Bartosz Zmarzlik wins 2023 SGP championship with victory in Torun, Fredrik Lindgren finishes second

Bartosz Zmarzlik secured his fourth Speedway world championship title with a win at the Grand Prix in Torun, Poland.

The defending champion was made to fight for it after his disqualification at the previous meeting in Denmark reduced his points advantage significantly. However, Zmarzlik made no mistake in front of his home crowd and stormed to the trophy.

“This gold medal is very different,” he said to Eurosport after the Grand Prix. “Today, for the first time in my career, it felt like ‘must’ not only ‘can’ – I must win today.

“There was a lot of pressure, but before Vojens I was 24 points ahead and today also I was six points in front. That makes it easier mentally and I said to myself, let’s just focus on the racing and we’ll see what happens after the heats.”

Zmarzlik went into the season finale six points ahead of Fredrik Lindgren with the trophy set to go down between the two. The Pole was on it from the start and finished the heats as top scorer before running away with it in the first semi-final.

While Lindgren wasn’t quite on par early on, winning only a single heat, his progression to the semi-finals was never in doubt. And it was in the second semi-final that the veteran Swede fired a serious warning shot.

Starting from the less favoured Gate 2, he made a perfect getaway and led from tapes up to finish to roar into the final.

Lindgren now needed to win with Zmarzlik only finishing fourth in the final to keep his hopes alive. However, Zmarzlik left no doubt and nailed the start to shoot off into the distance. Lindgren meanwhile was forced into battle with Leon Madsen and with no chance to hunt down his rival, he had to settle for second.

Having won the previous round, Madsen continued a strong finish to the campaign with third in Torun and thereby secured a top five spot in the championship. “It’s always nice to do the job by yourself,” he said.

“I knew that to climb back up the ladder and get into the top six I needed two very good meetings and I managed that. We’re back to my old set-up on engines and it’s looking much better now for sure – we’ll take that forward.

“It’s nice to finish the season off like that and we know that we have the equipment that’s working now when we start the new season. We’re looking forward to a good winter break and then regroup and come back stronger next year.”

Elsewhere, Martin Vaculik did enough in fifth to fight off Jack Holder and bag third in the overall standings.

“I don’t even know what to say right now,” he admitted straight after the semi-final. “I’m so pleased; this is the first medal for me in the Speedway Grand Prix series and also the first for my country, Slovakia.

“It was the toughest semi-final of my life, but I’m so happy right now.”

Robert Lambert was the top Brit in sixth on the night, also promoting him to a crucial top six finish overall which means he has qualified for next season’s Grand Prix series.

Dan Bewley though failed to progress from the heats and ends the season seventh in the standings. Tai Woffinden missed out on the meeting due to injury and concludes the 2023 campaign in 11th overall.