MADSEN: HOLDING HIS HEAD HIGH

Danish racer Leon Madsen left Gorzow with his head held high after defying whiplash injuries to make it on to the KGHM FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Gorzow podium last Saturday.

Keeping his head up at all was no easy task for Madsen, who crashed out of last Wednesday’s Danish Championship Final, spinning off as he tried to round Kenneth Bjerre, before falling awkwardly and sustaining neck injuries.

The world No.2 considered withdrawing from the Gorzow showdown but fought on admirably – even hitting the front for three and a half laps of the final.

Madsen looked set for his first Speedway GP win since his seven-ride maximum in Torun in October 2019. But Polish icon Bartosz Zmarzlik sent him wide on the final turn with a forceful move that allowed the triple world champion to claim his third win of 2023.

Finishing second left Madsen, who is fifth in the championship on 60 points, with mixed feelings. He said: “On one side, I can be disappointed. But on the other side I can be very happy.

“Coming into the meeting, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to race or not. In Slangerup, I hit the fence. I was trying to go around Kenneth Bjerre. It’s a strange corner and the fence catches you somehow after the gate. I spun around and knocked my head on the ground. That’s when I got the whiplash.

“I don’t have any power at all in my neck. Every time I went out of the corner, the G-force was pulling my head. It was hard to keep my head upright. I taped up my neck and had some physio coming into the meeting. We did everything we could to make me feel more comfortable, but it wasn’t easy for sure. It was a hard battle all night.

“I still got a second place, and I am still very happy about that. When I get back to full fitness in a few weeks’ time, hopefully I will be fighting for those GP wins. I was so close to winning, but still I have to remember that on Friday I didn’t know if I was able to race, so I am very pleased to get out of there with a second place.”

Madsen admits starting the final three times further tested his stamina. Freddie Lindgren crashed on turn one at the first attempt and Jason Doyle was excluded after a tumble in lap two in the second staging of the race.

The double European champion admits that didn’t help his chances of beating Lublin rider Zmarzlik on his boyhood track where the Pole represented Stal Gorzow from 2011 until 2022.

He said: “After all those restarts in the final, I didn’t have more power in me. I gave it my all, but you need to be 100 percent to beat Bartek on his home track – I think we can still call it his home track.

“I think he was a little bit faster than me. I tried to do some different lines. I could see on the big screen that he was catching me. I did my best, but I just didn’t have more power in me at the end.”