Beautiful weather across southern Sweden meant all three matches were able to go ahead with a full capacity of 500 spectators, in accord with Swedish Corona regulations. And it was three home wins tonight with two of the matches finishing with the same score.
Västervik Speedway 53 v 37 Avesta Masarna
Västervik played their first game at home this season in their second meeting of 2021. They hosted the 2020 champions, Masarna, who travelled to the east coast town at the bottom of the table before tonight’s three matches in Sweden.
The hosts had the strongest team, with SGP rider, Artem Laguta (11) leading the side as well as U21 World Champions Jaimon Lidsey (9+3) and Bartosz Smektala (13+1) in the squad.
However, the visitors managed to keep the deficit low until Heat 6 when Smektala and Lidsey won a 5:1 against the Swedish duo of Antonio Lindbäck (4+2) and Philip Hellström-Bängs (4).
Just two heats later the two U21 World Champions took another 5:1 for Västervik and the home team lead by 32:22 at pause before Heat 10.
Masarna never looked likely to take back the lead, even though the match provided more overtaking opportunities as the night went on.
So, by Heat 15 we were treated to a spectacular race where all four riders were in the lead at one point or another. However, it was Västervik’s Smektala that passed both the Pawlicki brothers on the inside coming out of turn two, who would finally take three points. His team ran out deserved winners, 53:37.
Top Scorers:
Piotr Pawlicki MAS 14+1
Bartosz Smektala WSMK 13+1
Pawel Przedpelski WSMK 13+1
You can watch official highlights here.
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Kumla Indianerna 56 v 34 Motala Piraterna
22-year-old, Mateusz Tonder’s debut in the Swedish league for Piraterna at Kumla today was not the dream start he, and Motala, were hoping for. He came into replace the injured Peter Kildemand. But scored 0 in his first three heats and was then replaced in his final heat by Jakub Jamrog.
At the same time, Tomas H Jonasson also had a nightmare. He had two engine stops and when he finally completed four laps in Heat 8, he came last. The Swede also finished with 0 pts and was taken out of his last heat. This time the replacement was Piraterna’s other Polish rider, Oskar Fajfer.
It was a completely different story for Kumla’s Andreas Lyager who came for another injured Dane, Niels Kristian Iversen in after the preliminary teams were announced. He scored 9+1 pts while fellow Dane, Jonas Jeppesen (10+1) and Australian, Max Fricke (14) made sure of a comfortable home victory.
Fortunately for the guests, Jamrog and Fajfer were on top form scoring 25 pts for Piraterna who lost 56:34.
Top scorers:
Oskar Fajfer PIR 15+1
Max Fricke KUM 14
Jakub Jamrog PIR 10+2
Jonas Jeppesen KUM 10+1
You can watch official highlights here.
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Eskilstuna Smederna 53 v Rospiggarna Hallstavik 37
Smederna, who did not take part in the 2020 season, played their first home match since winning the championship at the end of 2019. They were also the only team tonight to not have a Polish rider in their line-up. Instead, they started with Russians Grigory Laguta (12) and Gleb Chegunov (9+2). The match also had two Latvians against each other as Smederna’s Andzejs Lebedevs (13+1) faced Rospiggarna’s Oleg Mihailov (2).
After the embarrassment of not being able to even start the match last week in Eskilstuna, everyone breathed a sigh of relief when tapes finally lifted on the first heat of 2021. And the fans, of course, loved it when Laguta (12) took 3 points for the home team, with Michael Jepsen Jensen (5+1) in second so that Smederna led 4:2 from the start.
They never seemed likely to let up this lead which increased to 10 points after another Laguta/ Jepsen Jensen 4:2 victory in Heat 6.
But things might have been different if Zielona Gora star, Patryk Dudek (pictured) had not crashed out of the meeting in Heat 2. In third place, he lost control of the bike as he came out of the turn and fell. But unfortunately, he was run over by teammate, Timo Lahti (10+1) and left the meeting in an ambulance.
See the crash at 0:21 in the official highlights video here
With another 5:1 for the home team involving Rybnik’s Jepsen Jensen in the first nomination heat, Smederna extended their lead to 13 points and in the end ran out winners 53:37.
Top scorers:
Andzejs Lebedevs SME 13+1
Grigory Laguta SME 12
Adrian Miedzinski ROS 12
Kim Nilsson ROS 10+2
