FIM SPEEDWAY: LAMBERT HAILS TORUN’S 5-1 HAT-TRICK TO CLAIM 20-POINT PGE EKSTRALIGA FINAL ADVANTAGE
Torun skipper Robert Lambert hailed the three massive maximums which sent the Marian Rose Motoarena wild as his side won the PGE Ekstraliga play-off final, first leg 55-35 on Sunday, September 20.
The reigning champions were held close by table-topping Wroclaw on an epic night of racing, which started nearly two hours late after heavy rain hit Torun in the build-up to racing.
Both teams threw everything at each other as Torun had the edge for much of the night. But Apator eased the pressure ahead of the second leg in Wroclaw on October 4 with three straight 5-1s in heats 13, 14 and 15.
First, Emil Sayfutdinov and Lambert fought their way past Artem Laguta in heat 13 to turn up the Motoarena volume. Sayfutdinov and Patryk Dudek repeated the trick, seeing off Laguta and Brady Kurtz in heat 14, before Mikkel Michelsen and Lambert made it three in a row in race 15, leaving Bewley and Laguta trailing to give Torun a 20-point aggregate lead.
Michelsen led the Torun charge on 14 points, with Lambert adding 11 paid 13, Sayfutdinov scoring 11 paid 12 and Patryk Dudek collecting eight paid 10. Bewley and Laguta both tallied 10 for Wroclaw, with Kurtz collecting six paid eight points.
Lambert returns to the Motoarena on Saturday bidding to seal his first Speedway GP World Championship. He has 142 points, holding a one-point lead over Polish icon Bartosz Zmarzlik (141) and Aussie star Kurtz (139).
The Brit was handed a real test of nerve six days earlier and admits he had his concerns as Wroclaw kept within two to six points of their hosts for much of the night. He said: “It was pretty close. I didn’t really look at the scores, but then I looked up a couple of times to see what it was like, and it wasn’t very good.
“I wouldn’t have been very confident if the score ended that tight going into the Wroclaw leg. But those massive 5-1s in the last three heats were so important for the next leg. Now I am a little bit more relaxed, and I am looking forward to it.”
The energy from the stands was enormous as Torun turned the screw, and Lambert admits it gave his side added horsepower in their quest to retain the PGE Ekstraliga title they clinched in Lublin a year ago. Lambert said: “The noise was massive after heat 13; the fans were going absolutely crazy, we could feel that energy, and it just kept rolling for us.
“It’s pretty incredible. I always thought when I was racing in Lublin that their fans are something special. The first time I felt this in Torun was last year in the final, and we had the same thing again.
“I am looking forward to the second leg. It is a shame we don’t have the final leg here. Then it would have been even more special.
“We are going to have a whole stadium in Wroclaw cheering for the home team and we will just have a small area with our fans. But hopefully, they can make enough noise to dampen the noise of the Wroclaw fans.”
Elsewhere, Leszno gained a slender 46-44 advantage over Lublin in the battle for the bronze medals.
The Bulls won the first leg with Ukrainian racer Nazar Parnitskyi leading their scoring on 12 paid 13 and Ben Cook bagging 10 paid 12. Piotr Pawlicki and Janusz Kolodziej registered eight apiece.
Six-time Speedway GP world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik zoomed to a 14 paid 15-point maximum for Lublin, with SGP rival Kacper Woryna racking up 13 and Martin Vaculik scoring seven.
The second leg of the bronze tie in Lublin takes place on Saturday, October 3.
