FIM SPEEDWAY TOP 5 MOMENTS | PRAGUE

As speedway celebrates its 100th anniversary season, FIMSpeedway.com looks back at the top five moments celebrated at each of our 2023 FIM Speedway venues.

Today, we feature the legendary Marketa Stadium, the longest-serving FIM Speedway Grand Prix venue, which stages the 2023 FIM Speedway GP of Czech Republic – Prague on June 3.

 

1. HANCOCK’S ROUTE TO GOLD

Speedway GP first took place in Prague on May 17, 1997, and the Czech capital venue has staged at least one round every season since – defying even the Covid-19 pandemic.

Out of the 29 rounds which have been raced here, 22 of them have featured American great Greg Hancock – and victories here have always brought the Californian good luck.

He stormed to top spot in that first FIM Czech Speedway GP, seeing off then world champion Billy Hamill, who was second, with Polish icon Tomasz Gollob third in the final.

That podium was to prove a preview of things to come as the trio occupied the same three steps on the final 1997 Speedway GP rostrum, with Hancock lifting his first of four world titles.

Incredibly, it took him another 14 years to win No.2 in 2011, and he picked up another Prague victory along the way that year.

 

2. CRUMP’S TRIPLE CROWN

In Prague’s early Speedway GP years, Aussie ace Jason Crump proved one of the men to beat.

He reeled off three straight wins at Marketa Stadium in 2002, 2003 and 2004 as he stepped up his fight to lift the sport’s biggest prize.

First, he beat Hancock and Aussie star Ryan Sullivan in the 2002 final, before seeing off Swedish legend Tony Rickardsson and eventual world champion Nicki Pedersen in 2003.

That was the third year in a row Crump had been left with Speedway GP World Championship silver, but his wait for world-title gold ended in 2004, and he collected a Prague victory on the road to glory.

He beat Poland’s Jaroslaw Hampel and Rickardsson to top spot for a result that brought him ever closer to the prize he craved most. While Crump didn’t win in Prague again, two more world titles in 2006 and 2009 secured his spot among the all-time greats.

 

3. WOFFY’S FIRST WIN

The British national anthem had not been heard during a Speedway GP podium ceremony since Chris Harris’ epic last-to-first dash to win the 2007 FIM British Speedway GP in Cardiff.

When Woffinden was granted a permanent wild card for the 2013 season, he entered the series at odds of 500/1 with the bookmakers to be crowned champion.

It’s fair to say the price was slashed when he powered to his first Speedway GP win on May 18, 2013, beating Poland’s Krzysztof Kasprzak and Pedersen.

It wasn’t the last time God Save The Queen was heard that season. Woffinden went on to lift the Speedway GP trophy at the final round in Torun – his first of three world titles so far.

He has an equal number of FIM Czech Speedway GP victories to his name. Like Crump, he went on to top the Prague podium again in 2014 and 2015.

 

4. DOYLE’S DOUBLE

When Aussie racer Jason Doyle debuted in Speedway GP in 2015, he arrived on the sport’s biggest stage without any World Championship experience – not even as a wild card or track reserve. But he very quickly proved he meant business by finishing fifth in the world that year.

Doyle then took things up a notch in 2016, and his first-ever Speedway GP win came when he pipped Hancock and Harris to first place.

The Newcastle-born racer went on to win three more rounds that year and was only denied his first world title by a heavy crash at the penultimate round in Torun, which ended his season.

Doyle put things right in 2017, though, taking another Prague success on his way to Speedway GP World Championship gold – even a broken foot couldn’t stop him that year.

The 2017 round is also memorable as the season when a Czech rider finally reached the rostrum. Vaclav Milik took third place behind Doyle and Hancock.

 

5. VACULIK’S ‘HOME’ WIN

No Czech rider has ever topped the Prague rostrum, but Slovak star Martin Vaculik crossed the border to deliver a win that sent the Marketa Stadium crowd wild in 2022.

Vaculik was just two years old when Czechoslovakia peacefully parted in 1992 to become two nations – the Czech Republic and Slovakia. But he made regular trips to Prague as a child to watch his Speedway GP heroes up close.

The Gorzow star finally got his chance to race in an FIM Czech Speedway GP in 2013. While he reached one final in his first seven Prague appearances, finishing third at round five in 2020, Vaculik sent the Marketa Stadium wild with an unforgettable win there last May, beating Woffinden and Doyle.

It was an emotional moment for a rider who may have ended up living in a foreign land, but he is always treated as a home hero in Prague.