Danish rider Thomas Jørgensen is 28 years old and lives in the UK where he started racing with Scunthorpe Scorpions in 2011. Since 2018 he has been racing in the Premiership with King’s Lynn Stars and doubling up with different clubs in the Championship.

“I was not sure if there was going to be any racing in Sweden or Denmark this year,” he tells me as we shelter from the blazing Swedish sun shine, “so, I decided to sign with Scunthorpe again for 2021.”

Success in Denmark

As it turns out, the Danish Metal League has started and Jörgensen has been racing with Brovst, who have rebranded themselves as Nordjysk Elite Speedway this year. Although the team are yet to win, Jørgensen is their second highest scoring rider behind Finland’s Timo Lahti and he has a 1.810 heat average. That is the same score as Polish veteran, Piotr Protasiewicz and ahead of Danish riders such as Andreas Lyager, Michael Jepsen Jensen and Motala teammate, Jonas Seifert-Salk. “Yeah, it’s going good in Denmark right now,” he summarises.

Racing in Sweden

The pandemic stopped racing in the UK and Denmark in 2020. But for Jørgensen it finally gave him a chance to race in Sweden, “I’ve been wanting to race here. The league is a good mix and you can prove yourself against the best riders from Poland and Sweden as well as Denmark,” he tells me, “But when Daniel [Davidsson] rang me, you know, with Corona, I had not really practised at all! So, I came here at two o’clock for a practice and then I was racing in the evening!” he says laughing at the memory.

So, even with Corona, every cloud can have a silver lining.

It worked out - the ambitious Dane scored 1.548, making him the team’s third highest scorer in 2020 ahead of juniors and fellow Danes, Seifert-Salk and Tim Sørensen as well as up and coming American, Broc Nicol.

The British Tyre Debate

But before we’re done, we get into the hot topic of tyres, “These Anlas tyres we can use in Sweden and Denmark are SO much better than the ones we are allowed to use in the UK! You know, you can gate really well in the UK, but it is all hit and miss, even if you’re riding on a brand-new edge, you just don’t know if the tyres is going to hold. It is much better to get these more expensive tyres that last, ‘cos the ones we have right now, you can’t use them after one meeting!” he says lamenting the situation in the UK.

And whilst he might not like the tyres, the 28-year-old is still putting up good numbers in the Premiership with a 1.833 average. That puts him in 20^th place on the individual ranking, just 0.009 points behind three times World Champion, Jason Crump.

So look out for Jørgensen at a track near you in the UK, Denmark and Sweden in 2021.

*statistics correct as of 22 June 2021

#GRUTOR

The match in Grudziadz was cancelled due to poor weather forecasts and will take place on Friday 9 July at 7pm.

#LESWRO
However, there was beautiful weather as two of the top teams in the Ekstraliga met with Wroclaw travelling to Leszno with a four point lead from their home match.

It a close meet, it was the home team who were forced to chase from behind as Wroclaw took heat advantages in 2, 3, 6 and 9 to always have the edge over their rivals. In those last two heats it was the Wroclaw pairing of Tai Woffinden (7+1) and Gleb Chugunov (8) who were able to outpace their opponents to gain 2:4s on each occasion. On the other side of the depot, it was Russian SGP rider, Emil Sayfutdinov (12) would end up as top scorer for the home side whilst Jaimon Lidsey, who raced yesterday with Rawicz, only scored 3+1.

But until Heat 13 that lead was never more than two points. That was until Artem Laguta (13) and Maciej Janowski (12+2) were able to silence the home crowd with the visitor’s first 1:5 of the match giving them a potentially match winning lead of 36:42 going into the nomination heats.

And with Leszno’s Jason Doyle (10+1) falling in the last heat, Wroclaw were able to secure the bonus point and the win as they took the match, 41:49, and go top of the table by just one point over Gorzow.

Wroclaw’s Dan Bewley would only score 3+1 and to see
all riders’ scores see Zuzelend.

*Photo shows Swedish SGP 2018 with (L to R) Janowski, Sayfutdinov and Artem Laguta in semifinal.

#RZEWIT

When the bottom two teams in the league met today in Rzeszow, the German visitors where behind 14:4 after three heats giving an indication of how this match was going to turn out.

Wittstock Wolves did manage to 2:4 heat advantages, with Slovenian, Matic Ivacic (12) leading the pack home. But otherwise it was the hosts who dominated with Patryk Rolnicki scoring a paid maximum (14+1) and experienced Australian, Sam Masters (10+3) just two points off a paid maximum himself.

The final score 62:28 but at least Australian, Fraser Bowes (3+1) was able to make his Wittstock debut.

Full scores from Zuzelend.

#OPORAW

Opole's top rider, Jacob Thorssell, could not take part in the match because he is replacing the injuried David Bellego at the SEC in Gdansk today. Rawicz brought in U21 World Champion, Jaimon Lidsey to bolster their team. And twice at the beginning of the match when the visitors took the lead it was Lidsey who was involved. However, Opole quickly replied to make the scores level after six heats, 18:18.

But this top of the table clash was decided between Heat 9-12 when the home team turned the match to their advantage.

They took four heat advantages in a row, include three 5:1s to lead 44:28 at the end of Heat 12. Although he was not the team's top scorer in the end, Mads Hansen (11+2, pictured) was the architect of the win as he was involved in three of these deciding heats scoring 6+1.

The final score was 51:39 and with that Opole take the top spot and are favourites for promotion at this halfway stage.

Lidsey, of course, top scored for Rawicz with 15+1 from six rides. However, fellow Australian, Keynan Rew was not so productive with 0 pts from his two heats.

Full scores from Zuzelend.

#DAUPOZ

Lokomotiv Daugavpils have barely started their season as and this is only their third match of the season. However two of their team today have qualified for the U21 World Championships, Francis Gusts (8+1) and Ernest Matjuszonoks (3) whilst Oleg Michailov (10+1) represented Latvia in the competition last year.

And today, despite last of EWinner 2 matches, the home team made light work of visitors, Poznań with four 5:1s in the first four heats.

The final score was 55:35 and it was PNZ’s German rider, Kevin Woelbert who top scored 11+1 whilst their Danish U21 rider, Jonas Siefert Salk gained just 4+1.

Daugavpils’ foreign riders had mixed success, with veteran, Hans Andersen scoring 4+2 whilst Tomas H Jonasson took a more impressive 10+2.

You can see full scores at Zuzelend.

Four days of speedway in Poland started tonight with two Ekstraliga matches as Lublin hosted Zielona Góra and Częstochowa took on Gorzow.

#LUBZIE

A series of heat advantages between heats 5 and 11 gave home team Lublin the win, 45:21, with four heats still to go.

Patryk Dudek, who started the season off with some of the best results of his career so far, seems to have faded and tonight took just 8 pts in six heats. Instead, it was Max Fricke who top scored for the guests with 11 pts.

But the night belonged to the home team, and Mikkel Michelsen (photo) again led out the squad with 14 pts, whilst Grigorji Laguta continued a great 2021, this time scoring 11 pts.
The final score was 58:32 and Lublin also took the bonus point as they continue to cement their peace as a top three outfit for this season.

#CZEGOR

With Częstochowa winning the first meeting between these two teams by just 44:46 in Gorzow in Round 4, there was always much to play for this match.

And until Heat 6 when the visitors’ pairing of Anders Thomsen (10) and Szymon Wozniak (9+3) won a 1:5, the home side were in the lead.

The teams then traded heat advantages and the match continued to be a close affair, was tied at 32:32 after Heat 12.

However, Gorzow found another gear for the last three heats winning every single one with a 1:5.

SGP pairing of Bartosz Zmarzlik and Martin Vaculik (11+3) did the damage in Heats 13 and 15 and the World Champions finished the match with a six heat maximum of 18 points.

The final score was 39:51 meaning that the bonus point also went home with the Gorzow’s team. They now lead the league, although second placed Wroclaw have a game in hand which they will play at Leszno on Sunday.

For Częstochowa’s Scandinavian riders it was another mixed meeting. Dane, Leon Madsen (11) was top foreign rider whilst Jonas Jeppesen scored 0 and was replaced in his last two heats by juniors, Mateusz Swidnicki (4+1). Fredrik Lindgren also seems to be missing a little je n’sa quoi finishing with a disappointing 5.

Tonight in Västervik the qualifying race for the Swedish National Championships took place. The top eight riders qualify direct to the Championship which will take place in Målilla on 13 July. The two riders who finished in ninth and tenth will be track reserves.

Results

1. Philip Hellström Bängs 13 pts

2. Ludwig Lindgren 12 pts

3. Alexander Woentin 12 pts

4. Daniel Henderson 12 pts

5. Mattias Thörnblom 10 pts

6. Filip Hjelmland 10 pts

7. Casper Henriksson 10 pts

8. Joel Andersson 9 pts

———-

9. Gustav Grahn 6 pts

10. Johannes Stark 6 pts

There were 343 spectators and you can see the scores for all the riders on SVEMOs homepage.

Olle Liss har varit en framträdande pjäs i Björklöven de två senaste åren.

Nu är det klart med en kontraktsförlängning, meddelar Västerbottensklubben via Instagram.

Den 28-årige artisten blir Björklöven så kallade "supporterspelare".

Liss har inte bara fina meriter från spel i HockeyAllsvenskan, utan har dessutom lirat i SHL och till och med fått chansen i Tre Kronor.

Björbo-produkten svarade för 53 poäng på 66 matcher i fjol och blev trea i Björklövens interna poängliga.