SEC | LEBEDEVS STORMS INTO 2025 SPEEDWAY GP SERIES AFTER SEALING EUROPEAN TITLE

Latvian history-maker Andzejs Lebedevs continues his FIM Speedway Grand Prix journey after being crowned Speedway European Championship winner in Chorzow on Saturday.

Lebedevs raced to 11 points in his heats at the legendary Stadion Slaski to seal his second SEC gold medal – seeing off the challenge of Danish racer Leon Madsen and Polish star Kacper Woryna before the final to add to the continental crown he won in 2017.

This year’s victory comes with an added prize as it guarantees Lebedevs qualification for the 2025 Speedway GP series.

Lebedevs is in his first season as a permanent SGP rider, becoming the first Latvian ever to compete in the World Championship full-time after being handed a wild card by the SGP Commission at the end of last season.

But now Lebedevs will be back without any help from the selectors after sealing SEC gold – just seven days after becoming Latvia’s first-ever SGP finalist, when he finished fourth at the Deluxe Homeart FIM Speedway GP of Denmark – Vojens last Saturday.

Lebedevs is the sixth rider to guarantee his spot in the 2025 Speedway GP series, joining certain top-six finishers Bartosz Zmarzlik, Robert Lambert, Fredrik Lindgren, Martin Vaculik and Dan Bewley.

The delighted Daugavpils-born racer said: “Now I feel calm because I was nervous. It was a hard evening for me, and I had a good opponent in Leon Madsen. When we saw how good he was in his first heat, I thought ‘I need to push hard here, move forward and take the points.’ I am satisfied and happy with myself. I did the job with this pressure.”

Lebedevs won two of the four SEC rounds in Debrecen and Gustrow and finished the championship on 50 points in total after exiting at the semi-final stage in Chorzow. 

Victory at Stadion Slaski went to Danish star Anders Thomsen, who won the evening’s final ahead of Madsen in second, local hero Woryna in third and Poland’s Patryk Dudek in fourth.

Madsen joined Thomsen in qualifying for the final automatically on 14 points before adding another two in the final, as he secured the SEC silver medal on 47, with Woryna taking bronze on 44.

Champion Lebedevs, Madsen, Woryna, fourth-placed Thomsen on 41 and Poland’s Piotr Pawlicki on 40 all qualify for the 2025 SEC series by securing their spots in this season’s top five.

Former world No.2 Dudek missed out on qualification in sixth spot on 36. But along with Woryna and Thomsen, he could yet take his place in the 2025 Speedway GP series when he lines up in the FIM SGP Challenge in Pardubice on October 4, when the top four riders earn SGP berths for next year. Seventh place went to Denmark’s Rasmus Jensen on 33, who also competes in the Challenge.

It was a night to forget for Poland’s Maciej Janowski, who finished eighth on 32 after crashing out of the meeting in heat nine, with his hand caught under Swedish star Jacob Thorssell’s rear mudguard as he tumbled. The former world No.3 was taken to hospital for further checks.

CHORZOW POINTS:

1. Anders Thomsen 17
2. Leon Madsen 14
3. Kacper Woryna 11
4. Patryk Dudek 10
5. Andzejs Lebedevs 11
6. Robert Chmiel 10
7. Rasmus Jensen 8
8. Piotr Pawlicki 8
9. Jacob Thorssell 6
10. Tom Brennan 6
11. Maciej Janowski 5
12. Bartłomiej Kowalski 5
13. Timo Lahti 4
14. Dimitri Berge 3
15. Norick Blodorn 3
16. Tim Sorensen 2
17. Jevgenijs Kostigovs 2