FIM SPEEDWAY: DOYLE EYES FIGHTBACK IN MALILLA

Aussie ace Jason Doyle is determined to continue piling up the points at the Virkvarn FIM Speedway GP of Sweden – Malilla this Saturday, July 5, after opening up on his fitness fight.

The 2017 Speedway GP world champion sustained a dislocated hip in the Orlen Oil FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Warsaw on May 17, before suffering a recurrence of the injury in a Polish PGE Ekstraliga match just eight days later.

This ruled him out of the FIM Speedway GP of Czech Republic – Prague on May 31, but Doyle battled through the ATPI FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Manchester double-header on June 13 and 14, scoring five points over two days.

He then raced to fifth place and 12 championship points in the Events.com FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Gorzow on June 21 – a huge shot in the arm in his quest to stay in the series for 2026. With Doyle 14th on 25 points, he’s determined to add to his tally this Saturday.

“I need to pick up some points,” he said. “Twelve points in Gorzow is a step in the right direction. We have Malilla next. I rode for Dackarna for many years. It’s another good racetrack. We will go there and hopefully find something good.”

Doyle admits it has been a tough couple of months since he suffered the injury at Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy. He said: “I have been struggling with the leg. It hasn’t been anything else really. When Gorzow came, it had only been four weeks since the dislocation and only three weeks since the second one. It was about trying to play cautious. But I dug deep. We swapped the bikes after my second ride and found something. I won my second race of the season. It was nice to finally have some speed again.

“After my second ride, I thought, ‘Am I good enough to be riding in this league again?’ But once you find the right setup and the bike starts working again, everything changes. I am still here. I got fifth in Gorzow. It’s not the result I wanted, but we are still pushing hard.”

Doyle is determined to get himself in the best shape possible for the remaining rounds. He added: “I’ve been going to physio and doing everything correctly to try and get the leg as strong as I can. I have been training every day to build up the muscle in my leg so that the hip doesn’t come out again.

“Going into Manchester, I was probably only 40 percent ready to go, but that’s what you have to do sometimes to dig deep. It was good enough that I didn’t have any crashes, but I need to be on the bike now and racing against the top boys. If you are not riding against the top boys, it’s very hard to come back.”