2025 SPEEDWAY GP WILD CARDS ANNOUNCED

2025 SPEEDWAY GP WILD CARDS ANNOUNCED

Riders from nine different nations will compete in the 2025 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series after the four permanent wild cards were confirmed.

Former Speedway GP world champion Jason Doyle of Australia, three-time Speedway European Championship winner Mikkel Michelsen from Denmark, Czech champion Jan Kvech and German racer Kai Huckenbeck all take their places in the 2025 series after being nominated by the SGP Commission.

This means Poland, Great Britain, Sweden, Slovakia, Australia, Denmark, Latvia, Germany and Czech Republic are all represented for the second straight season in a truly international 2025 Speedway GP field.

The four wild cards are joined by this season’s Speedway GP top-six automatic qualifiers – five-time Speedway GP world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik of Poland, Great Britain’s silver medallist Robert Lambert, Swedish world No.3 Fredrik Lindgren, GB’s two-time FIM Speedway of Nations world champion Dan Bewley, Slovakia’s nine-time SGP winner Martin Vaculik and Aussie ace Jack Holder.

Speedway European Championship winner Andzejs Lebedevs from Latvia also gains automatic entry, and he’s joined by the top four from the FIM SGP Challenge in Pardubice, Czech Republic on Friday – Brady Kurtz (Australia), Anders Thomsen (Denmark), Dominik Kubera (Poland) and Max Fricke (Australia).

Doyle stormed to 2024 Orlen FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Warsaw victory in May. PHOTO: Jarek Pabijan

Doyle, who won the 2017 Speedway GP World Championship, missed eight rounds of the 2024 Speedway GP season after undergoing surgery on a torn rotator cuff suffered in a crash at British track King’s Lynn in May. 

Prior to that fall, he was firmly in world-title contention, having raced to victory at the Orlen FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Warsaw on May 11 in front of around 50,000 people at PGE Narodowy – just two weeks after he took second place at the FIM Speedway GP of Croatia on April 27.

Michelsen was also in medal contention, standing fourth in the championship when his campaign was halted by multiple injuries, suffered in his opening race at the OlyBet FIM Speedway GP of Latvia – Riga on September 7. 

The 2023 Danish champion picked up his first SGP victory at the Trans MF FIM Speedway GP of Germany – Landshut on May 18 and also reached the finals at two of the Polish rounds in Gorzow and Wroclaw, where he was third and fourth respectively.

Danish racer Mikkel Michelsen celebrated his first Speedway GP win in Landshut in May. PHOTO: Taylor Lanning

Former German champion Kai Huckenbeck reached three Speedway GP semi-finals in Croatia and Polish cities Warsaw and Gorzow in his SGP debut season. He also made history with his country, leading Germany to fourth place in the FIM Speedway of Nations in Manchester in July – the country’s best performance in an FIM Speedway team world championship event since 1997.

This year saw Czech charger Jan Kvech became his country’s first full-time Speedway GP rider since Lukas Dryml raced in the 2008 series. 

His first season on the sport’s biggest stage culminated in him winning his first Czech Republic Championship as well as reaching his first SGP semi-final at the series-closing DeWalt FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Torun on September 28.German ace Kai Huckenbeck                   Czech champion Jan Kvech

The 2025 Speedway GP substitutes list has also been revealed as the SGP Commission nominates the riders who will step into the starting line-up, should any of the 15 regular miss a round due to injury, illness or other reasons.

Denmark’s two-time SGP silver medallist and double European champion Leon Madsen is named as first substitute, with Poland’s former world No.2 Patryk Dudek listed as the second reserve.

Great Britain’s triple Speedway GP world champion Tai Woffinden is waiting in the wings as third substitute after a previously unbroken 12-year stint in the SGP starting line-up dating back to 2013.

Waiting in the wings: 2025 Speedway GP first substitute Leon Madsen. PHOTO: Taylor Lanning

Double Swedish champion Jacob Thorssell is fourth substitute after finishing just one point and one place short of Speedway GP qualification at the FIM SGP Challenge in Pardubice.

FIM North America champion Luke Becker from the USA is fifth substitute, with France’s former FIM Long Track world champion Dimitri Bergé named as sixth substitute.

The top three riders from the FIM Speedway Under-21 World Championship (SGP2) round off the list as SGP2 champion Wiktor Przyjemski of Poland is seventh reserve, Ukrainian silver medallist Nazar Parnitskyi becomes eighth reserve and Norwegian bronze medallist Mathias Pollestad is ninth substitute.

The 2025 FIM Speedway season gets underway with the FIM Speedway GP of Germany – Landshut on May 3. CLICK HERE for full details of the 2025 Speedway GP calendar.

Visit FIMSpeedway.com and follow @SpeedwayGP social media throughout the winter for all the news from across the sport and all the build-up to 2025.

2025 SPEEDWAY GP LINE-UP (IN FIM RANKING ORDER WITH RIDER NUMBERS):

95. Bartosz Zmarzlik (Poland)

505. Robert Lambert (Great Britain)

66. Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden)

99. Dan Bewley (Great Britain)

54. Martin Vaculik (Slovakia)

25. Jack Holder (Australia)

155. Mikkel Michelsen (Denmark)

415. Dominik Kubera (Poland)

29. Andzejs Lebedevs (Latvia)

46. Max Fricke (Australia)

744. Kai Huckenbeck (Germany)

201. Jan Kvech (Czech Republic)

69. Jason Doyle (Australia)

105. Anders Thomsen (Denmark)

101. Brady Kurtz (Australia)

2025 SPEEDWAY GP SUBSTITUTES

30. Leon Madsen (Denmark)

692. Patryk Dudek (Poland)

108. Tai Woffinden (Great Britain)

24. Jacob Thorssell (Sweden)

22. Luke Becker (USA)

96. Dimitri Bergé (France)

Wiktor Przyjemski (Poland) – rider number to be confirmed

785. Nazar Parnitskyi (Ukraine)

999. Mathias Pollestad (Norway)