With four priceless permanent starting places behind the tapes for the 2026 FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship (SGP) on the line, the action is guaranteed to be intense and unrelenting this coming Saturday (9 August) when the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship Challenge powered by Anlas, Kineo and HKC Koopmann takes place at Holsted in Denmark.
- FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship Challenge set for Holsted
- Top four in Denmark will earn permanent places in 2026 FIM SGP series
- Who will win the battle of youth versus experience?
Following three hard-fought qualification rounds staged in early June in Slovakia, Italy and Germany, the fifteen riders who made the cut along with one Danish wildcard and two track reserves are preparing to go into battle for what for some could be a career-changing event.
This was certainly the case for Australia’s Brady Kurtz who won the 2024 FIM SGP Challenge and in his first full season among the sport’s elite currently lies second – just three points behind defending champion Bartosz Zmarzlik – after winning the three most recent rounds.
With only the top seven from the 2025 SGP series sure of a start in 2026, the Moldow Speedway Arena will feature seven current SGP permanent riders attempting to book their places early for next season.
Currently holding down fifth in SGP having taken victory at round two in Warsaw, Australia’s Jack Holder is the highest placed of the permanent riders in action in Holsted, although he is just one position above Latvian racer Andzejs Lebedevs who has claimed two podium finishes from the eight SGP rounds held so far this season.
Lying in ninth and tenth in SGP, both Dominik Kubera from Poland and home hero Anders Thomsenbooked their places in the 2025 SGP series via last season’s FIM SGP Challenge and will be looking for repeat performances this time around, but they can be sure that fellow SGP permanent riders Jan Kvech from the Czech Republic, Slovakia’s Martin Vaculik and Kai Huckenbeck from Germany will have identical ambitions.
However, with such a strong international field comprising riders from eight countries and two continents, nothing is guaranteed and among the riders in action in Denmark is hugely-talented Polish rider Mateusz Cierniak, winner of back-to-back FIM SGP2 titles in 2022 and 2023.
Cierniak has been widely tipped as a future Speedway star, and after reserving his place at Holsted with victory in his qualification round at Lonigo, the twenty-two-year-old knows that a top-four finish on Saturday will represent a major step on the career ladder.
Other riders to watch out for include, but are not limited to, Latvia’s Francis Gusts who was just a point behind Cierniak at Lonigo as well as Matej Zagar from Slovenia who was second at the Zarnovica qualification round behind Thomsen, while Denmark’s Michael Jepsen Jensen – who was second in Abensberg behind Huckenbeck – will be hoping to use home advantage to full effect.
The action in the Moldow Speedway Arena is scheduled to get under way with the opening Heat at 18:15 (local time).
All the action from Holsted along with replays and special contents will be streamed LIVE on FIM-MOTO.TV with a pass priced at just €9.90. For more details and to sign up click here.
For more information on the 2025 FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship Qualifying rounds and SGP Challenge click here.
Alternatively, fans can download the Sportity App and use the password FIMTR to access Track Racing news.