Piotr Pawlicki storms to Latvian SGP win
Jason Doyle fourth in Latvia – Second in overall standings
Polish star Piotr Pawlicki admits a winter of hard work earned him room to relax as he stormed to his first ever FIM Speedway Grand Prix win at the Rietumu Bank Latvian SGP in Daugavpils on Saturday.
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The Leszno-born racer led a sensational Polish one-two-three as he was joined on the podium by runner-up and new World Championship leader Patryk Dudek, with Maciej Janowski defying a horrifying crash to claim third.
The night belonged to Pawlicki, who was unstoppable in his final five rides at Lokomotiv Stadium as he piled up 18 points to move up to sixth in the standings. Rider No.777 was positively stunned by his first SGP win, but was pleased to see a winter of hard graft by him and his team pay off in style.
Piotr Pawlicki
“It’s an amazing day for me. It’s the first time I have won a GP. I was third last year in Malilla, but I won today and I can’t believe what has happened. I want to say thank you to my team. They are always working hard on my bikes. If you have a fast bike, you are more relaxed. If you have slow bikes, you must think ‘what’s happening? What must I do to be better?’ So this was a very nice day for me. Before the meeting I felt really, really very good. I was always smiling and the team was saying ‘what’s happening?!’ Maybe I was a little more relaxed. I worked hard all winter, training with my trainer Tomasz Skrzypek. He comes to every meeting with me and he’s helping me. I want to thank him too. It’s an amazing day for Polish speedway. Three guys from Poland stood on the podium and with good points.”
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Pawlicki was elated to stand between two more of Poland’s speedway heroes as Dudek and Janowski also reached the rostrum. Dudek now leads the SGP standings on 38 points – putting him just one ahead of Aussie icon Jason Doyle, who finished fourth after being slowed by a blocked air filter in the final.
The Zielona Gora and Dackarna man was delighted to bounce back from two third places at the start of the night to go top of the world.
Patryk Dudek
“The first heats were very tough for me. I changed bikes and it was very good. I won all the heats then and only lost to Piotr in the final. Congratulations to him – he was very fast today. But I am first now in the World Championship, so that’s perfect.”
Janowski enjoyed mixed fortunes as he limped away from Daugavpils with a leg injury after lifting spectacularly and crashing in heat 17, with Matej Zagar and Bartosz Zmarzlik unable to avoid him. Miraculously, all three men walked away from an ugly incident and Magic was pleased to end a painful night on the podium.
Maciej Janowski
“That was a very special night for Poland – three young Polish riders on the podium. That’s really good. I can’t feel much in my left leg, though! I’m glad I’m in one piece and so are the rest of the boys. There was nothing I could do in that moment when I crashed. I had a really good start to the race and I was in front when this happened. There were a few ruts there and I wasn’t ready for them. That’s speedway.”
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Jason Doyle described a challenging event but was happy to be able to salvage 10 points towards the championship standings.
Jason Doyle
“Last night will be a night to look back on and think… We got out of a serious mess getting 10 points after sneaking into semi finals. We had a good race for second with Emil in the semi final and we finally felt we found some speed for the final. But it wasn’t the the final ended we were worked hard for. It ended in a Massive let down after working so hard to make the final to then break down in 2nd place was hard to deal with but as we all know Sometimes motorsport can throw you a few curve balls so we live and learn from these mistakes… Today is a new day and Zielona Gora race at Gorzow, the local derby match. It will be a intense! Good news the sun is out and I am fit and safe ready to fight today.”
Next up for the FIM Speedway Grand Prix stars is the Mitas Czech Republic SGP in Prague on June 10.
Rietumu Bank Latvian SGP Scores
- Piotr Pawlicki 18
- Patryk Dudek 16
- Maciej Janowski 13
- Jason Doyle 10
- Emil Sayfutdinov 13
- Matej Zagar 10
- Tai Woffinden 9
- Maksims Bogdanovs 8
- Martin Vaculik 8
- Niels-Kristian Iversen 7
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 6
- Greg Hancock 5
- Fredrik Lindgren 5
- Chris Holder 4
- Antonio Lindback 4
- Peter Kildemand 1
- Kjastas Puodzuks DNR
- Evgenijs Kostigovs DNR
World Championship Standings
- Patryk Dudek 38
- Jason Doyle 37
- Fredrik Lindgren 37
- Maciej Janowski 35
- Martin Vaculik 34
- Piotr Pawlicki 32
- Emil Sayfutdinov 31
- Tai Woffinden 30
- Niels-Kristian Iversen 25
- Bartosz Zmarzlik 24
- Matej Zagar 21
- Greg Hancock 20
- Chris Holder 16
- Antonio Lindback 12
- Nicki Pedersen 8
- Maksims Bogdanovs 8
- Przemyslaw Pawlicki 3
- Peter Kildemand 1
- Nick Skorja 1
