ZMARZLIK FAVOURITE FOR DOUBLE AT GORZÓW

Last night in the Ekstraliga in Gorzow, World Champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik picked up an almost perfect 14 points from 5 races as his team beat visitors, Zielona Gora, convincingly. And next week Rounds 3 and 4 of the SGP series come to the city on Friday and Saturday nights.

And although all the world is coming to visit, Zmarzlik’s is the only name that should be on the winner’s trophies for Rounds 3 and 4.

Dominant at home

The reigning world champion will be racing at home, a place he has made his own and where he is dominant. He has twice scored a full maximum of 18 points this season and he has never scored less than 10 on his home shale. That lowest score came in the first match when he was thrown out of the season’s very first heat for Touching the Tapes.

All-in-all, he has raced 40 heats on the track in the world’s best league and have an average of 2.525 there. That is to say, he scores 5 points for every 2 heats he races at home. Or in other words, the World Champion’s average for this track is 14.42 points per game.

Can Laguta challenge him?

Last night’s rescheduled match now means that all the top Polish teams have played at Gorzow this season and no one has got even close to the Polish 25 year’s old’s output. The only exception is Artem Laguta who dropped just 2 points in 6 heats when Grudziadz came to visit. Laguta is in the form of his life and won his first ever SGP at Wroclaw last week. But can he beat the Pole in his own back yard?

Missed opportunities

Both Patryk Dudek and Martin Vaculik had the perfect opportunity to warm up for next weekend’s double-header in Gorzow as they represented Zielona Gora in last night’s meeting.

Dudek was the only person to beat his fellow Pole all night and finished with an impressive 12 points. Furthermore, he beat Zmarzlik in the very last heat of the evening, something he will take with him into the SGP series. However, it was a night to forget for his team mate. The Slovakian scored a disappointed 7 and was clearly frustrated when the cameras focused in on him as the team discussed tactics late on in the race.

Struggling Scandinavians

Antonio Lindbäck is the only one of the SGP permanent riders who has not been to Gorzow this year. That is because he was dropped from the Zielona Gora team that came to visit yesterday. But even so, he is no fan of the track. In 2019 he scored just 3+1 there and this season’s form, unfortunately, means that we count out Sweden’s number 2 rider. His fellow Scandinavian, Niels-Kristen Iversen has Gorzow as his home track in Poland. However, injury has meant he has raced just four heats there with an average of just 1.750. That said, racing for Torun last year the Danish rider did score 11+1.

Who will join Zmarzlik in the finals?

So, if points scored this season are anything to go by, we should see the two winners last weekend – Artem Laguta and Maciej Janowski – and Emil Sayfutdinov in the finals alongside a triumphant Zmarzlik in Gorzow next weekend.

Scores at Gorzow 2020 and 2019:

2019 in brackets.

A Laguta 16             (13)

Janowski 12+1        (-)

Sayfutdinov 12+1    (10)

Dudek 12                 (8)

Madsen 10               (10)

Zagar 9                   (10)

Woffinden 8+1         (12)

Doyle 8                    (16)

Michelsen 8             (9+1)

Fricke 7+1               (1+1)

Vaculik 7                  (13+1)

Lindgren 6+1           (-)

Lindbäck –              (3+1)

Statistics from Ekstraliga.