Brady Kurtz again underlined his title credentials in Riga with another powerful display, but late misfortune on a brutal track allowed Bartosz Zmarzlik to pounce
Six Times and reigning World Speedway Champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik, has regained the ascendency in this year’s title chase with a determined victory in round eight in Latvia.
On a shocking racing surface that had bumps and dust aplenty it was the Pole who adapted best, proving he is certainly not a one trick pony.
Two more things in relation to the track before we move on.
Firstly, there were some very dark clouds hovering close to the venue so that probably explains why they held off with the watering.
Secondly, the track finally started to offer an outside racing line half way through the meeting and this was exploited with great aplomb by England’s Robert Lambert in heat number eleven when he blitzed past Australia’s Max Fricke via a blistering outside run.
However, in an act of sheer stupidity this outside line was graded away during the mid meeting track prep (after heat twelve) and never returned – it was absolutely ridiculous and ruined the meeting.
Australia’s title contender, Brady Kurtz, once again looked the business, scoring eleven points and leading the meeting after four of his five heats.
However, in a perfect storm he missed the start badly in his last ride from the worst gate and on a deteriorating track he could not bridge the gap between himself and third placed wildcard Daniils Kolodinskis, finishing last.
He did manage to win his last chance qualifier ahead of hard charging home country rider Andzejs Lebedevs which gave him third gate choice behind automatic qualifiers Lambert and Zmarzlik.
Kurtz took gate four and made a brilliant start but on an icy surface he skated past the apex of the corner which allowed Zmarzlik and Lambert to go through and secure the first two places. Kurtz stayed in third having kept Poland’s Kacper Woryna at bay.
Our other Australian riders, Jason Doyle and Max Fricke, both rode well scoring seven points respectively in their heats but bowing out in the last chance qualifiers.
In fact, Fricke lead Zmarzlik for three laps in his opening ride before making an uncharacteristic error and allowing the Pole through. If he’d have held Zmarzlik off it would have helped Kurtz enormously, but it wasn’t to be.
The series now pauses for its annual European late summer break before resuming in Denmark on September twelve and finishing on September 26 in Poland.
Progress Points after 8 of 10 rounds.
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 129
- Brady Kurtz 125
- Robert Lambert 119
- Michael Jepsen Jensen 88
