JANOWSKI EYES FIRST SON CROWN FOR POLES

Polish racer Maciej Janowski would love to end his country’s wait for FIM Speedway of Nations gold as they head to Vojens next week.

The Poles launch their world title bid in Semi-Final 1 on Wednesday, July 27, taking on Australia, Latvia, Germany, USA, Ukraine and Finland, with the top three joining hosts Denmark and the top trio from Semi-Final 2 in the FIM SON Final on Saturday, July 30.

Since the FIM SON was launched in 2018, the Poles have won three silver medals and one bronze.

They looked on course for victory at Manchester’s National Speedway Stadium last October, only for Janowski to fall as he tried to join Bartosz Zmarzlik at the front in the Grand Final, allowing Great Britain pair Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley to win the nation’s first world team title since 1989.

It’s so often said that surely it is only a matter of time before world speedway’s superpower nation brings home the FIM SON trophy.

“I remember last year we said the same thing,” Janowski said ruefully. “Of course we go to every meeting and we want to win. We know that our team is very strong and I think all the rest of the teams know that too. Our team is one of the favourites. We know that and we want to win for sure.”

Janowski admits he faces a huge battle to be in team manager Rafal Dobrucki’s starting line-up. He is joined in a very strong squad by double world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik, Patryk Dudek, Janusz Kolodziej and Dominik Kubera.

While Janowski has consistently been one of his country’s top performers for many seasons, he isn’t taking it for granted that he will be selected against such fierce competition.

“We will see what our coach has planned,” he said. “I am a rider and I am ready in my workshop whenever he calls me. It’s better to have a problem choosing the riders than not having too many options. We will see what happens.”