European Individual Ice Speedway Championship:
gold triplete for Franz Zorn
For the sixth time and the third consecutive year the city of Sanok, in the south-eastern Poland, hosted the European Individual Ice Speedway Championship.
Three seems to be a magic number, as the Austrian rider Franz Zorn claimed his third European Individual Ice Speedway Championship title after defeating his opposition in the impressive Mosir Sanok Arena. Zorn won the first European title in Sanok in 2008 and 15 years later, last year, the now 53-year-old from Saalfelden stood on the top step of the podium for the second time.
In Day 1 the ice warriors took to the track in front of a warm crowd, excited to see a great show. Taking advantage of the excellent track conditions, they push till the limits, with many heats seeing positions swapped lap after lap. Franz Zorn push hard winning easily ahead of Max Niedermaier and Jimmy Olsén. The German and the Swedish rider tried to put pressure, however, the Austrian had the perfect answer.
Day 2 was again a great show made of 8 heat. Spectators lost count of the number of the continuous overtakes between Maximilian Niedermaier Jr and Jimmy Hörnell Lidfalk, before Niedermaier Jr took the win on the last lap.
But the racing didn’t end so easy: heat 14 saw the finest display of ice racing between the three German riders on track, side by side for several laps, and at the end Luca Bauer won.
All was decided in the final heat of the day, where Franz Zorn won ahead of Jimmy Olsén and Niedermaier Jr, claiming for the third time the crown as European Ice Speedway Champion.
Final top three
- Franz Zorn, AUT
- Jimmy Olsen, SWE
- Max Niedermaier, GER
