Between the first and fourteenth rider in the overall classification of Speedway Euro Championship, there is only a 5-point difference. Can the fight for the Individual European Champion can be even more interesting than that?
Just as predicted, in the second round of SEC, at the track of Latvijas Spīdveja Centrs in Daugavpils, local Lokomotiv riders were doing great. After 5 series of starts, Finn startin with a Swedish license - Joonas Kylmaekorpi gathered the most points and Latvian Maksims Bogdanovs, who got the wild card for this meeting. Russians Grigorij Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov, Pole Przemysław Pawlicki and Vaclav Milik, representing Czech Republic, were fighting in the race-off heat to get the spots in the final.
In these last heats of the night - both in the race-off heat and in the great final - emotions were extending among the 5-thousand crowd, the ones who decided to visit the Lokomotiv stadium. They were coming home all wet, because some massive rain came fight after the last heat in Daugavpils. Even though, they were full of joy after what they saw at the track.
The great final had to be repeated, because at one of the laps, after colliding with Emil Sayfutdinov, Maksims Bogdanovs fell on the track. Latvian, who was riding phenomenally through the whole evening, got his elbow bruised and was excluded from the re-run. So there we had Joonas Kylmaekorpi, who won all of his heats in the second part of the meeting, breavely riding Grigorij Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov, who got through to the final thanks to his great fight in the race-off heat.
Kylmaekorpi won the start and right behind his back, there was chasing Laguta. Joonas did not make a mistake and remained first through two laps. At the third one, Grisha got himself into a brave and surprising attack at the inside lane and ended at the front, deciding not to leave this spot till the very end.
However, in Daugavpils, the best riders from the first round in Güstrow had a worse day - Martin Vaculik and Krzysztof Kasprzak. Slovakian got only 4 points and in one of his heats, could not handle his bike and made a spin. Pole was able to get one point more, even though in many heats, after the starts, he got himself in the lead numerously.
Poorer performance by these riders, paradoxically can rise the emotions coming with the fight for European title. It is enough to take a look at the classification to realize how extremelly interesting this rivalry is. In Togliatti, Emil Sayfutdinov will ride in the race jacket of the leader. Russian has got the same amount of points (18) and Pole Przemysław Pawlicki, who was slightly worse in Daugavpils than the title's defender, so currently he's classified as 2nd.
Medal chances are still saved by many riders. Just to remind, Grigorij Laguta, who skipped the first round because of his hand's injury is currently 12th. Russian however, loses only 5 points to the leader. Behind Russian's back there are Nicki Pedersen and Janusz Kołodziej, who got 13 points in 2 rounbds.
Next round of Speedway Euro Championship takes place on August 20 in Togliatti. Final is planned on September 17 in Rybnik.