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foto: Jarek Pabijan [email protected] tel +48 601 83 62 58

The first four rounds of the 2020 SGP series has taken place at tracks which the majority of riders are very familiar with, having raced there in the Ekstraliga at least once a year.

It was therefore not a surprise that Maciej Janowski and Tai Woffinden performed well at their home track, Wroclaw or that Bartosz Zmarzlik aced it at Gorzow.

However, this weekend’s venue in Prague will be a different experience for the riders as no one has it as their home circuit.

Lindgren has experience

The Marketa Stadium has hosted a round of the SGP every year since at least 2010, so those riders who have been in the top echelons of the sport for sometime may have an advantage over there rivals. And interestingly, current leader, Fredrik Lindgren is the rider in this year’s world championship who has raced their the most, taking part in 9 Grand Prix at the venue. Not only that, but he actually won the Prague SGP in 2018. This surely makes the Swede one of the favourites to win this weekend.

World Champions win at Prague

Tai Woffinden will have have fond memories of the Prague circuit and he has appeared in 6 of the last 10 meetings there. He is the most successful active rider at Prague having won their three times in a row between 2013-15. And in two of those years he went on to win the entire world championship.

In fact, half on the winners at Prague since 2010 have gone onto win the championship, including Australian, Jason Doyle, back in 2017. Behind Woffinden he is the most successful current rider at he track having also won there in 2016.

Will these two English speakers be able to us their positive past experience to rise again to winning ways on a track where they were so dominant over a five year period?

Statistics count Zmarzlik out

Someone who is probably not looking forward to returning to this track in the Czech Republic is current world champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik. Since 2016 he has only missed one SGPs there. But in three attempts, he has only got the qualifying rounds once – and that was four years ago – when he also failed to get to the final. Zmarzlik will need to have his best ever result at the track to have the best chance of retaining his title.

Another surprise?

But the track can also produce surprise winners, not least, last year when Polish then 35 year old, Janusz Kolodziej, took his first ever SGP victory in an unexpected win last year.

Will Lindgren be crowned World Champion?

So, who will be on the podium on Friday and Saturday nights? Will it be an “unknown” making his mark on the world stage for the first time? Or could it be Lindgren again, this time on his way to his first ever World Championship and the first Swede since Tony Rickardsson took his last title in 2005?