NINE SPEEDWAY GP RIDERS RACE FOR EKSTRALIGA INDIVIDUAL CROWN IN LODZ

Nine FIM Speedway Grand Prix riders join a star-studded field for the 2024 International Individual Ekstraliga Championship (IMME) in Lodz on April 5.

The stunning Ekstraliga 2 stadium will host Poland’s equivalent of Britain’s old Premiership Riders Championship – named in honour of former world No.2 Zenon Plech.

The field for the competition features an impressive 14 current or former Speedway GP riders so far, with only double SGP2 champion Mateusz Cierniak – tipped as an SGP rider of the future – yet to become a full member of the senior World Championship.

The field is selected from the Ekstraliga’s top riders by average points per race for the 2023 season. Four-time Speedway GP world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik of Lublin will defend the IMME title he won for a fourth time in 2023 after topping the averages chart on 2.526.

Other Speedway GP riders in the field include world No.2 Fredrik Lindgren, Martin Vaculik, Jack Holder, Leon Madsen, Dan Bewley, Jason Doyle, Mikkel Michelsen and Dominik Kubera.

They are joined by 2021 Speedway GP world champion Artem Laguta, former world No.3 Emil Sayfutdinov, 2023 Speedway GP first reserve Max Fricke and former SGP riders Anders Thomsen and Janusz Kolodziej.

Cierniak is nominated as the rider who achieved most points in Ekstraliga junior heats last year, with the field set to be completed by one wild card.

The riders will compete over 20 heats, with the top two guaranteed places in the final. The riders placed third to 10th will enter into two semi-finals, with the winner of each joining the final line-up. The final winner will be crowned Ekstraliga individual champion for 2024.