Sam Ermolenko, legend of the American speedway, Individual World Champion 1993 and the Eurosport commentator sums up the first Speedway Euro Championship round in Güstrow.
Will the SEC's general classification, after the event in Daugavpils, will it be changed? Recently, in the Polish league, Martin Vaculik proved that he is very fast. Some people say that he is very fit with his new engines. Will he hold a leading position?
Martin Vaculik ended round one in Germany with top points. The Champion of 2013 positioned himself ahead of the pre-season favourites on a very weather-stricken Gustrow track. Surely the 26 year-old Slovakian must believe, also taking his current league form into account, he has what it
takes to carry on and has good stats to build even further in Daugvapils.
But you can never under-estimate a racer of any kind as we look forward to round 2 in Latvia. The likes of the in-form Krzysztof Kasprzak, sitting on 11 points from Gustrow, followed by a gold medal in the World Cup, will be fired up to claim the top spot as well.
Grisha Laguta is back to compete in SEC. He knows the track well, has raced there for several years. Can it put him as one of the favourites?
Of course. You certainly can’t overlook track specialists like Grigory Laguta and Andzejs Lebedevs, who are again both carrying great form, and that will only add to the excitement of the crowds cheering on their favourites. This meeting will bring some surprises, I’m sure we can count on that.
The home fans will keep fingers crossed for the local riders. Another Latvian in Daugavpils will be Maksim Bogdanovs, who got a wild card from the organizers. Looking at what Kai Huckenbeck did in Guestrow, after Maksim we can also expect a lot. Will he have a chance for a good result?
When you look back on round 1 in Germany and the performances of the likes of Huckenbeck, you can only complement the organisers’ pick of Wild Cards who will put in the drive to take points, and it will be interesting to see what Bodganovs does on Saturday.
And when we look down the field at some of the big names sitting on single digit points, it’s packed with plenty of picks who could easily spring to the top after round 2 in Latvia. Obviously the two- time winner Emil Sayfutinov is amongst them! I can’t wait for the action - see you there!
