Fabulous four earn 2025 SGP permanent places at dramatic Czech showdown

On a dramatic night packed with thrills and spills, Brady Kurtz, Anders Thomsen, Dominik Kubera and Max Fricke filled the top four positions in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship Challenge and in doing so earned themselves permanent starting positions in the 2025 FIM Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) series.
 
Constant rain made conditions technical and very testing in the Stadion Pardubice – Svítkov in the Czech Republic with available grip and favourable lines on the three-hundred-and-ninety-one-metre oval shifting on an almost race-by-race basis.
 
Australian ace Kurtz started the programme firing on all cylinders and the twenty-eight-year-old, who has never had a full-time place in SGP, took control from the get-go with victory from Danish rider Thomsen. Poland’s Kubera, one of the pre-event favourites who finished this year’s SGP series in eighth, also got his challenge under way with a win and the pair were tied at the top following the first block of Heats with Sweden’s Jacob Thorssell and Kai Huckenbeck from Germany.
 
Kurtz, Kubera and Thorssell all added another win in their second Heats to keep it all square at the front as twenty-eight-year-old Australian Fricke, after following Kubera home in their opening Heat, picked up three points for his first win of the night.
 
With two blocks down and three to go the pace-setters were beginning to stake their claims to the four priceless qualifying positions and with his third consecutive win – this time ahead of Huckenbeck and Kubera – Kurtz pulled clear of the chasing pack as Thomsen, after scoring a single point in his second outing, kept himself in contention with his first victory of the night.
 
Poland’s Kacper Woryna also took a win in the third block in front of Thorssell and his compatriot Patryk Dudek, who looked impressive in two wildcard SGP appearances this year, added a vital three points to his total when he defeated Fricke.
  
The opening race of the fourth block featured Kurtz, Thorssell and Fricke who were lying first, second and fourth, but it was home hero Jan Kvech who muscled his way to a surprise victory from Kurtz. Germany’s Kevin Wölbert then doubled his score with his first win of the night, before Thomsen and Kubera kept the pressure on Kurtz with victories of their own.
 
Heading into the fifth and final Block of racing, Kurtz led on eleven points from Kubera on ten with Thomsen on nine, one point clear of a two-way tie for the fourth and final qualifying position between Thorssell and Fricke.
 
Thomsen – winner of the 2022 Gorzów SGP – was the first rider to book his place behind the SGP tapes next year when he won his fifth Heat from Thorssell and Kubera before Denmark’s Frederik Jakobsen and Woryna claimed consolation victories. Woryna’s win came at the expense of Kurtz, but the Australian was clearly delighted with the two points for second that gave him an unassailable lead.
 
With Kubera also assured of a place in SGP next year, the final qualifying position hinged on the deciding Heat of the night.
 
Fricke, who this year replaced the injured Jason Doyle for the final eight rounds of the SGP series, knew that victory was essential as a second-placed finish would tie him with Thorssell who would get the verdict on more Heat wins, but when the tapes went up the Australian struggled as he ran wide into soft dirt. With his chances of returning for a full SGP season in 2025 looking slim, he was handed a lifeline when Huckenbeck crashed and Wölbert ran into his stricken machine.
 
From the restart Fricke moved past Wölbert into the lead and then soaked up intense pressure from the German for the full four laps to take a vital three points and the final qualifying position.
 
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