On Saturday, 4th of July, the TAURON SEC 2020 series was inaugurated at Torun’s Motoarena. The audience gathered in this beautiful venue was counting on a good performance by Polish representatives. This time, none of the Poles stood on the podium, but certainly we can’t talk about the fail when it comes to the performances of riders in white and red colors.
The youngest of Poles – Bartosz Smektała, was the best of them. The under 22-year-old rider took place in the grand finale, in which he ultimately lost with Leon Madsen, Robert Lambert and Nicki Pedersen. However, it's hard to complain about such a performance. In the main series, the popular "Smyk" lost only 4 points – two with the later finalists, Madsen and Lambert and in the 13th heat – which can be considered as a small surprise – with Finn Timo Lahti and the Russian Andrey Kudryashov. The high place allowed him to start in the race-off for the final, which he won. In a last battle he lost with all rivals, finally finishing the competition on 4th place. After the 1st Final Round of TAURON Speedway Euro Championship 2020 he takes a high place, losing only 3 points to the leading Lambert and Pedersen, which can be reduced quite quickly.
Bartosz Zmarzlik achieved the second result among Poles for the inauguration of the series in Toruń. The Individual World Champion 2019 returned to Motoarena, where in October last year he celebrated his greatest triumph in his career, racing in Saturday's competition with a “wild card”. The 25-year-old rider for the first time appeared in the final tournament of the Individual European Championships and was very close to checking in in the final heat. Finally in the race-off he finished third, behind Smektała and Madsen and finished the competition on the high 5th place with 10 points.
Two other Polish representatives, taking part in the TAURON SEC 2020 series as regular participants, can speak about a small false start. Kacper Woryna, who was very close to achieve bronze medal last year, finished the first Final Round in Torun on 8th place with 8 points. His situation could have been quite different, if he wasn’t excluded in the 14th heat of the day. Ultimately, without these points he couldn’t take place in race-off heat. Krzysztof Kasprzak collected just one point less than Woryna, finishing the competition on 10th position. Although when we look at the points, it may not look so bad, but it can’t be a good sign, that the individual runner-up of the World Championship in 2014 didn’t manage to win a single race for the inauguration of the TAURON SEC 2020 series. For sure there is a lot of place for improvement and everyone knows that this rider can do much more. The last of the Poles, who appeared on the Motoarena track on 4th of July, was Igor Kopeć-Sobczyński. Substitute rider had the opportunity to appear in the first race, after the exclusion of Václav Milík, caused by touching the tape. Quite unexpectedly the young rider was better than David Bellego and could enjoy getting one point.
After the first Final Round of the TAURON SEC 2020 series, Bartosz Smektała has reasons to be satisfied. In the general classification he is at the one of the highest positions and certainly in the next rounds he will do everything to continue his fight for the highest goals. Also, the chances of the next regular participants in the fight for the Individual European Championship in white and red colors can’t be ruled out. However, both Kacper Woryna and Krzysztof Kasprzak have to change something to present themselves better than in first meeting in Toruń. Although this year's TAURON SEC series has 5 final rounds, there will be less space for mistakes in subsequent tournaments.
