Today is the first leg of the Elitserien semis finals which will conclude next Tuesday 10 September.
Västervik Speedway will host the winners of the regular season, Målilla Dackarna, whilst last year’s champions Eskilstuna Smederna will be at home against Vetlanda Speedway.
All four times these teams met earlier this year the home side has won, so this year’s finalists could well be the team that is strongest away from home.
Västervik v Dackarna
Although Västervik won last time these two teams met in the city, there are two crucial differences in the line up.
First, is that the home team are without the legendary, Nicki Pedersen. As good as his replacement Rune Holta is, no one can replace the fiery three times world champion.
Secondly, when the teams met in Västervik, this weekend’s German SGP winner, Maciej Janowski was not in the Målilla. He is a truly world class rider and alongside Polish teammates Patryk Dudek and Piotr Pawlicki, I think Dackarna’s top riders are much stronger than injury hit Västervik.
There’s no doubt that the home side’s Peter Ljung, Jack Holder, Peter Kildemand and Bartosz Smektala will do their best to take the win as they did against Kumla in the quarterfinals. But without something exceptional I think we will see Dackarna win both matches this week and take themselves to their second final in a row.
Smederna v Vetlanda
This is a re-run of the 2017 final which saw Eskilstuna win the first of two championships in a row. But this will be no walkover- in both matches there was less than 10 points between them with Vetlanda taking the bonus by just 5 points.
So don’t be surprised if we have to wait for the nomination heats in Vetlanda next Tuesday before we know who will be in the final.
Everyone knows that Vetlanda’s top rider will be Polish Bartosz Zmarzlik. Currently joint leader in the SGP series with Leon Madsen after coming second in the German SGP, he does not know how to lose in Sweden. The Småland team have the fire power to win in Syzmon Wozniak, Artem Laguta, Brady Kurtz and Dominik Kubera. But consistency over two matches for these riders will be the difference between a final place and the end of their season.
Smederna will need to cash in on home advantage to put pressure on Vetlanda in the return match. Score more than 50 tonight and they have made one step into their third final in a row.
Scandinavian duo Fredrik Lindgren and Michael Jepsen Jensen will be leading the way for Smederna.
But a win will be most likely for the home team if the second string riders - Polish Adrian Miedzinski, Latvian Andzejs Lebedevs (in yellow in the photo above, from the 2017 final) and the young Russian, Gleb Chugenov - can take those valuable 2 and 1 points in every heat they race.
I’m going to stick my neck out and say it will be a Vetlanda win because of their stronger roster, but the only way to know is see how the points add up by 21:00hrs on Tuesday 10 September in what should be a thrilling series!
