NEWSDESK
JUST SAYING...
By PETER OAKES
IN what world does 14+0 equal 10 and nine plus five equal 20? For anyone who was watching or has been following the action the answer, of course, is Saturday night’s Latvian Grand Prix at Riga.
Andzejs Lebedevs finished top scorer in the qualifying session of the ninth round of the series, dropping his only point to Dan Bewley in Heat 20, that sole defeat denying him a maximum 15 in front of his own fans.
But because Lebedevs could only slide home in fourth place in a tough first semi-final – his opponents were eventual Grand Final winner and World Champion Bartosz Zmarzlik, runner-up and current world No. 2 Freddie Lindgren and Great Britain’s Robert Lambert, arguably the other stand out star of Riga – he was relegated to seventh place overall.
That meant he collected 10 Grand Prix points, despite scoring 14 from six rides in total but Zmarzlik (14 from seven), Lindgren (14), Max Fricke (12), Maciej Janowski (11) and Lambert (11) all scored more GP points than him, even though none of them outscored him over the course of the meeting.
In fact, only one rider did that – Bewley, who was third overall with a tally of 11 from his five qualifying rides and another four from a first place in the semi-final and third in the final.
Jack Holder was joint top scorer with 11 points at Malilla but was eliminated after finishing fourth in the semi, leaving him adding only 10 SGP points to his season’s tally. But that doesn’t compare to Lebedevs’ misfortune in acquiring only 10 SGP points when he scored 14 in the meeting.
Looking back at this year’s series, there have only been three instances in the nine completed rounds in which the
S‘Magic’ may disappear
PARTA Wroclaw claimed only their second away win this season on Sunday. Their 46-44 win over Stal Gorzow at the Edward Jancarz stadium puts the Wroclaw side in a very commanding position before this Sunday’s second leg at the Olympic Stadium.
By WOJTEK SZOLTYSEK
But the fans’ enthusiasm was dampened when Maciej Janowski revealed that he might not be donning the Lower-Silesian club’s colours in 2025.
The Oxford star told Polish media: “It doesn't matter whether I love the city of Wroclaw or the club. Of course, I'm from there and I grew up there but I am a professional sportsperson and in some things both sides have to agree. We'll see what happens.”
These words complement his recent interview given to redbull.com in which he confessed he was in dialogue with the Wroclaw club over his next contract. ‘Magic’ said: “I attended talks at the club but I didn't feel the enthusiasm or too much interest to continue working together. It's a pity but that's life.
“I keep calm because I'm not a child anymore. I hire a large group of people, I invest in bikes, I have a family that I'm responsible for. That's why I would like to know where I am. That's it. I hope that this uncertainty will end as soon as possible.”
Responding to Janowski’s words, Sparta club spokesperson Adrian Skubis released the following statement through his social media: “It is worrying that Maciej Janowski started negotiating with the club through the media – this is what it looks like. I don't recall such a situation before. We always informed the fans about the final outcome of negotiations together. And this was an iron rule.”
Skubis also announced that Wroclaw want to fulfil Janowski’s financial demands and keep him on their books. However, there is one condition that must be met: “It depends on his form next season, which means the average of two points per race. With such a high contract, this should not be surprising,” Skubis added.
n FULL POLISH COVERAGE FROM PAGE 38
top scorer from the qualifiers hasn’t gone on to win – and two of those have been the defending title-holder Zmarzlik, second highest scorer (to Jack Holder) in the Swedish round at Malilla and joint sixth highest scorer on Saturday night.
Having done a little bit of research, had points scored in the first 20 heats been carried through, there are few changes in the standings – and Zmarzlik would still be the undisputed leader going into the last two rounds.
This is how it would look, with current standings in parenthesis: 1 Bartosz Zmarzlik 85 (1st), 2 Martin Vaculik 77 (4th), 3 Robert Lambert 74 (3rd), 4 Fredrik Lindgren 71 (2nd), 5 Dan Bewley 69 (6th), 6 Mikkel Michelsen 66 (5th), 7 Jack Holder 65 (7th), 8 Andzejs Lebedevs 61 (10th), 9 Dominik Kubera 57 (8th), 10 Leon Madsen 55 (9th), 11 Max Fricke 50 (11th), 12 Szymon Wozniak 49 (12th), 13 Kai Huckenbeck 43 (13th), 14 Maciej Janowski 32 (16th), 15 Jason Doyle 31 (14th), 16 Jan Kvech 30 (15th) and 17 Tai Woffinden 25 (17th).
Vaculik, Lebedevs and Janowski move up two places, Bewley one, while Lindgren slips down two rungs and Michelsen, Kubera, Madsen, Doyle and Kvech all drop just one place each.
However, what it does do is close the apparent gap between Zmarzlik and his nearest challenger for the crown – to eight points, down from 17.
Those figures suggest that the semi-finals and Grand Final make little difference – except to Lebedevs, who must feel that he should have been driving home on Saturday night as a Grand Prix winner for the first time.
Which prompts the question: is the current SGP scoring system fair?
Over the years, there have been various methods of running a GP round. In 1995 the final finishing positions were determined by a series of four races, a D Final (for riders who finished 13-16 after 20 qualifying heats), C Final (9-12), B Final (5-8) and A Final (1-4), with every point (3-2-1-0 in every race) counting.
That lasted for only two seasons but was retained except for a tweak that saw the introduction of Grand Prix points (25-20-18-16-14-13-12-11-9-8-76-4-3-2-1) based on final positions after 20 races and then the D-C-B-A finals, as in 1996.
The biggest shake-up of all came in 1998, when the field was increased from 16 to 24 riders with a complicated knockout system that could see some competitors packing everything up after finishing fourth or third in two consecutive races!
Perhaps surprisingly, the KO format lasted for seven seasons (1998-2004) until the FIM voted to go back to a more conventional 16-rider line-up.
The top eight qualifiers progress to two semi-finals and Grand Final, with GP points awarded (25-20-18-16) to the finalists and everyone below the top four taking forward the points they had scored in the 20-race qualification.
In 2007 the format changed to two semis and a final but riders accumulated points over all their rides, the maximum score being 21.
A year later (2008) the Grand Final points were doubled, to 64-2-0, so the maximum was 24 points rather than 21.
In 2020, the current format was introduced. The final finishing position, after five heats, two semi-finals and a Grand Final, determining the Grand Prix points harvested from 20 to first place down to one point for 16th.
This year, riders were able to claim additional points (4-32-1) via the newly introduced Sprint Race (held at two of the 10 rounds) during timed qualification. The first winner was Dan Bewley who beat Leon Madsen, Tai Woffinden and Robert Lambert at Warsaw.
The debate now begins after luckless Lebedevs’ experience at Riga.
Should that be enough to bring about a re-think? I’m not too sure. Perhaps it would be too much of a knee-jerk reaction to one relatively isolated instance.
But if the rights-holders and the FIM Track Racing Bureau do want to consider another tweak, maybe this will give them some food for thought when they sit down to deliberate.
What about scrapping one of the two semis and instead seeding the two highest qualifying scorers straight to the final to be joined by the top two from a four-rider repechage (still call it a semifinal)?
That way, after his heroics, Lebedevs would have left Riga with at least 14 points to add to his SGP total!
4 speedway star June 1, 2024
