Twice in the space of a week the G and B Arena in Målilla has been the central focus for Swedish speedway.

On Saturday all eyes were on Fredrik Lindgren as he cruised around the outside line on the track to take first the semifinal and then the final of the Scandinavian GP against world class opposition.

And on Thursday night Dackarna would host Kumla Indianerna knowing that a win would secure the regular season championship.

But the team from Målilla kept everyone in suspense leaving it to the very last heat of the very last match of the season to win by the narrowest of margins, 47-43 to top the table before the playoffs start next week.

The match in detail

Dackarna had already thrashed their guests in Kumla, 37-51, so the bonus point was never in doubt.

That sat in second place just one point behind Elit Vetlanda, but with a far worse +/- difference, before the tapes were lifted. So the home team knew that nothing but an outright win would be enough to top the table.

Things started well for the Målilla club when they took a 5:1 in the first heat through Polish pair, Maciej Janowski and Kacper Gomolski who subdued Kumla's British superstar, Tai Woffinden, so he could only collect one point.

And things continued on the right track for Dackarna when they took their third 5:1 heat of the night. It was again Woffinden who picked up the single point for Indianerna, but surprisingly he was beaten by the Swedish duo of Oliver Berntzon and Jacob Thorssell whilst Kumla's Chris Holder came last in this heat.

The victory seemed certain as early as Heat 6 as the home team was already 14 points ahead, 25-11.

But as the crowd starting to get in the party mood, Kumla's riders had other ideas. With a 2:4 in Heat 9, and two 1:5s in a row in Heats 12 and 13, the momentum seemed to have shifted in the tie as the Indians tried to become the ultimate party-poopers.

After poor starts it was Kumla’s two English speaking world champions, Woffinden and Holder, who would mastermind the comeback for the visitors. The Brit finishing with 13 pts and the Australian with 15 pts by the time the match was over.

So that before the nomination heats started Kumla reduced the deficit to just four points, 41-37,

And the two world champions would also win heats 14 and 15 to terrify the home crowd and appear to spoil Dackarna's day.

That however did not account for the team spirit of the home squad, four of whom scored 8 points a piece and whom were lead out by Janowski who took 10 on the night.

And although Kumla's stars won the last two heats, it was hard fought riding from the Målilla team that meant both nomination heats actually finished 3:3, nullifying the visitors’ wins and securing the victory by 47-43.

With Dackarna and second place Vetlanda are through the semifinals but will need to wait to see who they meet. The quarterfinals start next week on 27 August.

Bartosz Zmarzlik is unquestionably having a great season.

Ekstraliga

In Poland with Gorzów he has a heat average of 2.375 and is the best placed Pole and the fourth best rider in that category this season. Although his team have struggled, he has thrived and won the prestigious one day race, the PGE IMME (the Individual International Ekstraliga Championship) on 12 July.

World Championship

Second in last year World Championships, this year Zmarzlik has won both the Slovenian and Warsaw GPs. That has helped him to climb up to third place on the overall rankings just six points behind leader, Leon Madsen.

Elitserien

In Sweden he has not just helped Elit Vetlanda Speedway to a second place at the end of the regular season - he is the reason Vetlanda have climbed to that spot. He is single-handedly responsible for over 30% of the team's points this year.

He has ridden in all 16 matches this season, in total, 81 heats. But what makes the Pole's season exceptional is his results. He has won 70 of those heats - picking up three points each time - and has never come last in a single one of them.

It works out as a heat average of 2.840 and has collected 230 points for the club. At home it goes up to 2.949 P/H meaning he is almost unbeaten in Vetlanda. In fact, Zmarzlik has been first in all but two heats he had started at their home arena.

All in all, he has dropped only 13 points ALL SEASON, less than 1 per match.

It is truly mind blowing and he is as good an unbeatable in Sweden this year.

All this and he is only 24 years old.

The Future?

With the playoffs in Sweden, the rest of the World Championships and probably another 15 years to go in his career, the future looks bright for this young Polish star.

A summer's evening with nothing to do? Want to try something new? Maybe it is time to find your local Speedway track!

Fans of track cycling, 400m running and even Nordic sprint skiing will love Speedway. For me, it also takes me back to watching Formula 1 with Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna dueling it out on Sunday afternoon's in my childhood.

What? No brakes!

Speedway is motorcycle racing with a especially designed 500cc bike that has one gear and no brakes!

The bikes are powered by methanol and can reach up to 70 mph (100 kph) on the straights and then "power slide" or "broadside" around the corners - a technique designed to keep the speeds as high a possible.

A Match with Heats

Each Match in comprised of a series of "Heats" where four riders race four laps around an oval track as fast as possible. Points are dished out with 3 for the winner, 2 for second, 1 for third and 0 for last place and Heat can take as little as 1m30s.

Grand Prix

In Speedway Grand Prix (SGP) there are 16 competitors who duel it out in 20 Heats. The top eight on points then race two semifinals and a final to see who is crowned champion for that GP.

It is "every man for himself" and the rider who amasses the most points from the 11 SGPs across the season is crowned World Champion. Currently (2018) that is Britain's Tai Woffinden. Watch him win in style here.

The Leagues

In league racing two teams go head to head. Each team has 5 riders plus 2 reserves. The Heat is a team effort with two riders from each squad competing, if possible, to collect five points in each Heat by finishing first and second. There are 90 points on offer in each Match so the winner is effectively the first team to 46 points.

Who takes part?

The sport is popular in northern Europe and Australia with Poland's Ekstraliga considered the best in the world, followed by Sweden's Elitserien and the UK's Premiership.

The SGP has only the top riders in the world but these bikers from diverse countries such as Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Australia compete weekly in the national leagues, often dominate in more than one country. That means that you can watch top quality Speedway almost everyday of the week!

Premiership: Mondays and Thursdays

Elitserien: Tuesdays and Thursdays

Ekstraliga: Fridays and Sundays

Who to watch out for?

The races are fast and furious, but there's also plenty of time to relax between Heats.

In the national leagues players do not have names on the back of their shirts like football, but are distinguished by their team strips and that they have different colours on their helmets - red and blue for the home team; white and yellow for the visitors.

It's a good idea to have an idea of who to look out for and make sure you get a race card - the Match program - when you go to the arena. And check online - the Ekstraliga, for example, has a great app where you can guess who will win each Heat!

Top riders:

Tai Woffinden (UK)

Jason Doyle (AUS)

Fredrik Lindgren (SWE)

Bartosz Zmarzlik (POL)

Martin Vaculik (SLO)

Nikki Pedersen (DEN)

Current League Champions (2018)

Premiership: Poole Pirates

Elitserien: Eskilstuna Smederna

Ekstraliga: Fogo Unia Leszno

Målilla was the venue for a thrilling race on Saturday evening as Fredrik Lindgren took a well earning home victory in the Scandinavian GP.

But tonight the venue will host another great meet as second in the table, Dackarna, host Kumla Indianerna in the last match of the regular season.

And to repeat the victory from last year the hosts must win to hop over the current leaders, Vetlanda who have one point (26 pts) more than the team from Målilla (25 pts) and a superior +/- of nearly 30 points.

Can the Polish trio of Maciej Janowski, Piotr Pawlicki and Patryk Dudek alongside Swede's Oliver Berntzon and Jacob Thorssell do it for Dackarna?

Or will currently world champion Tai Woffinden, Dane Kenneth Bjerre and former world champion Chris Holder spoil the show to set Indianerna up for going into the playoffs?

The match starts at 19:00 hrs here in Sweden.

Poland's top division, the Ekstraliga, enters its final weekend of the regular season with Round 14. As usual there are two matches on Friday and two on Sunday.

Five One Racing looks at the Hot Heats for Friday's matches:

The world's best on your local track #GORCZE

When TRULY.WORK STAL Gorzów host forBET WLOKNIARZ Częstochowa on Friday evening, Heat 8 will see two of the best riders in the world go head-to-head as Polish, Bartosz Zmarzlik (GOR) takes on Danish, Leon Madsen (CZE).

Madsen (pictured) came second in the Scandinavian GP on Saturday despite carrying an injury sustained in his last match in Poland for Częstochowa when they secured a playoff place for 2019. Earlier this year he won the Warsaw GP as well as the SEC Round 2 in Toruń.

Zmarzlik may not repeat his podium spot from 2018, but still has won the Slovenian and Wroclaw GPs, the individual rider competition in the Ekstraliga and in Sweden had had a near perfect season with a heat average of more than 2.8!

This will be a heat worthy of any Grand Prix.

Whilst these two battle it out for three points, behind them two Poles will go at it for the all important third place as 29 year old Pawel Przedpelski (CZE) takes on 20 year old Rafal Karczmarz (GOR).

This year Karczmarz has a much stronger record at home (1.519 P/H), than Przedpelski away (1.091 P/H), which could be advantageous to the young pretender.

But in the three years he has raced in Gorzow as a professional, he has never beaten the older Częstochowa rider in his career! But Friday night seen a change in fortune?

It will only last one minute, but there's a lot at stake as Heat 8 comes off the line - who will win the race within the race?

Poland's top division, the Ekstraliga, enters its final weekend of the regular season with Round 14. As usual there are two matches on Friday and two on Sunday.

Five One Racing looks at the Hot Heats for Friday's matches:

The Laguta brothers - Heats 6 and 11 #GRULUB

It is a must win match for visitors SPEEDCAR MOTOR Lublin, who are trying to avoid the seventh place relegation playoff spot. But for MRGARDEN GKM Grudziadz it is just the last match of the season as they cannot get into the postseason this year.

There are several brothers competing in speedway, including Chris and Jack Holder, and Preymslaw and Piotr Pawlicki, David and Wiktor Lampart and Grigorij and Artem Laguta.

Friday's match sees two of these pairings, the Lamparts and the Lagutas in action. But whilst the Lamparts are on the same team, their Lublin teammate, Grigorij Laguta, will race against his brother, Artem, of Grudziadz.

And for the Russian pairing this will be the first time they have fought against each other in the Polish league for nearly 2.5 years due to Grigorij's two year doping suspension.

Both are having a good season on the international circuit. Artem (28 yrs) is currently eighth in the World championship, whilst Grigorij (35 yrs) leads the European competition.

In the Extraliga they both lead their respective teams with impressive heats averages of over 2.1.

However, it is Artem (pictured) who can claim the bragging rights as he is in 8th position of all the riders in the Ekstraliga and his older brother is below him in 11th. Perhaps more importantly in the Laguta household, when they have competed against each other in 54% of the heats Artem has beaten Grigorij.

All this points to two juicy heats where there will be more at stake than just points for the Laguta family when the tapes go up in Poland for Heats 6 and 11 in Friday’s late match.

Whilst the Swedish and Polish league finish their regular season this week, in Great Britain the Premiership still has over a month to go.

British U21 rider, Robert Lambert has been a GP wildcard who has been able to participate in the World Championship series alongside three times world champion, Tai Woffinden. But on the Sunday of the Speedway of Nations, when both were out injured, the shortage of world class British riders at the moment was evident to all.

Lambert's injury has prevented him from riding with King's Lynn Stars whilst and the 29-year-old speedway superstar from Scunthorpe has chosen not to participate in the country's national league.

But that has given space for 2017 World Champion, Australia and Swindon Robins' Jason Doyle(pictured) to climb up into top position in the individual rider's table. In fact, Australians are the most dominant nation in the British league where in the top 20 half are Roos.

The top 4 are all Australians and apart from Denmark's Kenneth Bjerre, are the only riders in the league with a heat average greater than 2.0:

• Jason Doyle - Swindon Robins - 2.177
• Max Fricke - Belle Vue Aces - 2.173
• Troy Batchelor - Swindon Robins - 2.155
• Brady Kurtz - Poole Pirates - 2.111
• Kenneth Bjerre - Belle Vue Aces - 2.067

Swedish reader's may be interested to note that their national champion, Jacob Thorssell is one of the few Swedes who is riding in Great Britain. He is currently with league leader's Poole Pirates and is sitting in 13th place in the individual rider standings.

The Swedish and Polish leagues will play their last matches in the regular season this week.

But not so in the UK Premiership which is only two-thirds of the way through with the last match on 19 September. Then the postseason will go onto 10 October before the winner is crowned.

Last year’s champions, Poole Pirates, currently lead the league by the narrowest of margins with just points difference separating them from second place Ipswich Witches who also have 36 points.

Behind them by just a single point in third is Belle Vue Aces and then in fourth with 32 points in Swindon Robins.

With many matches to go and the team's so tightly packed together it is anyone's guest how it will finish in just over a month's time.

But one advantage for Brady Kurtz (pictured) and his Pirates teammates are that they have played significantly less matches than their rivals. They lead having raced only 16 times this season, whereas Max Fricke's Belle Vue team have already completed 20 matches.

The regular season in Denmark's Speedway Metal League finished on Friday 16 August.

Holsted Tigers finished this phase of the season in first having lost only one match and are therefore favourites to take home the title in the Superfinale in September.

The Danish league is dominated by riders from the country, in contrast to leagues in Sweden or the UK where foreign riders are usually the highest points getters for each team.

Technically, Australia's Jason Doyle is this year's top rider with a match average of 9.67. However, he, and a number of other well known riders have actually only raced two matches in the Danish league. So we're going to discount him, Bartosz Zmarzlik, Kenneth Bjerre andDawid Lampart who otherwise would be in the top ten in the league.

So the top five riders who have raced 6 matches or more:

1. Niels Kristian Iversen - Esberg - 9.36

2. Nicki Pedersen - Holsted - 9.13

3. Mikkel Michelsen - Slangerup - 8.84

4. Anders Thomsen - Fjelsted - 8.67

5. Michael Jepsen Jensen - Outrup - 8.38

Not surprisingly these are the riders who are active in both the World Championship, GP series (Iversen and Michelsen) or the SEC European championship (Pedersen, Michelsen, Thomsen and Jespen Jensen).

There are also three Danes who rode on home turf in Round 3 of the SEC in Vojens who are also active in the Metal League. They are Peter Kildemand (Fjelsted), Andreas Lyager (Slangerup) and Fredrik Jakobsen (Fjelsted). Jakobsen was also Denmark's U21 representative in the Speedway League of Nations. Whilst not matching the five above, these Danish riders are in the top 20 of riders in Denmark's own league with a match average of between 5.5 and 6.5.

Observant readers may notice that last year's European Champion and one of the contenders for this year's World Championship, Leon Madsen, is not present in the Metal League. He decided to cut back on commitments this year to only focus of riding in the Polish league and international competitions. His results indicate that might have been a good idea, as he is currently leading the world championship after the Scandinavian GP in Målilla, Sweden at the weekend. And injury is probably the only thing that means he is not also leading the SEC, where he can theoretically still win with a good turn out in the last round in Chorzow.

The regular season in the Danish Speedway Metal League finished on Friday 16th August when Slangerup narrowly beat last year's champions, Region Varde Elitesport and secure second place in the table.

Runaway winners have been Holsted Tigers, who have won 9 out 10 matches this season. The only match they lost was way back on 15th May when Team Fjelsted beat them 45:39 and Peter Kildemand (above) pick up 14 points for the victorious home team. Otherwise it has a disappoint for Fjelsted who finish in fifth out of of the six teams that make up the league.

1. Holsted Tigers - 23 points

2. Slangerup Speedway - 16 points

3. Esberg Vikings - 13 points

4. Region Varde Elitesport - 11 points

5. Team Fjelsted - 10 points

6. GSK Liga - 3 points

The complicated playoff system means that the at least four teams will compete for the final trophy, but there is no doubt that Holsted are the favourites to pick up the title after a dominant season.

The Superfinale takes place on 18th September when the champion will be crowned. However, the first post season match is 28th August when the top two teams meet in Slangerup.