On the weekend of Friday 5th and Saturday 6th June 2026, myself and good friends Chris and Rick travelled across to Manchester where we met up with our other friend Mark to witness both round 3 & round 4 of the 2026 Speedway GP at the National Speedway Stadium.
Whilst the main event commenced at 7pm each evening, there was the added attraction, I use that in a loose sense of the word, of the Sprint Race which started at 2pm on the Friday afternoon.
I have never been overly interested in meeting practice so, the addition of the Sprint Race, for which you can actually earn up to four Grand Prix points, should you be the winner, does make the session a little more interesting.
As it turned out the race was won by Australia’s Jack Holder. Great Britain’s Robert Lambert was second and, somewhat surprisingly, compatriot and wildcard for these rounds Tom Brennan came home third. Prior to the race, home track hero, and current world number two Brady Kurtz would have been fancied for the victory however, the Australian touched the tapes at the start and was excluded from the event.
Moving on to Friday evening, the track seemed to be a little dry, not massively different to the afternoon’s conditions, but the racing was fairly good. The biggest talking point of the qualifying races was an almighty collision between Denmark’s Leon Madsen and Pole Kacper Woryna. The latter was riding desperately to qualify for the later stages of the meeting and having earlier in the race almost come to grief on the start-finish line, bravery turned to stupidity on the last lap where he ran into Madsen’s back wheel and they both ended up in the fence. Thankfully neither rider was injured but Woryna’s exclusion meant his evening was over.
After a poor first ride, where he finished last, Max Fricke (AUS) reeled off four straight wins to advance directly to the meeting final. He was joined by Poland’s reigning world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik who had amassed thirteen points from his five qualifying races to finish the top scorer at that stage. The two winners from the last chance qualifiers joined them and these turned out to be the aforementioned Holder and Kurtz.
There was a slight curveball thrown into the equation as the heavens opened just before those eliminator races and conditions changed somewhat. Zmarzlik had looked extremely quick in his previous heats however, he had not been getting out of the starts. It seemed he had compromised his bike setup to get the most speed out of his machine. Unfortunately for him, this ultimately led to his downfall, literally in the final. It seemed that he did not take into consideration the change of conditions caused by the rain when making his gate selection. He had first choice and chose the outside starting position. This meant Fricke was able to select what many saw as the favourable inside starting gate and this proved crucial as he surged from the tapes and headed straight out towards the safety fence and the dirt line. This curtailed the outside run from Zmarzlik who basically had to bale out or collide with Fricke. Zmarzlik hit the ground and, after a brief review of the video replay by the referee, he was excluded from the re-run. Fricke got away well again in that re-run to take victory on the night ahead of Kurtz and Holder for an Aussie 1-2-3 on the podium. After this round Zmarzlik held a one-point series lead over Kurtz.
On to Saturday evening and after a slow start to the meeting, the quality of the racing really picked up. This was down to the way the track was prepared as they curated it during the meeting so that there was a good racing line on both the inside and outside of the track. I would say the action on this evening surpassed that of the previous evening.
Dane Michael Jepsen Jensen was the stand out rider during the qualifying races. He bagged fourteen points out of a possible fifteen to advance directly to the final where he would have first choice of starting position. He was joined in automatic final qualification by Kurtz who reeled off four wins in his opening four rides, including a stunning victory over chief rival in a magnificent heat fourteen, before a last place in his final heat where he was beaten by Jepsen Jensen.
Holder once again won his last chance qualifier and Zmarzlik won the other one so, the final line-up was set.
Jepsen Jensen selected the inside starting position. Kurtz then chose the outside starting position. MJJ looked to have been vindicated when he made a great start and Kurtz was nowhere. As the race unfolded, we saw one of the best finals I have personally witnessed and one of the best ever races at the National Speedway Stadium. Zmarzlik had managed to put pressure on MJJ whilst Kurtz was battling at the back with Holder. Kurtz managed to find some amazing speed on the outside and then dived under both MJJ and Zmarzlik going into the first bend of lap three to pass both and claim the lead and ultimately a fantastic victory. Zmarzlik almost came to grief on bend four of the same lap when narrowly avoiding the back wheel of Jepsen Jensen who finished second ahead of Zmarzlik who reclaimed third place from Holder on the final lap.
After this race Kurtz became the new series leader ahead of Zmarzlik and Holder. Having witnessed two rounds of the championship on the same track last year, I’ve got to say the entertainment overall was, in my opinion, better this year.
I think we all enjoyed the two days in Manchester and we look forward to seeing what the 2027 Grand Prix calendar throws up.