We have met the five riders who have received permanent 'wild cards' to compete in the TAURON Speedway Euro Championship 2024.
The first of them is Timo Lahti. The Finn with a Swedish passport was close to earning a promotion to the main series through the SEC Challenge, but in the extra race, after a solid battle, he had to acknowledge the superiority of Jevgenijs Kostigovs. It is worth mentioning that in 2020, Lahti stood on the podium of the TAURON SEC rounds held in Gniezno and Toruń (final).
Anders Thomsen returns to the line-up of the Individual European Championship. For the past three seasons, the Dane has been a regular participant in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series, in which, in 2022, he claimed victory during the round in Gorzów Wielkopolski. So far, he has competed in seven Speedway Euro Championship rounds, scoring 34 points.
This will be the third consecutive year in the TAURON SEC series for Dimitri Berge. The Frenchman was the 10th overall in last year's competition. He started this season successfully, immediately becoming the leader of the team from Krosno (Metalkas 2.Ekstraliga). The ambitious Frenchman will certainly do his best to join the fight for medals in TAURON SEC 2024.
The second of the Danes who received a permanent 'wild card' for the upcoming series is Rasmus Jensen. The 31-year-old rider returns to competition in the Individual European Championships after a one-year break. In TAURON SEC 2022, he scored 31 points, which translated into sixth place in the overall standings.
The last 'wild card' was given to Norick Blödorn. The 20-year-old is one of the most talented riders of the younger generation in German speedway. Regular starts in the TAURON SEC will be a great opportunity for him to further develop and gain valuable experience.
The reserve riders are: Jacob Thorssell, Bartlomiej Kowalski, Tom Brennan, Erik Riss, and Marko Levishyn.
The full TAURON SEC 2024 line-up:
Mikkel Michelsen (Denmark) #155
Leon Madsen (Denmark) #30
Janusz Kolodziej (Poland) #333
Patryk Dudek (Poland) #692
Andzejs Lebedevs (Latvia) #29
Maciej Janowski (Poland) #71
Piotr Pawlicki (Poland) #777
Vaclav Milik (Czech Republic) #225
Kacper Woryna (Poland) #223
Jevgenijs Kostigovs (Latvia) #113
Timo Lahti (Sweden) #98
Anders Thomsen (Denmark) #105
Dimitri Berge (France) #96
Rasmus Jensen (Denmark) #67
Norick Blödorn (Germany) #37
Reserves:
Jacob Thorssell (Sweden) #24
Bartłomiej Kowalski (Poland) #302
Tom Brennan (Great Britain) #27
Erik Riss (Germany) #47
Marko Levishyn (Ukraine) #778