Krzysztof Kasprzak won the final round of SEC, which took place in Lublin. Andrzejs Lebedevs became the new Individual European Champion. Silver was taken by Artem Laguta, and the bronze medal went to Vaclav Milik. Andreas Jonsson and Krzysztof Kasprzak earned the right to stay in the cycle.
The first fight of the day took place between Krzysztof Kasprzak and Mateusz Szczrepaniak – the two riders fighting for the right to stay in the cycle. The latter was quite lucky, because Smolinski, going for the 3rd place at the moment, had a defect; thanks to that, Szczepan could earn one point. Second heat welcomed Lebedevs, Milik and Laguta, all of them fighting for the highest positions in general classification. The fact that they started to ride very close to each other proves that the riders took the heat seriously – Artem Laguta suffered a fall because of that. During the repeated ride, Russian had a great start and easily won the whole heat. Lebedevs spent three laps riding on the last position, but managed to pass Andrey Kudryashov on the last lap.
First two series belonged to Artem Laguta and Daniel Jeleniewski. Russian representative and the Speed Car Motor Lublin capitain were the only unconquered riders after two starts. Mateusz Szczepaniak, on the other hand, turned out to be very slow. Szczepan was at times very far away from his rivals, and because of that he lost his chance to stay in the cycle for the next season.
Heat nr 9 was unlucky for Daniel Jeleniewski. The rider coming from Motor lost to Kasprzak and Kudryashov. Andrzej Lebedevs scored his first win in heat 10. Cycle’s leader came from third position to first one. Heat 11 witnessed problems with start tape. Andreas Jonsson blamed a judge on that, and eventually gave up on riding on the first lap. However, the heat was completed. After that, judges decided to repeat the heat. Then, the fans had a chance to witness a great portion of speedway. Four laps saw a lot of racing taking place between Laguta, Smolinski and Jonsson. Eventually, it was German who took second place, the Russian came third and Swede fourth.
Dangerous situation had taken place in heat 13. Krzysztof Kasprzak, who was third, decided to ride outside in order to overtake Michael Jepsen Jensen. Unfortunately „Kasper” hit the fence on full speed. Fortunately he did not sustain any injury and race results had been agreed on. In heat 15, Andrzejs Lebedevs made another victory. He lost the start again, but on second corner he passed his rivals on the outside. That allowed him to defend 4-point lead.
The last series was the war of nerves between Vaclav Milik and Andrzejs Lebedevs. Milik made a huge mistake in heat 18, finished on third position and Lebedevs had to make use of it. Latvian won heat 20 with huge advantage, securing the European Championshiptitle for himself. In extra race and grand final, Milik and Laguta had to fight for the silver.
Interestingly, Czech had to start in race-off. However, the Russian was directly promoted to the final.
In race-off, excluding Milik, Krzysztof Kasprzak and Przemysław Pawlicki fought for the mainetance in the cycle for next season. Also, Milik’s promotion to the final allowed him to stand in the duel against Laguta. In the first corner situation was very nervous again. Milik hit Pawlicki, causing their fall. However, both of them stood up fast. Unfortunately for Czech, referee decided to exclude him. Then, he had to look just for Laguta, who needed only one point to take the silver. In the repeated heat, Pawlicki won the start and came to the final without a problem. Kasprzak did similar thing, but he came second to the finish line. That means that two Polish riders fight for maintance in last heat.
Andrzejs Lebedevs, Artiom Laguta, Krzysztof Kasprzak and Przemysław Pawlicki took part in the grand final. Before the race, there was a lot of scenarios. Milik believed that Laguta won’t score any point. The gap between Kasprzak and Pawlicki was only 2 points. Finally, Kasprzak won with huge advantage and secured a start in SEC 2018. The silver medal in general classification went to Laguta, who was third in last SEC 2017 race.
1.Krzysztof Kasprzak #507 (Poland) 13 (2,3,3,ex,2,3)
2.Andzejs Lebedevs #129 (Latvia) 14 (1,2,3,3,3,2)
3.Artem Laguta #2 (Russia) 13 (3,3,1,2,3,1)
4.Przemysław Pawlicki #59 (Poland) 11 (2,1,3,3,2,0)
5. Kenneth Bjerre #91 (Denmark) 11 (3,1,3,2,2)
6. Vaclav Milik #13 (Czechia) 10 (2,2,2,3,1)
7. Martin Smolinski #84 (Germany) 8 (ef,1,2,2,3)
8. Leon Madsen #66 (Denmark) 7 (3,0,1,3,0)
9.Daniel Jeleniewski #16 (Poland) 7 (3,3,1,0,0)
10. Andreas Jonsson #100 (Sweden) 7 (2,3,ef,1,1)
11.Andrey Kudryashov #9 (Russia) 7 (0,2,2,1,2)
12. Michael Jepsen Jensen #52 (Denmark) 7 (1,2,1,2,1)
13. Mateusz Szczepaniak #58 (Poland) 5 (1,0,ex,1,3)
14. Mikkel Bech #177 (Denmark) 4 (1,d,2,0,1)
15. Jurica Pavlic #19 (Croatia) 1 (0,1,0,0,0)
16. Kacper Gomólski #44 (Poland) 1 (0,0,ef,1,ef)
17. Oskar Bober #17 (Poland) DNS
18. Paweł Miesiąc #18 (Poland) DNS
1.(68,69) Kenneth Bjerre, Krzysztof Kasprza, Mateusz Szczepaniak, Martin Smolinski (ef)
2.(66,72) Artem Laguta, Vaclav Milik, Andzejs Lebedevs, Andrey Kudryashov
3.(67,84) Daniel Jeleniewski, Przemysław Pawlicki, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Jurica Pavlic
4.(66,78) Leon Madsen, Andreas Jonsson, Mikkel Bech, Kacper Gomólski
5.(66,85) Krzysztof Kasprzak, Andzejs Lebedevs, Przemysław Pawlicki, Leon Madsen
6.(67,15)Andreas Jonsson, Andrey Kudryashov, Jurica Pavlic, Mateusz Szczepaniak
7.(67,13) Daniel Jeleniewski, Vaclav Milik, Martin Smolinski, Mikkel Bech (ef)
8. (66,53) Artem Laguta, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Kenneth Bjerre, Kacper Gomólski
9. (67,54) Krzysztof Kasprzak, Andrey Kudryashov, Daniel Jeleniewski, Kacper Gomólski (ef)
10. (67,41) Andzejs Lebedevs, Mikkel Bech, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Mateusz Szczepaniak (ex)
11.(68,00) Przemysław Pawlicki, Martin Smolinski, Artem Laguta, Andreas Jonsson (ef)
12. (67,87) Kenneth Bjerre, Vaclav Milik, Leon Madsen, Jurica Pavlic
13. (00,00) Vaclav Milik, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Andreas Jonsson, Krzysztof Kasprzak (ex)
14. (67,66) Leon Madsen, Artem Laguta, Mateusz Szczepaniak, Daniel Jeleniewski
15. (67,88) Andzejs Lebedevs, Martin Smolinski, Kacper Gomólski, Jurica Pavlic
16. (68,40) Przemysław Pawlicki, Kenneth Bjerre, Andrey Kudryashov, Mikkel Bech
17. (67,56) Artem Laguta, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Mikkel Bech, Jurica Pavlic
18. (67,70) Mateusz Szczepaniak, Przemysław Pawlicki, Vaclav Milik, Kacper Gomólski (ef)
19. (68,33) Martin Smolinski, Andrey Kudryashov, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Leon Madsen
20. (67,91) Andzejs Lebedevs, Kenneth Bjerre, Andreas Jonsson, Daniel Jeleniewski
21.(69,06) Przemysław Pawlicki, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Kenneth Bjerre, Vaclav Milik (ex)
22. (68,06) Krzysztof Kasprzak, Andzejs Lebedevs, Artem Laguta, Przemysław Pawlicki
