2019 FIM SPEEDWAY YOUTH WORLD CHAMPION
KNUDSEN SAVOURS HOME GLORY
Jesper Knudsen was a popular home winner of an eventful FIM Speedway Youth World Championship Final, which was eventually held at the Moldow Speedway Centre in Denmark - home of the Holsted Tigers - after the original venue at Holstebro became waterlogged following the semi-final races. With the agreement of the FIM Jury, the organisers made the swift decision to transfer Sunday’s event to the track one hundred and fifteen kilometres away and the riders, officials, back-up teams and volunteers made the one-and-a-half-hour journey to ensure the racing could take place.
The event was contested by thirty-two riders between the ages of thirteen and seventeen, on 250cc engines, and with the heavy downpours looming on the Saturday, the semi-finals were run speedily with practice limited to one free session.
Mathias Pollestad of Norway came out victorious from the first semi-final following a run-off with Sweden’s Casper Henriksson after both had tied on fourteen points, with last year’s champion Ben Ernst the clear winner of the second semi-final with a fifteen-point maximum before the promised rain arrived.
However, Knudsen saved his best for the second night and under the warmth of the evening sun of Holsted he sensationally followed in the tyre marks of his elder brother Jonas, who won the gold medal in the same event in 2017. Ernst of Germany claimed the silver medal on this occasion ahead of Swedish rider Noel Wahlqvist, who snatched third after a tight battle with Poland’s Wiktor Przyjemski in the Final. It was a great season for Jesper who won the gold medal in European 250cc Youth Speedway Cup and FIM Speedway Youth World Championship.
PALMARES
World title – 2019
