The fight for European championship is now in the middle. On August 18th TAURON Speedway Euro Championship will come to Daugavpils. Last time, the best riders on the oldest continent took part in competition there 2 years ago. In 2016 the best was Grigorij Laguta, who beat Joonas Kylmaekorpi and Emil Sayfutdinov in grand final, but classification can’t say anything about epic racing, which took place that night.
Since the beginning, fans could have had problems with focus, because it’s not frequent to see so many great moves on the track in first series. It started by hard duel between Martin Vaculik and Anders Thomsen. In next heat, on the outside the fastest was Janusz Kołodziej, who beat Vaclav Milik, Peter Ljung and Krzysztof Kasprzak. In third heat, the whole thing was going around Przemysław Pawlicki. First of all, Pole rode close to Leon Madsen and when he escaped, he had to look at attacks from Maksum Bogdanov and Emil Sayfutdinov. Latvian didn’t give up and a few meters before the finish line, he took the lead. Also at the finish line the victory was taken by Lindbaeck in heat 19.
In the end of first series Grigorij Laguta started his concert. The Russian came from 4th to 1st position. He decided to ride on the inside all time what paid him off. Track in Daugavpils gave riders a lot of options to fight in the field, what has been used too by riders like Joonas Kylmaekorpi, who came from third to first place in heat 7.
From the other side, no one had been sure about their safety. Everybody had to stay focused until the end, because attacking riders presented a lot of opportunities to make defense harder. Krzysztof Kasprzak, who lost any points in heat 5 after the best start moment ,definitely knows a lot about that. Finaly Pole wasn’t lucky that day and finished 15th.
That only confirms that track in Daugavpils is giving a chance to riders who like to make show, because everybody can choose right line to ride. In heat 6 it was showed by Grigorij Laguta and Leon Madsen. Russian rode close to curb and Dane tried to chase him near the fence. Despite that, they remained very close to each other for whole race.
Track in Daugavpils allowed to make some stunt moves. In heat 8, Emil Sayfutdinov tried to make a zig-zag between Vaclav Milik and Nicki Pedersen. Russian overtook Czech on the outside and in a second he tried to make another move close to curb. Similar attack was shown by Andrei Lebedev in heat 10.
In other races situation was also hot. In heat 16, local fans had a lot of fun watching fight between Maksim Bogdanov and Andrei Lebedev. Younger Latvian turned out to be better and tried to overtake Hans Andersen, but Dane closed all door and defended his lead. In heat 18 Peter Ljung and Nicki Pedersen did a great show. On third lap „Power” lost his position, but everybody knows, that ex-world champion doesn’t like to lose. Unfortunately, this time Dane caused Ljung’s fall.
Finally, in every race of the basic part, fans were able to watch some epic moves. Even when there was no one able to overtake the leader, there was always some rider from behind trying to show something special. That was a part of heat 9, when Nicki Pedersen tried to chase Anders Thomsen, who was also in chase. In heat 20, Grigorij Laguta, who tried to beat Hans Andersen, was in similar situation.
Emotions were also the part of the most important races. Joonas Kylmaekorpi and Maksim Bogdanov promoted to the finals. In race-off, first and second were Grigorij Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov. Grigorij Laguta escaped on the start, but Sayfutdinov had to fight for second place. Rider from Salawat found some speed on the outsite and tried to do something similar to that in heat 8. Finally Russian overtook Vaclav Milik and Przemysław Pawlicki on the same straight line.
Riders, who started in grand final had to start two times. In first attempt everything looked well, but Maksim Bogdanov made one too hard move and has been excluded. Fortunately, re-run was the best race of the night. Great show was done by Grigorij Laguta, who was lurking behind Joonas Kylmaekorpi and tried to find enough speed. Finally Russian took the lead on third lap.
Our memories from Daugavpils are epic, so we’re waiting for third TAURON Speedway Euro Championship round with huge hopes.
