Bartosz Zmarzlik

Poland’s Bartosz Zmarzlik made it five FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship (SGP) titles in six years when he clinched the 2024 crown at Vojens in Denmark in mid-September with one round still to run.
The twenty-nine-year-old, who became the youngest rider ever to finish on an SGP podium on his Grand Prix debut in 2012 when he was seventeen, started his 2024 campaign with a solid if unspectacular fourth at the opening round in Croatia at the end of April before a run of five consecutive podium finishes–including victory in Sweden–saw him take control.
With a strong lead, Zmarzlik then failed to make the Final in Great Britain before mechanical issues put him out at the Semi-Finalstage two weeks later at Wroclaw in Poland.
However, true champions are shaped by adversity and with his lead slashed from twenty-seven points to fifteen in the space of two events, Zmarzlik came out fighting as the series moved into September with victory at round nine at Riga in Latvia reasserting his dominance before he sewed up the title inDenmark.
He signed off with his third victory of the season at the final round on home shale in Torun.

PALMARES 

FIM Speedway Under 21 Team World Champion: 2012, 2014, 2015
FIM Speedway Under 21 World Champion: 2015
FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Champion – SGP: 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024

POLISH POWERHOUSE! 

Polish powerhouse Bartosz Zmarzlik underlined his status as the stand-out Speedway star of his generation when he raced to the 2023 FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship (SGP) to make it four world titles in the last five years. 

The twenty-eight-year-old has been writing his name into the record books ever since he became the youngest rider ever to finish on an SGP podium on his Grand Prix debut back in 2012 as a fresh-faced seventeen-year-old and – worryingly for his rivals – is showing no signs of being ready to stop anytime soon. 

Zmarzlik started the season as reigning champion and immediately seized the championship lead with victory at the opening round at the end of April in Croatia. 

He held onto this advantage through rounds two and three in Poland and the Czech Republic with third and fourth-placed finishes before returning to his winning ways with back-to-back victories in June in Germany and Poland which helped him to establish a healthy points lead at the halfway point of the season. 

His campaign stuttered slightly in Sweden where he was forced to settle for fifth, but with his rivals failing to take full advantage he remained firmly in control and following his fourth victory of the season at round seven in Latvia which he backed up with third in Great Britain it was looking increasingly like a done deal as he led by twenty-four points with two rounds to go. 

Then came Denmark where Zmarzlik was disqualified for infringing race-kit regulations. With his lead cut to six points the title was on the line, although his champion’s spirit shone through at the final round in Poland where third on the night was good enough for him to become a four-time FIM SGP World Champion. 

PALMARES 

FIM Speedway Under 21 Team World Champion: 2012, 2014, 2015
FIM Speedway Under 21 World Champion: 2015
FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Champion – SGP: 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 

TRIPLE THREAT!

After being denied his hat-trick of FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship titles last season, Polish superstar Bartosz Zmarzlik roared back into contention in 2022.

The series was staged over ten white-knuckle rounds that criss-crossed Europe from April to October and Zmarzlik – the youngest ever rider to finish on a Speedway GP podium on his Grand Prix debut in 2012 aged just seventeen – got his campaign off to the best possible start with victory at the opening round in Croatia.

He missed the final at rounds two and three in Warsaw and Prague with a pair of fifth-place finishes, but Zmarzlik was back on the box at Teterow in Germany at the start of June with a determined second place.

The twenty-seven-year-old then strung together two more podiums, backing up a third in Poland at Gorzow before scoring a second-place finish in Wales in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium in mid-August.

When the series returned to Poland two weeks later for round seven, Zmarzlik missed the final again although another fifth kept the damage to a minimum.

By this point he had built up a sixteen-point lead at the top of the championship thanks to his incredible consistency and then at round eight in Denmark in early September he delivered the first of two killer blows.

After racing to the win at Vojens he completed his Scandinavian double with another win just seven days later at Malilla in Sweden to put the title out of reach of his rivals.

With the championship already safe, Zmarzlik signed off with second at the final round at Torun in Poland to complete a super-successful season as only the twelfth triple World champion in the sport’s long history.

PALMARES

FIM Under 21 Team World Champion: 2012, 2014, 2015
FIM Under 21 World Champion: 2015
FIM World Champion: 2019, 2020, 2022

IT’S ZMARZLIK AT THE DOUBLE 

After becoming the youngest ever rider to finish on a Speedway GP podium on his Grand Prix debut in 2012 aged just seventeen, it is safe to say that Bartosz Zmarzlik made an immediate impact and he has been making his presence felt at the sharp end of the sport ever since. 

Ending the year in second in 2018, his 2019 title made him a national hero to Polish fans and he underlined his status as a superstar of the shale this season by doing the double following an incredibly tense eight-round series. 

His 2020 championship got off to a rocky start when he failed to make the final on the opening night at Wroclaw in Poland at the end of August, but a third-placed finish twenty-four hours later gave him a solid result to build from as his compatriot Maciej Janowski set the pace. 

Two weeks later he won round three at Gorzow in Poland, although did not make the final the following night as Sweden’s Fredrik Lindgren moved into the lead. 

The turning point for Zmarzlik came at rounds five and six in Prague in mid-September when he set the Czech Republic’s capital city on fire with two wins that handed him a slim championship lead heading into the final two rounds at Torun in Poland two weeks later. 

Back on home ground, Zmarzlik picked up fourteen precious points for fourth at round seven before putting the title beyond doubt at the final round with his fourth win of the season seeing him end the year sixteen points clear of Britain’s Tai Woffinden.