There is only one day to the inauguration of Speedway European Championship. The line – up of the championship is very strong, which makes it very difficult to point one favorite for the gold medal.
The journalist of Radio Zet and privately an enthusiast of speedway, Michał Korościel has attempted about the opinion on this year’s series of SEC.
“I will not be original if I write that this year’s European Championship is going to be extremely exciting. The list of participants, although very different in comparison to Grand Prix, is not worse. My favorite to win in this year’s SEC series is Nicki Pedersen. The Danish star has won 3 titles in the Individual World Championship, but he has never been European Champion and he hopes to put this missing trophy on his shelf later this year.
“Nicki is a guy who, regardless a rank of an event, always wants to win. When he puts his helmet on, it doesn’t matter if he starts in a friendly meeting or in World Championships, or in SEC series, or in individual or team event – he always must be first and since he has never won the European Championship, he will be particularly focused on that. After all, since the beginning of the season Pedersen has been in great shape and rivals will have considerable troubles with him.
“Besides, on the podium in the general classification I see Martin Vaculik and Piotr Protasiewicz. Vaculik because this year he is racing great and Protasiewicz because he likes the tracks on which each round will be held. In Torun he likes racing, in Landshut once he rode for the local club as a rider and he has been racing 16 years in a row on the track in Kumla as a rider of the local Indianerna. Besides, Protasiewicz started the season really great.
“I would not be surprised if Peter Kildemand jumped on the podium of the general classification. “Spidey” rides fantastic but he often exceeds fair play rules. This season he rode in 38 heats of Polish extraleague, from 5 he was excluded and SEC series promotes regularity. Too many mishaps: engine failures, tapes, exclusions, may hinder the way to a European top position.
“In the first eight of the series, apart the four riders mentioned earlier, in my opinion, there will be also the Laguta brothers, Sayfutdinov and Antonio Lindbaeck. As far as Tomasz Gollob is concerned, I believe that his presence in SEC series will be good for the event in terms of marketing, but I’m afraid that it will not raise the sports level”.
