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Poles wild about Grand Prix picks HE saga around the FIM’s controversial selection of their four permanent wild cards for next year’s Speedway GP continues to rumble on in Poland. Since it became clear that Jason Doyle, Kai Huckenbeck, Jan Kvech and Mikkel Michelsen will be racing in next year’s World Championship, with only defending champion Bartosz Zmarzlik and Dominik Kubera representing Poland, various ideas have been debated to address what is a burning issue among officials here.
One suggestion is for the Polish authorities to impose a limit on SGP riders per team in both PGE Ekstraliga and Metalkas 2. Ekstraliga. This would apply from 2026 and, if approved, would leave several world class riders facing a very difficult dilemma – having to decide between their SGP berths and lucrative, unrivalled Polish league contracts.
If such a rule came into immediate effect, top clubs Lublin, Wroclaw and Gorzow would be worst hit because they currently have the biggest number of 2025 SGP riders in their squads: Zmarzlik, Kubera, Jack Holder and Fredrik Lindgren in Lublin; Dan Bewley and Brady Kurtz in Wroclaw; and Martin Vaculik and Anders Thomsen in Gorzow.
Another possible solution that is on the table is for the FIM to dispense with one-time wild cards and, instead, award the 16th place to a Polish star – Patryk Dudek and Maciej Janowski being the most obvious candidates. The reasoning is that in 2026 each SGP host nation will have at least one regular representative in the series and thus there is no need to grant an organiser a one-time wild card.
Polish protestors point out that the recent distribution of four permanent 2025 wild cards comes as yet another blow to the most powerful speedway country.
They point to last year’s disqualification of Zmarzlik from the Vojens SGP for not wearing the proper racesuit. At that time many believed the FIM’s punishment for the offence committed during the practice session was over the top.
Another controversy occurred last August, when Janowski was ruled out of the semi-final stage of the British GP at Cardiff amid much behind the scenes confusion and protest surrounding riders tied on the same points.
Popular opinion in Poland is that the person behind all of these moves was Armando Castagna, appointed director of the FIM’s Track Racing Commission (CCP) in 2013. And there are some dissenting voices in Poland suggesting the Italian should be replaced at the earliest possible opportunity – at the next FIM elections in two years’ time.
ARNOLD RESPONDS ARNOLD RESPONDS
Meanwhile, the commission is due to gather in Wroclaw this month and it‘s likely to be a heated meeting involving FIM bigwigs and disgruntled Polish representatives.
Report: WOJTEK SZOLTYSEK
JUST SAYING...
By PETER OAKES
THE discussion started even before Brady Kurtz lifted the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership trophy after Belle Vue had clinched the league title for the second time in three years.
And it wasn’t only supporters of second-placed Sheffield who were suggesting that the playoff system is grossly unfair as it robs the best team of silverware.
What they point out is that the team who finish top of the table in the regular season should automatically be hailed as league champions…and the play-offs should either be scrapped or run as a one-off end-of-season competition.
Those in favour of the latter suggestion can point to British ice hockey, who have both a full league calendar followed by a one-off competition.
Opponents will point out that the play-offs, especially the two-leg Grand Final, provide clubs with bumper gates, far outstripping any they might have had during their regular league season.
But would that still apply if the play-offs were simply a separate competition for the top four teams in the final league table?
Perhaps but the odds are that it would take several seasons, if not more, for the n SITTINGBOURNE owner Graham Arnold has clarified the club’s position following the news that Eastbourne are planning to operate a National Development League team from the Kent circuit next year.
Rhys Naylor and Jake Knight in action at Iwade during the Kent v Eastbourne challenge earlier this year. Picture: AMANDA MORRISON
The Sussex Eagles Motorcycle Club, who have been campaigning to resurrect racing at Eastbourne’s Arlington Stadium, so far without success, revealed their intention to enter a team into the NDL last week, staging home fixtures at Iwade.
The move angered Kent Kings promoter Steve Ribbons, who staged meetings at Iwade this summer under the NORA umbrella.
But stadium owner Arnold has responded this week by declaring: “The agreement with Mr. Ribbons to run public events at the Iwade stadium between the months of April and October, 2024, was for one year only.
“It was explained to him that myself and Barbara were going to cut down on the day-today workload at the end of October, so no future plans would be implemented until then. He agreed with that situation.
“No dates were given to him for the month of October as they were for any rain-off meetings.
Around the middle of August, we asked him to choose any of the Sunday dates for October, but he never came back to us so the Sundays for that month were offered to other organisations, of which two were taken.
“Mr. Ribbons then said his last meeting would be on Sunday, September 1, and at the end of that day he would be taking everything off site that belonged to him. He took some items but the rest is still at the stadium waiting for him to collect.
“I suggested to him that if he was desperate to run speedway in 2025, perhaps he should try and resurrect the Fen Tigers at Mildenhall, another track which has sadly closed, but I have not heard anything from him since his last meeting in September.
“We have now hopefully sorted out the future for the Iwade track to continue for many years to come and all will be revealed at the end of this month.”
standalone play-offs to reach the level of excitement and support that they currently generate.
And that is why it would take brave promoters to vote against what has become the status quo since the play-offs were first introduced in 2002.
That inaugural season saw Eastbourne top the standings in a 32-match campaign, four points ahead of runners-up Wolverhampton.
But it was Wolves who went on that league championship victory parade after a six points aggregate win over Eagles in the two-leg Grand Final.
In the 21 subsequent seasons, the table-toppers have only come out on top in the play-offs nine times and, remarkably, in the last six only one team that was top of the ladder after the full league programme has gone on to be crowned league champs.
For some, it probably meant more than others. Only two teams who have been top of the pile come the seasonal cutoff date have not taken the accolades of being league winners at one time or another: Birmingham and King’s Lynn.
Can you imagine being a diehard fan of one of those two clubs, knowing you were the best team through the season and reaping no reward? In Birmingham’s case, in 2013 they were the best team over a 28match calendar but eventually lost out to fourth-placed Poole who finished 10 points behind them.
Five years later, it was King’s Lynn that missed out of the first top-flight title in their history. Again, it was Poole who were denied that first success, when Pirates (third in the standings but nine points adrift of Stars) spoiled the 2018 party.
Since then, only Peterborough have completed what would have been the double (league champions and play-off winners). That was in 2021 but since then the favourites have never gone on to win silverware. And in the last two seasons, the team top of the standings has actually been beaten in the play-off semi-finals, while the thirdplaced side has triumphed.
That master tactician Peter Adams has always said that what happens in the course of the full season doesn’t matter as long as you reach the playoffs. And he certainly has something there – six of the last eight league champions have finished third, third, second, third, third and third, varying points behind the No. 1 team.
So, are play-offs the fairest way to decide each year’s champions?
Clearly not. But what you can’t get away from is that the play-offs pull in the fans and that means, unless the promoters suddenly have a complete change of heart, they will still be on the calendar again next year.
November 2, 2024 speedway star 5
