Bewley bags Sprint double in Cardiff Speedway qualifying races
Words and images courtesy SGP
Great Britain racer Dan Bewley launched his FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Cardiff weekend with victory in Friday’s sprint race – and now he can’t wait to battle it out in front of a partisan Principality Stadium crowd on Saturday night.
Bewley, who topped the podium in the 20th-anniversary 2022 Cardiff event, completed a unique double after winning his second sprint race of the season – adding to his win in the first-ever Friday sprint at the Orlen FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Warsaw on May 10.
Just two sprint races have taken place in Speedway GP this season – in the series’ two big-stadium events in Cardiff and Warsaw, offering riders the chance to earn extra Speedway GP World Championship points. Victory earned the Cumbrian four Speedway GP World Championship points, added to the four he earned in Warsaw – the perfect start to Britain’s biggest speedway weekend.
Danish racer Leon Madsen repeated his Warsaw result, taking second place behind Bewley to earn three points, with Czech shooting star Jan Kvech scoring two in third and 2023 Cardiff winner Martin Vaculik of Slovakia scoring one for fourth place.
Bewley’s win is a huge boost to a rider who is currently ninth in the Speedway GP World Championship on 53 points – 13 points short of the top-six spot needed to qualify for the 2025 series. With 20 points up for grabs for Saturday’s Cardiff winner, Bewley hopes a passionate home crowd can help him repeat his 2022 Principality Stadium magic.
He said: “It was cool to sweep the sprint races and get the two for the year – and eight championship points. That can help me in the championship for sure, but there are 100 points up for grabs still this season. We have five more rounds, and I need to kick on.
“It’s a bit of a weird thing – racing one heat and then we go and get a shower and some dinner. But we come back on Saturday and it’s a new day. I am just looking forward to racing in front of even more fans.
“There were some people here for the sprint race and I know a lot of fans are in the city. It will be good. I’ve been down here a couple of times to watch the event. I also watched the World Supercross here at Principality Stadium. It’s just a pretty cool place to come as a fan. For sure, as a rider, it’s cool to see so many home fans.
“I just need to be a little more consistent off the start and put myself in some better positions. I feel like I can race. I always have decent speed. I can make starts too. I just need to do it all a little more consistently.”
Three-time Speedway GP winner Bewley is still waiting for his first final appearance of 2024 and would love to make it happen in Cardiff. He said: “There’s never a bad time to have a good night! I’ve had a few good meetings, but it has been a little bit up and down. I just want to keep progressing and show what I can do. If you can have a good meeting and hear that Cardiff crowd at the end of the night when you finish, there is nothing cooler.”
Bewley was part of Great Britain’s FIM Speedway of Nations World Championship-winning side in Manchester on July 13 alongside Speedway GP rival Robert Lambert and Cardiff wild card Tom Brennan.
Lambert heads to the Welsh capital in red-hot form after racking up a string of high scores for Polish club Torun and Swedish side Vastervik. He is placed fifth in the World Championship on 72 points and chasing his first Speedway GP victory.
While he is confident it will come in time, there is no doubt he would be a popular winner for the home fans in Cardiff. Looking ahead to Saturday’s showdown, he said: “It has been going pretty well. I have scored a few maximums here and there and been feeling great and enjoying my racing. Winning the Speedway of Nations must have helped somewhere along the line and given me a bit of confidence. It’s always nice to win a gold medal. You can never feel bad about that. That was great and things are flowing at the moment. So, we will just keep riding and enjoying it, see what we can do and just try to keep stepping that bar up higher.
“It’s an open field on Saturday and we are all out there to try and grab that top spot. We will definitely be giving it everything we can to do that. Hopefully I will push that little bit more than anyone else. In time that win is going to happen for sure. If I put too much emphasis on it, then it will never happen. When it happens, it happens. I have been consistent throughout the season, and I am in a great position in the standings. I have not been doing too badly, even if I haven’t won yet.”
Brennan makes his first Speedway GP appearance over five or more rides after lining up in the 2022 Cardiff round as a track reserve – taking three rides and scoring one championship point. After finishing third in the British Championship Final to earn the biggest opportunity of his career so far, the double FIM SON world champion is determined to take it all in and not put too much pressure on himself on world speedway’s biggest stage.
The 23-year-old said: “First of all, this is a huge experience for me. I just want to be a huge sponge this weekend and absorb as much as I can. I am really excited to be here. It feels good to be here this time – I feel like I deserve to have my spot, and I have earned it. I am ready. I was looking back to 2022 when I did the reserve role. I remember I took that so seriously. I built a new bike and did all this crazy stuff. It kind of took away from the event. With that experience from last time, I am trying to approach it in a different way, try and be a bit more laid back and enjoy myself somewhat. But we’re ready and really looking forward to the experience.”
Bewley isn’t the only former Cardiff winner who reached Friday’s sprint race as 2019 FIM British Speedway GP victor Madsen bids to build on the three championship points he earned – added to his three from the PGE Narodowy sprint race in May.
Eighth-placed Madsen, who pulled level on 54 points with Dominik Kubera in seventh, said: “I would have liked to swap positions with Dan. I was watching him and thinking, ‘Oh, it’s the same result as Warsaw.’ But it’s still okay. Those three points could be vital at the end of the season, so I am quite happy about them.
“I got closer to Dominik. I am now level on points with him. That’s good. Hopefully by the end of the year I can finish in that top six position, which automatically gives you a spot in Speedway GP next year. If I finish there, I think I can be happy about my season after what I have gone through this year.”
Czech international Kvech finished third in the sprint race on the Cardiff track where he took fourth spot in the 2022 FIM SGP2 of Great Britain for the sport’s under-21 stars. He was delighted to be back in action in the Welsh capital, especially after joining Britain’s Rowe Motor Oil Premiership with King’s Lynn Stars earlier this summer. Now he is targeting his first SGP semi-final after falling one place short at the ISS FIM Speedway GP of Poland – Gorzow on June 29.
He said: “I feel very good. I was here two years ago and that was also good. I felt very good on the bike. I am very pleased with third position in the sprint race. This is a big experience for me – to be in Speedway GP. The last SGP in Gorzow was not bad. I was very close to the semi-final.
“I haven’t been in the semi-final so far this season, but when you get there, it is a lottery. I hope I can get there. When I ride in Speedway GP, I always want to be in the semi-final. I hope this weekend I will be there. I am racing in Britain full-time for the first time this season. I am riding on new and very technical tracks. I hope that helps me in this GP in Cardiff.”
Last year’s Cardiff winner Vaculik was delighted to kick off his weekend by reaching the sprint race and taking fourth position. But he knows his 2023 triumph won’t help him on Saturday. He said: “Last year was a great one for me in Cardiff and I had one of the best memories in my life, winning the GP in Cardiff. But this is a completely new year. It’s a new day for me. We have tried our setups and what we think will be good for Saturday. We could see in the sprint race that I need to work on my gating because I think gating will be the key to success on Saturday. It always is, but especially on tracks like Cardiff. It’s even more important on one-day tracks. That’s where our focus will go.”