In the Žarnovica motorcycle track in Slovakia, both Daugavpils people started with two second places in a row and after two races, both for Andrzej. although Eugene had 4 points each. Lebedev had left Australian Max Frick and British Dan Boolean behind in his travels, while Kostigov had overtaken Paul Janusz Collodze, but lost only to Australian Chris Holder and Frick. This gave hope for a successful continuation, but – there was no victory in at least one of the races. Lebedev finished two more races in the second, but in his last race, in which only victory could give a place in the top three (or at least allow him to take part in an additional race for it), Andrzej finished third – in the amount of 9 points and 6th place. Kostigov continued to be twice third and once second – 8 points and 9th place. More than once, ours were not left without points and left behind such general champions as the British Robert Lambert and Adam Ellis, the Australian Rohan Tangeits, the Pole Tobias Musielac and the Danish Nikolai Klind, but behind Beaju also Bjuli and Holders.
The winner was the pole Pavel Pedpielski, who was rarely mentioned among the favorites – he and Frick scored 12 points, but the pole won in the additional race for the first place. Polis Patrick Dudeks won the third place in next year’s GP series with 11 points.
On Sunday, Daugavpils “Optibet Locomotive” will play their last match in the regular championship of the Polish 2nd League with the leader Opole “Kolejarz” in their motorcycle, but the fourth place and place in the semifinals is already guaranteed – Poznan team did not allow speeding entering the semi-finals. For the last match with the Opole team “Loko” there are only domestic motorcyclists (one place is still free, but it is also likely to be occupied by one of the domestic speed riders – it will probably be Daniils Kolodinskis). This decision was made before the match between the Poznań and Rzeszów teams and is related to financial problems – inviting legionnaires requires additional expenses, but these cannot be afforded at the moment. It is quite strange – we have European U19 junior champions for couples this season, are U19 European champions, the junior team has reached the final of the Polish junior team championship, we have a great new shift and three U21 world championship finalists, plus Lebedev and Kostigov have just started well , but before that won bronze medals in the European Championships for couples, the Latvian U23 team will fight for medals in the new European U23 team championship on August 29 in Daugavpils, but the only Latvian speedway team will fight for survival … It can be said – the Latvian national team. The city management does not have the opportunity to support more (and probably there is no special desire to look for such opportunities, because in the past, speedway was supported by competitors in the fight for power in the city – this is unfortunately happening here). On the other hand, why should only Daugavpils support a team that is a Latvian national team? In addition, Francis Gusts and Ričards Ansviesulis, students of the Riga Speedway, are stable drivers in the Latvian junior team – both together and Ernests Matjušonoks are the European U19 pair champions, but Gusts is also the European U19 champion individually. Our juniors are admired by speedboat in the great powers, there (especially in Poland) it is expected that Latvia will have a very strong domestic team in the near future and with a couple of good legionaries it will be among the best in the 1st league again, but … We are fighting for a capable team . The team will also prove its potential only with domestic riders, including four juniors (only two are required), in the match against the Opole team, which arrives in the best line-up and without gifts.
A very big gap in the budget of Daugavpils team is the restriction of spectators. “Loko” is the second most visited team in Latvia after the Riga “Dinamo” hockey team (before Covid-19), 4200-4300 spectators came to its matches on average and it was a very significant contribution to the team’s budget. If, for example, our football clubs almost do not care how many spectators there are in the stands – in any case it does not affect the club budget, then for the speedway team it is different and everywhere else the number of spectators is important for the speedway team budgets. While the motorcycles in Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Great Britain are almost full of stands, in the meantime we have a stadium with 6500 seats … We fought as much as we can and did. It is precisely because of the talented juniors (Lebedev, who is leading the Polish 1st League from Krosno this season, as well as the Swedish Premier League or Bauhaus-Ligaen from Eskilstuna, is only 26 years old) and because of their success, more support should follow, but … This is not yet the case. And so we almost have to start wondering if we need to participate in the 2nd league semifinals at all.
This season there will be the final stages of the U21 World Junior Championship, in which only three riders from Latvia (Gusts, Kolodinskis and Matjušonoks) entered, but Poland has only three by special invitation. In September, Daugavpils will have both “Speedway of Nations” semi – finals, where we will see almost the entire world speedway elite and the Latvian national team … It is not yet known when the Latvian Open Championship will be, but it promises to be very exciting. By the way, in Latvia, only speed skaters have won medals in European or world championships in motorsport this season. Next season, the breath of speedboat in the world motorsport environment will become even more noticeable (time on sports TV channels, etc., but this is already a separate topic), we have great opportunities not to stay in the yard and should not miss such an opportunity.
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