Antonio Lindbäck, Andžejs Ļebedevs, Kai Huckenbeck, Václav Milík and Adam Ellis received permanent wild cards for the TAURON Speedway Euro Championship 2023. The competition for the title of Individual European Champion will begin on June 17 in Częstochowa.
The TAURON Speedway Euro Championship is a four-round series in which riders compete for the trophy for European Champion, and a spot in the 2024 Speedway Grand Prix. Besides Częstochowa, this year's finals will take place in Güstrow (August 5), Bydgoszcz (September 9) and Pardubice (September 22).
On the last Sunday, five best riders of SEC Challenge - Dimitri Berge, Kacper Woryna, Jan Kvěch, Grzegorz Zengota and Andreas Lyager joined Leon Madsen, Janusz Kołodziej, Mikkel Michelsen, Patryk Dudek and Dominik Kubera as permanent participants of this year's competition.
As usual, the remaining places were taken by riders who were awarded permanent "wild cards" by the organizers. These were given to Antonio Lindbäck, Andžejs Ļebedevs, Kai Huckenbeck, Václav Milík and Adam Ellis. Each of them has already competed in the TAURON SEC series. The Latvian is the 2017 Individual European Champion, while the Czech grabbed medals in 2016 (silver) and 2017 (bronze). The Swede has also stood on the podium of the entire series, taking the lowest step on it in 2015. It is worth to mention the German, who stood on the podium of single rounds in Güstrow (2016) and Gniezno (2018), while for the Brit it will be the second consecutive year in the TAURON SEC line-up.
TAURON SEC 2023 riders list:
1. Leon Madsen (Denmark)
2. Janusz Kołodziej (Poland)
3. Mikkel Michelsen (Denmark)
4. Patryk Dudek (Poland)
5. Dominik Kubera (Poland)
6. Dimitri Bergé (France)
7. Kacper Woryna (Poland)
8. Jan Kvěch (Czech Republic)
9. Grzegorz Zengota (Poland)
10. Andreas Lyager (Denmark)
11. Antonio Lindbäck (Sweden)
12. Andzejs Lebedevs (Latvia)
13. Kai Huckenbeck (Germany)
14. Vaclav Milik (Czech Republic)
15. Adam Ellis (Great Britain)
Reserve riders:
R1 - Timo Lahti (Finland)
R2 - Szymon Woźniak (Poland)
R3 - Niels Kristian Iversen (Denmark)
R4 - Mads Hansen (Denmark)
