DANISH RACER ANDERSEN DELIGHTED TO DEFY EARLY-SEASON INJURIES TO LAND SGP2 WORLD TITLE IN VOJENS
Danish shooting star Mikkel Andersen was elated to overcome his early-season injury battles to become the new FIM Speedway Under-21 world champion at the Deluxe Homeart FIM SGP2 of Denmark – Vojens on Friday, September 11.
Andersen became Denmark’s first World Under-21 champion since Speedway GP star Michael Jepsen Jensen topped the podium in 2012 after scoring eight championship points on his Danish home track.
With pre-meeting rival Maksymilian Pawelczak falling short of the last-chance qualifiers, Andersen was confirmed as champion after five rides, ending the series on 46 points.
It was a Danish one-two as Nicolai Heiselberg won the Deluxe Homeart FIM SGP2 of Denmark – Vojens to secure the silver medal on 42, with meeting runner-up Wiktor Przyjemski of Poland – champion in 2024 and a silver medallist in 2025 – securing the bronze medal in the championship on 38 points.
Andersen suffered a tough start to the season when he sustained a broken fibula at the 2026 FIM Speedway of Nations – SON2 – Prague on May 22. After working hard to get back on track, he was elated to secure junior speedway’s most prestigious prize.
He said: “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. But I know this is what we have worked for all season.
“It has been a tough year for me, so this is a big relief. I can’t really say how much this means to me. It’s unbelievable and thank you to all of the people around me, who have done some awesome work. I can’t thank them enough for what they do. Going from an injury to winning a World Championship is mega in my eyes.”
Andersen’s nerves were tested when he was disqualified after a fall in his fourth ride in heat 13. He said: “I had good speed, but things weren’t so good after the track grade. It became quite slick, and then there was the water. The front end just moved out on me, and I was on the floor.
“But I had had some good heats before, so it was still open for me to get to the last-chance qualifiers. I had to give my best. It was a close fight. It was good to have some action.”
Andersen is the first FIM Speedway Under-21 world champion to have previously won SGP3 gold in the FIM Speedway Youth World Championship for under-16, 250cc riders.
He is being hotly tipped as a future Speedway GP star. But for now, Andersen is keen to add to his SGP2 medal collection, having also won bronze in 2025.
The Vojens, Wroclaw and Smederna star said:“I’m only 18, so I have a lot of years left. I have three more seasons in this competition, so I am not looking so much at the big one, Speedway GP, right now. It is a goal, but there is a long way to it. I am taking it a step at a time. I want to win this one many more times.”
SGP2 runner-up Heiselberg was also forced to overcome injuries after crashing out of the Sportlab Cosmetics FIM SGP2 of Poland – Lodz final on July 31. Despite his foot injury causing some pain, he was delighted to triumph in Denmark’s national speedway stadium in his final SGP2 season.
The 20-year-old, who turns 21 in December, said: “I’m so happy about the silver medal because I didn’t think I would make it after my injury in Lodz. I’m happy to win on a Danish track.
“I was really nervous coming into the final because I didn’t think I would make it that far. Throughout the entire meeting, my foot was hurting really badly, so this was a great result.”
Bronze medallist Przyjemski was forced out of round two in Lodz after suffering injuries at the Polish Under-21 Championship Final in Bydgoszcz in July. He won the opening round at Swedish track Malilla and added 18 points for second spot in Vojens – meaning he dropped only two points across the two rounds he contested and finished just eight points short of gold.
After also seeing his gold-medal hopes affected by injury in 2025, he was pleased to end his SGP2 career on a high.
He said: “I’m very happy with everything I have done tonight. I feel like I did the most I could, and congratulations to Mikkel. Sometimes in speedway, you need luck, and I feel I wasn’t lucky this season and last season, and I could have won gold.
“It’s a real shame that I couldn’t perform in Lodz, but I am really happy with tonight’s performance. I am going to be honest when I say that the bronze tonight means more to me than the gold medal from two years ago.”
Przyjemski admits he now dreams of earning a shot at Speedway GP success. He added: “Is SGP the goal? Yes, it is. I would be happy to receive a wild card for the 2027 season. It has been a goal since I had my very first bike in mini speedway. I remember watching Bartosz Zmarzlik win his first world title, and I would like to thank him for being here tonight in the pits with me. He helped me a lot with finding speed for the Vojens track tonight.”
The action hots up at Vojens Speedway Center on Saturday as Poland’s Bartosz Zmarzlik, Australia’s Brady Kurtz and Great Britain’s Robert Lambert resume their epic FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship battle in the Deluxe Homeart FIM Speedway GP of Denmark – Vojens.
