VOLUME 73 NUMBER 30
8 COPPERGATE MEWS, BRIGHTON ROAD, SURBITON,
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EDITORIAL
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NEWSDESK
ROBERT Lambert stormed to his maiden Speedway Grand Prix victory in Vojens last Saturday – and immediately set his sights on “bigger and better things”.
The Norfolk star guaranteed himself a World Championship medal after seeing off Polish icon Bartosz Zmarzlik with a sublime start to win the Danish SGP final and surge into second place overall on 137 points.
Lambert is now 10 clear of Sweden’s Fredrik Lindgren, who is on 127 ahead of the seasonclosing round at Torun on September 28.
Should Lambert reach the final or take third place in one of the semis, he will replace 2023 silver medallist Lindgren as world No. 2. But he is already Britain’s third SGP podium finisher alongside triple World Champion Tai Woffinden and 2000 gold-medal winner Mark Loram.
At 26, Lambert has a long future ahead of him on the biggest stage and while the two-time Speedway of Nations winner is keen to savour his maiden SGP win, he already wants more.
He said: “Like Bartek said, the first win is always the best one. I am the kind of person who is never happy with where I finish. I’m happy for the moment but we obviously push for the next one now.
“I have finally done it, I can tick that off in my career book and move on to bigger and better things. Winning another one would be awesome. Let’s start collecting them up.
“I hope I go on to win more and more. It’s obviously a goal of mine to be in Bartek’s position one day. I’m going to keep pushing and fighting and doing all I can to be in that position. We don’t know what will happen in the future, so I can only act in the moment. We will work on it, keep pushing and the hunger will never go away.
“Standing on the podium is going to be great. Whatever the medal is, I will be superhappy. Winning a medal was the goal of the season, so that’s ticked off. I will just fight in Torun and see what I can get. If I can get a level up from bronze, it would be amazing.”
Lambert had to fight furiously to overhaul Poland’s Szymon Wozniak just to get a third place in his opening ride, so he was elated to peak at the perfect time.
He said: “I didn’t think early on in the meeting that I was in the run for it. But we were changing a lot with the bike, making great decisions and
LAMBERT WAIT
moving in the right direction. That’s important, building up to the final.
“You want to have the bike working perfectly for the final. That’s what I have been struggling with for a few meetings, when I’ve missed opportunities to win. I’m over the moon with my first win. Those emotions and how it played out are going to stick with me forever.
“After the finish line, there were a few tears under my goggles. It has been a long time coming. I have put in a lot of hard work and there has been a lot of disappointment at coming so close so often before and not getting it. It comes as a relief to finally get it done and stop the talk going around about it – it was a hot topic about me not winning one. Now it’s finally done.
“I’m so happy at the moment and this trophy is going nowhere. It’s going to stick with me for a long time.”
Lambert jumped off his bike at the tapes before the final and was furiously stamping material into place to give himself the best possible start from gate two. The Torunbased star was determined to leave no stone unturned in his search for speed, with titlechasing Zmarzlik on his inside.
He recalled: “I knew when ‘Magic’ walked up and took gate four that I only had the option of taking gate two. I knew I needed to get it across the World Champion and that’s no easy feat.
“I was packing away at the start with any kind of dirt I could find for over a minute. The people watching would have seen my heartrate up to crazy heights. I was packing away and my leg was pumping.
“I took a few deep breaths at the start and, when I dropped
the clutch, the bike went forwards. I was kind of level with him and knew I needed to get across him and not leave him any kind of room.
“I’ve been in the position before where I nearly got across Bartek and he has been tough on me, pushed me out and I lost that position. I needed to clamp him, get it on the line and exit the corner in front.”
Lambert is now red-hot favourite to seal silver, especially with home-track advantage for the Torun finale.
Bartek do
POLISH hero Bartosz Zmarzlik dedicated his historic fifth Speedway GP World Championship triumph to his sons as he cemented his spot among the sport’s all-time greats in Vojens on Saturday.
After matching Swedish legend Ove Fundin’s five world titles, Zmarzlik is now within touching distance of New Zealand icon Ivan Mauger and Swedish superstar Tony Rickardsson’s record haul of six.
He also followed Mauger in becoming only the second rider in history to win three world titles in a row, matching the Kiwi king’s World Final hat-trick notched between 1968 and 1970.
Zmarzlik now heads into 2025 hunting an unprecedented four in a row – and he could have been chasing seven on the bounce but for Artem Laguta’s title triumph in 2021.
While these numbers are all very impressive, Zmarzlik admits he does everything for his family back home in Kinice – a village just over half an hour from his boyhood club Gorzow, where eldest son Antoni was
2 speedway star September 21, 2024
