Zmarzlik regains Speedway GP lead as Wroclaw beats Aussie

2026 FIM Speedway GP of Poland

Two weeks after Manchester delivered one of the great Australian speedway GP weekends, Wroclaw provided a very harsh reminder of how quickly the sport can swing.

Max Frick, Brady Kurtz and Jack Holder closed out the round three podium in Manchester, before Kurtz took the championship lead by winning round four 24 hours later. Australia had the winner of the last two Speedway GP Finals, three riders on the Manchester podium, and Kurtz was heading to Poland as the top man in the world rankings.

By the end of a storm-delayed night at Wroclaw’s Olympic Stadium, the picture looked very different.

Bartosz Zmarzlik won the 2026 DeWalt FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Wrocław with Robert Lambert and Michael Jeppes finishing ahead of Jensen in the final, with Kurtz finishing fourth. It was Zmarzlik’s first Speedway GP win since June 2025, his record-extending 30th SGP win, and it returned the Polish star to the top of the World Championship standings.

For Kurtz, fourth place still brought 14 championship points and kept him in title contention, but the championship lead changed hands. Zmarzlik now leads with 82 points, with Kurtz trailing by three points with 79 points.

Wrocław presents a night of delays and drama

The Wroclaw round was overloaded even before a wheel had been turned. The Olympic Stadium hosted the first Speedway GP event in 1995, and the meeting marked the 300th SGP event in the championship’s history.

Then heavy rain and storm made for a long, complicated night. The meeting was delayed for approximately two and a half hours due to heavy weather hitting the track and pits, with local fire crews called in to help drain water from the pits before circuit staff brought the surface back to racing condition.

The final was not completed until shortly before midnight, but when the meeting got under way, it produced a night that reshaped the championship.

Kurtz started the round with a three-point lead over Zmarzlik at his Polish league home track. The Australian wasn’t flawless early on, finishing third in Heat 2, but his night blossomed from there. He won Heat 6, Heat 16 and Heat 19, and his 12-point tally from the heats was enough to send him straight to the finals.

That was the good news.

The bad news for Kurtz was that Zmarzlik also made the final straight, and when it came to the decisive four laps, the Polish rider made the lap that mattered.

When it matters Zmarzlik finds the answer

Zmarzlik’s Heat scorecard was solid rather than impressive. He went 2-3-1-2-3 in his five rides, winning Heat 5 and Heat 18, and performed well enough on countback to earn direct entry into the final.

Lambert and Jeppesen Jensen had to go through a last-chance qualifier. Lambert won LCQ1 ahead of Patrick Dudek, Jan Kvach and Andrzej Lebedevs, while Jeppe Jensen won LCQ2 ahead of Anders Thomsen, Leon Madsen and Maciej Janowski.

Once the four finalists were set, Zmarzlik designed the ride he needed most. Lambert finished second behind him, his best Speedway GP result for some time, while Jeppe Jensen continued his strong 2026 campaign with third place. Kurtz finished fourth with valuable points, but could not take the lead in the championship.

There were a few layers to Zmarzlik’s victory. This ended a long Speedway GP win drought, gave him 30th place in the top level, and came at home to Poland on a night when the championship lead was up for grabs.

Kurtz lost the lead, but not the fight.

For Kurtz, Wrocław was not a disaster on the scorecard. He reached yet another final and gained 14 points from the main meeting. He is only three points behind Zmarzlík and has been one of the riders most consistently able to put himself in position to win this season.

The disappointment would be that, for the second GP in a row, he had enough raw meeting speed to contend for victory. In the Manchester R4, he took a win and became the championship lead. In Wrocław, it finished fourth in the final and second in the standings.

There was still a lot to take in from the night. Kurtz won three of his five heats, was the top scorer in the programmed rides, and remained in the championship battle of the Swedish round in Malila on 11 July.

Heat 7 changed the Australian story

The toughest part of the Wroclaw story for Australia came in Heat 7.

Jack Holder and Jason Doyle were both involved in a crash at the first turn along with Casper Vorina. Holder was taken to hospital by ambulance, and club updates from Gorzo and Sheffield Wednesday confirmed he was set to undergo surgery and suffered a spell on the sidelines.

Doyle escaped without any broken bones, but Belle Vue said he was battered and bruised and will miss Monday’s Premiership clash with Ipswich.

That crash knocked both Australians out of the competition and changed the complexion of the night. Holder arrived in Wroclaw in third place in the Championship after consecutive Manchester finals, while Doyle was part of the wider Australian strength that had made the previous round so remarkable.

Instead, Holder left the meeting with no points from the round and a significant injury concern, while Doyle was awarded two championship points after his first Heat 4 second place.

Frick’s Manchester high proves hard to replicate

Max Frick also had a tough night after the success of the Manchester R3.

The Victorian started with a last place finish in Heat 4, then seemed to have secured a spot at the meet when he finished second to Kurtz in Heat 6 and won Heat 11 ahead of Dudek, Zmarzlik and Nazar Pernitsky.

This gave Frick a chance to make the cut, but third place in Heat 13 and last place in Heat 20 left him in 11th overall with six championship points. He also scored two points from the sprint race, where he finished third behind Janowski and Lambert.

Frick sits sixth in the championship with 50 points, but Wroclaw was a reminder that Manchester’s pace can be difficult to maintain when the track, conditions and draw turn against a rider.

Gate 4 dominates victory

The Wroclaw scorecard told an interesting story. Gate was the big producer of four wins, taking his total to 13 race wins across the entire meeting. Gate one produced six wins, gate two produced four wins, while gate three produced no winners.

This made the position of the draw and first corner particularly important, and also helped explain why many riders rode in reverse throughout the night. Getting out of gate three and still converting bad draws into points proved difficult, especially as the meeting found its rhythm after the weather delay.

For Australia, the title went from the highs of Manchester to the damage limits of Wroclaw. Kurtz remains deep in the title fight, with Frick still in the top six, but Holder’s injury and Doyle’s bad exit changed the tone of the campaign.

Two rounds earlier, Australia had all three podium positions. After Wroclaw, Kurtz is still chasing gold, but the broader Australian story becomes far more complex

2026 FIM Speedway GP of Poland
Wroclaw results

Sprint, final and last-chance qualifiers

FIM SGP World Championship standings after the fifth round

wrocław heat results

The order shown is from first to fourth, except where lower classified riders are listed in the official result. The race time was not listed in the official FIM Speedway results view at the time of preparation.

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