West Cumbrian Dan Bewley had a disappointing conclusion to his first season of Grand Prix speedway.
He scraped into the semi-final in Torun, Poland, but from the outside gate – which had not produced a winner all night he could only finish third.
He had been chasing a medal from a top three finish over the whole Grand Prix season but to finish sixth overall was still a terrific effort.
Bewley, from Maryport, and a former Workington Comets rider had only been brought in as a late replacement with Jack Holder for two Russian riders before the opening Grand Prix.
He went on to win the British Grand Prix and an earlier one in Poland and regularly made semi-finals for the top eight riders.
Poland’s triple world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik finished second last night with his good friend and Gorzow team mate Martin Vaculik topping the podium on the night.
Zmarzlik was then joined on the Speedway GP World Championship rostrum by series runner-up Leon Madsen of Denmark, while Polish ace Maciej Janowski completed a breath-taking climb from seventh to third in one night to bag bronze – his first Speedway GP medal since he joined the series in 2015.
Zmarzlik, Madsen, Janowski, fourth-placed Swedish star Fredrik Lindgren, Great Britain racer Robert Lambert in fifth and GB’s two-time Speedway GP winner Bewley in sixth all booked their places for next season.
They are joined by FIM GP Challenge winner Kim Nilsson of Sweden and Australia’s Jack Holder, who was third in that meeting.
Fourth-placed Max Fricke of Australia joins them after Bewley, who was runner-up at the Challenge, finished in this year’s SGP top six and qualified via that route instead.
SPEEDWAY GP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL STANDINGS: 1 Bartosz Zmarzlik 166, 2 Leon Madsen 133, 3 Maciej Janowski 106, 4 Fredrik Lindgren 103, 5 Robert Lambert 103, 6 Dan Bewley 102, 7 Patryk Dudek 102, 8 Tai Woffinden 93, 9 Martin Vaculik 91, 10 Jason Doyle 83, 11 Mikkel Michelsen 82, 12 Jack Holder 67, 13 Max Fricke 52, 14 Anders Thomsen 51, 15 Pawel Przedpelski 29, 16 Andzejs Lebedevs 26, 17 Rasmus Jensen 12, 18 Matej Zagar 11, 19 Kacper Woryna 8, 20 Mads Hansen 7, 21 Gleb Chugunov 7, 22 Kai Huckenbeck 7, 23 Oliver Berntzon 5, 24 Jakub Miskowiak 4, 25 Maksym Drabik 4, 26 Szymon Wozniak 3, 27 Krzysztof Lewandowski 1, 28 Tom Brennan 1, 29 Jan Kvech 1.
FOR NATURE SOLUTIONS FIM SPEEDWAY GP OF POLAND – TORUN SCORES: 1 Martin Vaculik 20, 2 Bartosz Zmarzlik 18, 3 Leon Madsen 16, 4 Maciej Janowski 14, 5 Mikkel Michelsen 12, 6 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 7 Andzejs Lebedevs 10, 8 Dan Bewley 9, 9 Kacper Woryna 8, 10 Jason Doyle 7, 11 Robert Lambert 6, 12 Tai Woffinden 5, 13 Jakub Miskowiak 4, 14 Jack Holder 3, 15 Patryk Dudek 2, 16 Krzysztof Lewandowski 1, 17 Pawel Przedpelski 0, 18 Mateusz Affelt 0.
