America’s Luke Becker produced a dominant performance at Abensberg in Germany today where he won all five of his Heat races to claim maximum points and come out on top at the first of this year’s three FIM Speedway Grand Prix Qualifying rounds.
Leading home an international top five featuring riders from four countries and three continents, the twenty-seven-year-old – who failed to progress beyond the Qualifying stage last season – booked his position behind the tapes at the FIM SGP World Championship Challenge in Terenzano in Italy on 25 July where four places in the 2027 FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship (SGP) will be up for grabs.
Becker will be joined in Terenzano by Sweden’s Kim Nilsson, Australians Rohan Tungate and Keynan Rew and Poland’s Dominik Kubera who fought their way into the all-important top five across twenty closely contested Heats in the Wack Hofmeister Speedway Stadium in Bavaria.
France’s Dimitri Bergé defeated Kubera in their opening Heat, Nilsson got the better of Tungate and Latvia’s Francis Gusts beat local hero Kevin Wölbert before Becker led home Rew to conclude the opening block of racing.
Tungate then defeated compatriot Rew and Nilsson maintained his one-hundred per cent record with victory ahead of German racer Norick Blödorn as Gusts beat Kubera and Becker claimed his second win of the afternoon, this time at the expense of Jan Kvěch from the Czech Republic.
The third block of racing got under way with a showdown between the so-far-undefeated Becker and Nilsson and it was the rider from California who emerged on top before Tungate raced to his second win of the programme, this time chased by Niccolo Percotti from Italy. Kubera then won from Blödorn and Rew defeated Slovenian Matic Ivacic as the battle for a place in the top five continued to rage.
Blödorn kept himself in contention when he beat Bergé at the start of the fourth block of racing as Gusts followed Rew across the line and Becker booked his place in Terenzano when he led home Tungate and Kubera before Nilsson made it three wins from four starts with victory ahead of Germany’s Valentin Grobauer.
Having started the day among the pre-race favourites, Wölbert claimed a consolation victory from Bergé as the concluding block of racing got under way before Becker completed his domination with a fifth win, this time from Grobauer.
The final two Heats proved to be pivotal with Kubera winning from Nilsson and Rew and Tungate getting the better of Gusts to set up a run-off for second, that was won by Nilsson from Tungate, before Rew led home Kubera and Gusts in a run-off for fourth, fifth and sixth that dropped the thirty-two-year-old Latvian out of contention for a place in Terenzano.
The focus now shifts to 30 May and the final two Qualifying rounds in Žarnovica and Glasgow with the action from Slovakia scheduled to start at 14:20 (local) time before the tapes go up in Great Britain at 19:10 (local time).
FIM-MOTO.TV will stream all three FIM Speedway Grand Prix Qualifying rounds and the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship Challenge LIVE with a full pass covering all four events available now priced at €55.90 and a single-event pass for the Challenge on sale for just €9.90. For more details and to sign up click here.