Illustrative photo – Luboš Tomíček Memorial, 52nd annual flat track race, October 4, 2021 at Markéta in Prague. From the left, Václav Milík and Jan Kvěch from the Czech Republic.
Prague – The traditional highlight of the domestic speedway season will be the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic on Saturday. After the stops in Croatia and Poland, the race in Prague will be the third in a row from a total of ten parts of the World Championship series. Thanks to the wild card, the Czech rider Václav Milík will also compete with the elite. Already on Friday, the opening race of the SGP2 series for drivers under 21 is on the program at the Markéta Stadium oval in Břevnov. Both races will start at the same time at 19:00.
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The Speedway Grand Prix will take place in the Czech capital for the twenty-seventh year in a row. And the spectators, who, according to the organizers' expectations, could completely fill the auditorium, can look forward to extremely interesting fights with regard to the course of the season so far.
The main favorite will be the reigning world champion from Poland, Bartosz Zmarzlik. The three-time champion from the last four years, whose dominance was broken only in 2021 by the Russian Artom Laguta, when he surpassed him by just three points, won both races in Prague in 2020, when the shape of the calendar of battles for the world throne was significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The 28-year-old Zmarzlik won the opening round in Croatia at the end of April, and was third on his home track in Warsaw before mid-May. Swede Fredrik Lindgren is in excellent form again, and he has the same balance in reverse guard. The 37-year-old Australian Jason Doyle, the world champion from 2017, who reached the highest stage in Prague in 2016 and 2017, was fourth twice.
The Prague track is the favorite oval of Briton Tai Woffinden. He dominated the Grand Prix on it three times in a row between 2013 and 2015. Last year Slovakian Martin Vaculík was happy, second was Woffinden, third Doyle.
After the previous two seasons, when the organizers pointed to the talented youngster Jan Kvěch, this year the first choice when selecting a wild card was Milík, who in 2017 took care of a surprising third place for the best Czech result to date. This time, Kvěch will be in the role of substitute together with Eduard Krčmář.
“I am very happy that I got the chance to show up at the Grand Prix again and go for a good result. My career is a bit up and down, now I but he returned to a successful wave and I appreciate the fact that I can ride in Prague. I will ride with the guys I ride against in the Polish league and I manage to beat them. Hopefully I can do it in Markéta as well,” Milík wished.
Two Czechs will compete in the opening race of the three-part Junior World Championship series in Prague. In addition to Petr Chlupáč, who received a wild card for the entire series, Daniel Klíma, who received a wild card for the Prague race, can also look forward to the start. Chlupáč took third place in Prague last year. Only sixteen-year-old Jaroslav Vaníček and newly seventeen-year-old Matouš Kameník will be ready as substitutes.
