2014 Speedway European Championship

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2014 Speedway European Championship
Season details
Dates6 July – 19 September
Events4
Cities4
Countries4
Riders15 permanents
1 wild card(s)
2 track reserves
Heats(in 4 events)
Winners
ChampionFlag of Russia.svg  RUS Emil Sayfutdinov
Runner-upFlag of Denmark.svg  DEN Peter Kildemand
3rd placeFlag of Denmark.svg  DEN Nicki Pedersen

The 2014 Speedway European Championship season was the second season of the Speedway European Championship (SEC) era, and decided the 14th UEM Individual Speedway European Championship. It was the second series under the promotion of One Sport Lts. of Poland.

Contents

The championship was won by Russia's Emil Sayfutdinov, six points ahead of Danish rider Peter Kildemand. Third place went to another Danish rider, Nicki Pedersen, who was another four points behind Kildemand. Pedersen had won the opening two races of the season, before Sayfutdinov moved ahead in the standings after a win at Holsted in Denmark. A fourth-place finish in Częstochowa – an event won by Russian Grigory Laguta – was enough to give Sayfutdinov the title.

Qualification

For the 2014 season, 15 permanent riders were joined at each SEC Final by one wild card and two track reserves.

Defending champion, Martin Vaculík from Slovakia was automatically invited to participate in all final events. Nicki Pedersen and Grigorij Laguta secured their participation in all final events thanks to being in the top 3 of the general classification in the 2013 season.

Emil Sayfutdinov, Andreas Jonsson and Tomasz Gollob received and accepted a wild card to compete in the 2014 Speedway European Championships. [1] [2]

Qualified riders

#Riders 2013 placeSEC Ch placeAppearancePrevious appearances in series
1 Flag of Slovakia.svg Martin Vaculík 12nd2013
5 Flag of Denmark.svg Nicki Pedersen 22nd2013
111 Flag of Russia.svg Grigorij Laguta 32nd2013
20 Flag of Poland.svg Tomasz Gollob 72nd2013
89 Flag of Russia.svg Emil Sayfutdinov 92nd2013
100 Flag of Sweden.svg Andreas Jonsson 1st
33 Flag of Poland.svg Adrian Miedziński 11st
27 Flag of Poland.svg Janusz Kołodziej 21st
25 Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand 31st
313 Flag of Denmark.svg Kenni Larsen 41st
13 Flag of Sweden.svg Jonas Davidsson 51st
19 Flag of Croatia.svg Jurica Pavlic 1262nd2013
69 Flag of Poland.svg Patryk Dudek 71st
169 Flag of Latvia.svg Andžejs Ļebedevs (wildcard)81st
84 Flag of Germany.svg Martin Smolinski (wildcard)1st

Controversy

The European Union Motorcycle (FIM-Europe) introduced a formal ban that prevented riders in the Speedway Grand Prix taking part in the Speedway European Championship. The decision had been rumoured for weeks before being officially confirmed on 3 November 2013. That meant that all riders taking part in the World Championship could not be regular participants of the SEC. Amongst the riders who received permanent wild cards from the SEC were Emil Sayfutdinov, Andreas Jonsson and Tomasz Gollob. [3]

Shortly after this, riders started to show the support to the SEC and their displeasure about the situation. As a result of this, already invited rider Tomasz Gollob, Andreas Jonsson, Nicki Pedersen and Emil Sayfutdinov sent an open letter to the FIM-Europe requesting the solution of the situation. [4]

A statement from series organisers One Sport Lts. on 17 November 2013 pointed out that the ban was inconsistent with European law and announced an intention to take required legal action. They used the European Union Microsoft competition case as an example. [5]

On 29 November, Emil Sayfutdinov announced that he was prepared to drop out of the 2014 SGP series in order to ride in the Speedway European Championship. As a reason, he explained that his Russian sponsors insisted their logos were seen in their country and SEC tournaments were transmitted by a Eurosport channel available in Russia, whereas Grand Prix competitions were not shown by any TV channel in Russia. Moreover, one of SEC tournaments was due to be held in Russia in 2014. [6] On the same day, Tomasz Gollob also announced that he would participate in the Speedway European Championship.

On 6 December, Janek Konikiewicz, a representative for One Sport Lts., tweeted that "It seems that there will be no ban for SGP riders in SEC 2014. Another strong signal, that we have won – but still nothing official". [7] On 20 December, he also tweeted another message: "OFFICIAL: One Sport received an official letter from FIM-Europe with information that they advised FIM to not ban any riders from SEC", which basically ended the story. [8]

On 7 February 2014, the FIM board of directors officially took the decision to ban World Championship participants from participating in any kind of European Championships tournament. One Sport LLC declared their disapproval with the FIM's decision. [9] [10] Shortly after, Tomasz Gollob announced that he would refuse his wild card invitation for the SGP Bydgoszcz tournament, whereas Andreas Jonsson decided to refuse his SEC invitation in favour of participating in SGP. [11] Emil Sayfutdinov asked to drop his application for SGP. [12]

On 28 February 2014, the FIM board of directions officially announced that the previous ban for SGP riders to participate in SEC was delayed until 1 January 2015. [13]

Changes

In the 2014 season, the participating riders had the possibility to choose the number which would be on their race jacket. In the past, the riders in all tournaments had an obligatory number which was given to them by the organizers. During the first tournament, the defending champion wore a yellow race jacket and for all following tournaments, the current general classification leader wore the jacket. [14]

Calendar

Qualification

The calendar for qualification consisted of 3 Semifinal events and one SEC Challenge event. [15] At the end of March, the first semifinal round was moved from Ukraine to Latvia.

RoundDateCity and venueWinnerRunner-up3rd placed4th placedResults
Semifinal 117 May Flag of Latvia.svg Daugavpils, Latvia

Spīdveja centrs (Length: 373m)

Flag of Denmark.svg Michael J. Jensen Flag of Latvia.svg Andžejs Ļebedevs Flag of Poland.svg Patryk Dudek Flag of Poland.svg Maciej Janowski results
Semifinal 217 May Flag of Slovenia.svg Krško, Slovenia

Matija Gubec Stadium (Length: 387m)

Flag of Latvia.svg Maksims Bogdanovs Flag of Poland.svg Przemyslaw Pawlicki Flag of Ukraine.svg Andriy Karpov Flag of Croatia.svg Jurica Pavlic results
Semifinal 325 May Flag of Slovakia.svg Žarnovica, Slovakia

Speedwaystadium (Length: 400 m)

Flag of Poland.svg Janusz Kołodziej Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand Flag of Sweden.svg Jonas Davidsson Flag of Poland.svg Adrian Miedziński results
SEC Challenge8 June Flag of Hungary.svg Debrecen, Hungary

Speedway Stadium (Length: 398 m)

Flag of Poland.svg Adrian Miedziński Flag of Poland.svg Janusz Kołodziej Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand Flag of Denmark.svg Kenni Larsen results

Championship Series

A four-event calendar was scheduled for the final series, [16] [17] with events in Germany, Russia, Denmark and Poland.

RoundDateCity and venueWinnerRunner-up3rd placed4th placedResults
16 July Flag of Germany.svg Güstrow, Germany

Speedway Stadion Güstrow (Length: 298m)

Flag of Denmark.svg Nicki Pedersen Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand Flag of Poland.svg Janusz Kołodziej Flag of Poland.svg Tomasz Gollob results
220 July Flag of Russia.svg Tolyatti, Russia

Mega-Lada Stadium (Length: 353m)

Flag of Denmark.svg Nicki Pedersen Flag of Russia.svg Emil Sayfutdinov Flag of Poland.svg Patryk Dudek Flag of Slovakia.svg Martin Vaculík results
39 August Flag of Denmark.svg Holsted, Denmark

Moldow Arena (Length: 300m)

Flag of Russia.svg Emil Sayfutdinov Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand Flag of Slovakia.svg Martin Vaculík Flag of Latvia.svg Maksims Bogdanovs results
419 September Flag of Poland.svg Częstochowa, Poland

Częstochowa Arena (Length: 368m)

Flag of Russia.svg Grigory Laguta Flag of Denmark.svg Nicki Pedersen Flag of Denmark.svg Peter Kildemand Flag of Russia.svg Emil Sayfutdinov results

Classification

Pos.RiderPoints Flag of Germany.svg Flag of Russia.svg Flag of Denmark.svg Flag of Poland.svg
1 Flag of Russia.svg (89) Emil Sayfutdinov 5411151315
2 Flag of Denmark.svg (25) Peter Kildemand 4811121312
3 Flag of Denmark.svg (5) Nicki Pedersen 441413611
4 Flag of Slovakia.svg (1) Martin Vaculík 41714128
5 Flag of Poland.svg (27) Janusz Kołodziej 38146810
6 Flag of Latvia.svg (21) Maksims Bogdanovs 3488117
7 Flag of Croatia.svg (19) Jurica Pavlic 3139118
8 Flag of Sweden.svg (100) Andreas Jonsson 319598
9 Flag of Poland.svg (20) Tomasz Gollob 279459
10 Flag of Latvia.svg (169) Andžejs Ļebedevs 227843
11 Flag of Poland.svg (33) Adrian Miedziński 219543
12 Flag of Russia.svg (111) Grigory Laguta 1717
13 Flag of Poland.svg (69) Patryk Dudek 16412
14 Flag of Denmark.svg (313) Kenni Larsen 146332
15 Flag of Sweden.svg (13) Jonas Davidsson 145531
16 Flag of Germany.svg (84) Martin Smolinski 13535
17 Flag of Denmark.svg (16) Niels-Kristian Iversen 1010
18 Flag of Denmark.svg (15) Michael Jepsen Jensen 99
19 Flag of Poland.svg (16) Rune Holta 77
20 Flag of Germany.svg (16) Christian Hefenbrock 44
- Flag of Russia.svg (16) Vitaly Bielousov 44
22 Flag of Denmark.svg (16) Rasmus Jensen 22
23 Flag of Latvia.svg (18) Ķasts Puodžuks 11
- Flag of Denmark.svg (17) Patrick Hougaard 11
25 Flag of Germany.svg (17) Kai Huckenbeck 00
- Flag of Poland.svg (17) Artur Czaja 00
Flag of Germany.svg (18) Tobias Busch ns
Flag of Russia.svg (17) Sergey Agaltsov ns
Flag of Russia.svg (18) Michail Litvinov ns
Flag of Poland.svg (18) Borys Miturski ns
2014 Speedway European Champion
Flag of Russia.svg
Emil Sayfutdinov
First title

See also

References

  1. "Gollob will start in SEC 2014!". speedwayeuro.com. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  2. "Emil Sajfutdinow znalazł sponsorów na Grand Prix! Jest jednak jeden warunek" (in Polish). sportowefakty.pl. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  3. "Grand Prix riders banned from SEC!". speedwayeuro.com. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  4. "GP Stars Frustrated By European Ban!". speedway365.com. 7 November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  5. "Emil Sajfutdinow chce unieważnienia Entry Form!". sportowefakty.pl. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  6. "Emil Commits To European Championship!". speedway365.com. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  7. "It seems that there will be no ban for SGP riders in SEC 2014". twitter.com. 6 December 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  8. "OFFICIAL: One Sport received an official letter from FIM-Europe". twitter.com. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  9. "Statement of One Sport LLC according to FIM decisions". sportowefakty.pl. 16 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  10. "Znamy treść pisma FIM kierowanego do One Sport!". sportowefakty.pl. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  11. "Jonsson zrezygnował z SEC! "Andreas chce być mistrzem świata"". sportowefakty.pl. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  12. "Emil Sajfutdinow chce unieważnienia Entry Form!". sportowefakty.pl. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  13. "Oficjalnie: FIM zawiesza zakaz łączenia startów w SGP i SEC!". sportowefakty.pl. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
  14. "Riders themselves will choose the starting numbers". speedwayeuro.com. 8 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
  15. "SEC semi-finals, May 2014: Rivne, Krsko and Zarnovica. SEC Challenge, 08 June 2014: Debrecen" (in Polish). sportowefakty.pl. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.
  16. "EM-deltävling till Skandinavien" (in Swedish). speedwaynyheter.se. 22 November 2013. Archived from the original on 12 December 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  17. "SEC semi-finals, May 2014: Rivne, Krsko and Zarnovica. SEC Challenge, 08 June 2014: Debrecen" (in Polish). sportowefakty.pl. 7 December 2013. Retrieved 13 December 2013.