicki Pedersen moved ahead of Antonio Lindback.

A win for Dudek will see him back in the GP, but if Lededevs does pull off the comeback then with him already secure in the GP, a further nominated place will be granted to the organisers.

The battle for third place in the SEC sees Leon Madsen and Kacper Woryna level on 30 points with youngster Nazar Parnitskyi (28) and Michael Jepsen Jensen (27) just behind, and barring a shock it should be those six riders who are confirmed in SEC for next year.

Brennan’s superb performance in Leszno last month, where he made the Final, moved him up to 11^th place overall on 15 points, and there is the realistic prospect of him finishing higher with Mateusz Ciernak on 18 the next best placed of the regular competitors.

Following the SEC, attention switches back to domestic racing in Poland on a crucial weekend in the play-offs, featuring the first leg of the PGE Ekstraliga decider on Sunday.

Torun host Lublin as they look to break the three-year domination of the Eastern club, whose successes in the Final have come against Gorzow in 2022 and then Wroclaw in both 2023 and 2024.

Torun themselves were last in a Final in 2016 when they lost to Gorzow, and their last league title came way back in 2008 with their victory over Leszno.

Robert Lambert, with his Grand Prix place for 2026 secured, will be facing his former club as Torun look to build an advantage – which they will certainly need based on previous results this season.
The sides met in back-to-back rounds in the regular campaign in early June with Lublin winning 55-35 at home where Lambert scored 7+1 from five rides, and Torun then inflicted Lublin’s only defeat of the regular season with a 48-42 home victory one week later.

Declared line-ups are at full strength with Lambert joined by the likes of Dudek, Emil Sayfutdinov, Jan Kvech and Mikkel Michelsen whilst World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik lines up for Lublin along with fellow GP racers Jack Holder, Fredrik Lindgren and Dominik Kubera.

The consolation prize of the bronze medal is also available as Wroclaw host Grudziadz in the first leg of their decider, with the venues switched due to local events in Wroclaw next weekend.

Dan Bewley’s side will be favourites to confirm third place overall, and a repeat of their meeting in mid-July when Wroclaw won 51-39 will take them towards that aim.

On Saturday, relegation from the Ekstraliga will be confirmed as Gorzow host Rybnik holding a 51-39 advantage from the first leg. That meeting should be a near formality but it would not yet secure survival for Gorzow, as a final play-off against Bydgoszcz will then follow.

Relegation issues in Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga will also be confirmed in the second leg of the Lodz/Tarnow play-down encounter, with the home side taking a 47-43 lead into the meeting.

The aggregate losers’ place in the second tier will be taken by either Pila or Gdansk next season, with those two clubs staging the first leg of their National Speedway League Final on Saturday, and the return follows on Sunday.