Dan Bewley reached the final of the Grand Prix Challenge at Glasgow but was beaten in a run-off by Sweden’s Kim Nilsson.
But that was enough to guarantee the 23-year-old West Cumbrian star will be taking part in next year’s Grand Prix series.
Although he won the British Grand Prix last Saturday he had only got into the series following the suspension of Russian riders.
Australian Jack Holder, who had also been promoted to the current Grand Prix series because of the Russians expulsion, finished third on Saturday and he will also qualify for the 2023 events.
Bewley, from Maryport, had been back home during the week and he practiced for the Glasgow spectacular by doing a few laps of the Northside circuit which had been prepared by Steve Lawson, a mentor and mechanic from his dearly days in the sport.
Northside will host a revived Workington Comets team next year and Bewley enjoyed his spin round the track which was described as ‘immaculate.’
Guess where I was riding today ???? pic.twitter.com/cNN8efwJbz
— Daniel Bewley (@DanBewley) August 19, 2022
In the Glasgow Challenge meeting Nilsson beat Bewley in a run-off for first place after both had scored 13 points while Holder beat Max Fricke in a run-off for third after both had finished on 12 points.
Other points scorers were: Robert Lambert 10, Rasmus Jensen 10, Michael Jepsen Jensen 9, Andzejs Lebedevs 7, Rohan Tungate 7, Anders Thomsen 5, Connor Bailey 5 (res), Drew Kemp 5, Chris Holder 4, Dominik Kubera 3, David Bellego 3, Szymon Wozniak 2, Vaclav Milik 0.
Bewley said afterwards: “It’s nice to have qualified – you never know with speedway what is going to happen. It’s nice to have what you could say is a back-up plan.
“Hopefully I don’t need it, but if I do, it is nice to have it. It was an awesome night, and it was good to be back in Glasgow again.”
A series of crashes saw 2012 World Champion Chris Holder suffer a broken collarbone, two broken ribs and a broken bone in his lower back after coming to grief in Heat 12, whilst Anders Thomsen broke his leg when he fell in Heat 14.
Earlier in the day, Oliver Berntzon had been ruled out of the meeting with a shoulder injury after an incident in practice, whilst Vaclav Milik was concussed when he crashed out of Heat 1.
