With the leading Polish riders dominating Final 2 of the Under 21 World Championship, the hopes of the Danish squad disappeared under the dust of the Lublin track on Saturday. There were around 3000 spectators to watch some entertaining racing on a blisteringly hot day and on a track which was challenging despite the organisers battle to maintain a good racing surface.
Bartosz Smarslik, was again in top form and was unbeaten by an opponent until a last race disqualification spoilt his maximum hopes but he remains at the top of the leader board and a clear 4 points ahead of his nearest rival. Winner of the meeting was his fellow Pole Pawel Przedpelski whose 14 points redeemed his injury affected meeting at Final 1 in Lonigo and catapulted him from 8th to 2nd place in the Intermediate Classification. He dropped his only point to Denmark’s Mikkel Michelsen in his first ride but then raced to four untroubled wins.
Mikkelsen’s afternoon however was about to turn into a nightmare as the joint leader at the start of the meeting suffered a series of misfortunes. Beaten into second place by compatriot Anders Thomsen in his next race, he then suffered a fall and a retirement completing the meeting with only six points and his championship hopes rapidly diminishing. Thomsen by contrast had a profitable afternoon with 11 points despite a start line engine failure in his third race. The remaining Danes enjoyed little success with Nikolai B Jacobsen and Mikkel Bech Jensen both surrendering their medal chasing positions and Emil Grondal failing to score in three of his races.
The Australians too had a meeting to forget with Max Fricke scoring only seven and Brady Kurtz suffering two disqualifications.
Third place on the rostrum went to Latvian Andzejs Lebedevs who recovered from a poor start by winning his last three races and the run off with Thomsen for the bronze medal position.
Result, Final 2:
| Place | Rider | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pawel Przedpelski | Poland | 14 |
| 2 | Bartosz Zmarzlik | Poland | 12 |
| 3 | Andrzejs Lebedevs | Latvia | 11 |
| 4 | Anders Thomsen | Denmark | 11 |
| 5 | Maksym Drabik | Poland | 10 |
| 6 | Viktor Kulakov | Russia | 10 |
| 7 | Max Fricke | Australia | 7 |
| 8 | Mikkel Bech Jensen | Denmark | 7 |
| 9 | Stefan Nielsen | Great Britain | 6 |
| 10 | Mikkel Michelsen | Denmark | 6 |
| 11 | Victor Palovaara | Sweden | 6 |
| 12 | Valentin Grobauer | Germany | 5 |
| 13 | Brady Kurtz | Australia | 4 |
| 14 | Nikolaj Busk Jacobsen | Denmark | 4 |
| 15 | Emil Grondal | Denmark | 3 |
| 16 | Michael Hartel | Germany | 2 |
| 17 | Adam Cyfer | Poland | 1 |
Lebedevs beat Thomsen in a run off for third place.
Leading scorers after two rounds: Zmarzlik 26, Przedpelski 22, Michelsen 20, Thomsen 20, Fricke 17, Jensen 17, Lebedevs 16.
This leaves Zmarzlik with a slight advantage going into Final 3 in Pardubice, Czech Republic on 19th September, a meeting which will decide the destination of the 2015 championship. If he can maintain his consistency then Zmarslik should capture the title but with Przedpelski breathing down his neck and the Danes determined to apply the pressure the fight is not over yet.
Graham Brodie