HAT TRICK HISTORY FOR ZMARZLIK

The Pole followed up his back-to-back wins at last weekend’s Wroclaw double-header by taking the maximum 20 points again at Stadion Miejski to top the World Championship on 83 – three ahead of nearest rival Artem Laguta, who has 80 points.

Zmarzlik triumphed in the final ahead of wild card Dominik Kubera, Lublin’s Polish Under-21 champion who delivered an incredible performance on his SGP debut. Sweden’s Fredrik Lindgren took third place ahead of Laguta.

As well as becoming the first-ever winner of a Lublin round, Zmarzlik became only the fourth rider in SGP history to claim a third consecutive victory – joining Tony Rickardsson, who did it in 2005, Jason Crump (2006) and Jason Doyle (2016).

The Gorzow hero is bidding to become only the second rider to win three world titles in a row – a feat New Zealand’s six-time World Final winner Ivan Mauger achieved from 1968 to 1970.

But Zmarzlik knows there is plenty of work ahead and is already focused on Saturday’s Orlen Lublin SGP of Poland round six.

He said: “I am very happy because I have won three rounds and for me, these are very good results. But the season is so long. I am always looking to the future. Today is history for me – but good history! Winning three rounds is very nice and I am the first rider to win a GP in Lublin, so that’s great.”

Rickardsson is the only rider to have claimed four SGP wins on the spin during his charge to a sixth and final world title in 2005. But Zmarzlik says he won’t be thinking too much about what’s at stake on Saturday.

He said: “I am not looking for this – statistics or anything like that. I just want to get good results, be happy and have fun with my racing. For me, that’s so very important because I love riding the bike. I want to say thanks to the fans and my team. See you tomorrow!”

Kubera made an unforgettable SGP World Championship debut and admits he may not get too much sleep ahead of Saturday’s round six after completing a Polish one-two and sending the home fans wild.

He said: “I don’t know what to say because this is unbelievable. I always dreamed of starting in this meeting. I started today and I was second. This is unbelievable! This is a perfect day for me. I can’t stop smiling and I don’t know how I will sleep tonight. There’s no chance of that!

“It was a really good run for me. I want to race with the best in the world and it felt amazing. My bike worked perfectly today and my team was great. I am so happy.”

Third-placed Lindgren was much happier with his form as he claimed 16 championship points after missing both finals in Wroclaw last weekend.

The Swede, who is fifth in the standings on 66 points, said: “It felt much better today. I started off well with a second and a heat win. It was nice to get some points on the board early on. It calms everyone down a bit.

“I thought I rode well all night long. I am happy to make the final. You always want to win, but I am happy with third place.”

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Bartosz Zmarzlik 83, 2 Artem Laguta 80, 3 Maciej Janowski 70, 4 Emil Sayfutdinov 67, 5 Fredrik Lindgren 66, 6 Tai Woffinden 55, 7 Leon Madsen 54, 8 Max Fricke 41, 9 Jason Doyle 40, 10 Martin Vaculik 39, 11 Robert Lambert 33, 12 Anders Thomsen 26, 13 Matej Zagar 24, 14 Dominik Kubera 18, 15 Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, 16 Oliver Berntzon 9, 17 Gleb Chugunov 8, 18 Jan Kvech 7.

ORLEN LUBLIN SGP OF POLAND R5 SCORES: 1 Bartosz Zmarzlik 20, 2 Dominik Kubera 18, 3 Fredrik Lindgren 16, 4 Artem Laguta 14, 5 Jason Doyle 12, 6 Tai Woffinden 11, 7 Leon Madsen 10, 8 Emil Sayfutdinov 9, 9 Max Fricke 8, 10 Matej Zagar 7, 11 Robert Lambert 6, 12 Martin Vaculik 5, 13 Maciej Janowski 4, 14 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3, 15 Anders Thomsen 2, 16 Oliver Berntzon 1, 17 Wiktor Lampart 0, 18 Mateusz Swidnicki DNR.