JANOWSKI: I HAVE MISSED BRITISH RACING

Polish racer Maciej Janowski admits he has missed racing in Britain as he makes his Sports Insure Premiership comeback with the Oxford Spires at home to fellow top-flight returnees Birmingham Brummies tonight. 

Janowski last raced in the UK full-time in 2015, when he won an historic third straight Elite League title with the Poole Pirates. He has since competed in Sweden alongside his Speedway GP events and PGE Ekstraliga commitments with hometown club Wrocław. 

With Janowski missing out on a full-time place in the Speedway GP series for 2024, he has opted to add British racing to his schedule. And he is delighted to be back in the UK as Oxford stages its first top-flight meeting since the club originally closed in 2007. 

He said: “I remember when I have been in Britain, I have felt a little bit better on the bike. Britain gives you a lot of experience of different kinds of tracks and a lot of other things. I want to be in working mode and race a lot.

“I have been thinking about coming back for the last couple of years. I have been missing Britain. I know that it is a very good place to improve your skills and make yourself better.

“In Britain you have smaller and narrower tracks. You race very close to each other. You also have many different shapes of track and very technical ones. I am in a part of my career when I want to come back and remind myself of a few things. I want to try something new. I need some fresh air in my riding and with my career, so I think this will be very exciting.”

Janowski admits the deal was easy to arrange after holding talks with Mark Courtney, father of Oxford co-promoter Jamie. He said: “Mark lives very close to the Wroclaw track. We had a meeting, and he called his son. We fixed everything in 30 minutes. It was really easy.

“I got a couple of calls from different clubs, but we fixed the deal very fast. The main thing was to find a mechanic over there and a workshop. I was trying to find a club where everything would be sorted out how I want, and it was very easy to fix everything with Oxford because of Mark. I wanted to have a mechanic from Britain, who has a workshop and all the stuff we need.

“It would be hard to find someone in Poland, send them to Britain and ask them to stay for the whole season. This was the easiest way. I have an English mechanic – Scott Nicholls’ old mechanic. I am very excited to be back, and I think this will be a very exciting time.”

Janowski leads an Oxford team with plenty of strength in depth, also including triple British champion Chris Harris, double Australian champion Rohan Tungate, Nicolai Klindt, Lewis Kerr, Charles Wright and Ashton Boughen. 

Asked about Spires’ title chances, Janowski insists he’s determined to deliver the points expected of him first and foremost. 

He said: “I will not say that I am going to Britain to win the league. Of course, if there is an opportunity to do that, we will try. But first of all, I want to be a good point of the team and that’s the most important thing for me.

“I hope we are going to have good fun and we will definitely have good support from the club. I know all the riders and I am pretty sure it will be a fun year.”