Lublin ace Jack Holder insists “all the pressure really is on” Torun as the Polish champions bid to overturn a sizeable 18-point deficit and land their fourth straight PGE Ekstraliga title on Sunday.
Torun powered to a 54-36 victory in the play-off final, first leg last Sunday and head to Lublin for the return just 37 points away from the club’s first league title since 2008.
But the home side – champions in 2022, 2023 and 2024 – won 55-35 when the clubs met at Lublin in their regular-season fixture this year and also overturned a 12-point loss against the Motoarena men in last season’s play-off semi-finals to keep their winning streak on track.
Holder, who captains Australia into FIM Speedway of Nations Semi-Final 2 in Torun on Wednesday, is hopeful of heading back to his old home track with a PGE Ekstraliga gold medal.
Even with a Lublin team also featuring six-time Speedway GP world champion Bartosz Zmarzlik, Fredrik Lindgren, Dominik Kubera, Mateusz Cierniak and Wiktor Przyjemski, Holder knows winning gold will be no easy task. But he believes the pressure is on Torun, a side boasting Robert Lambert, Patryk Dudek, Emil Sayfutdinov, Mikkel Michelsen and Jan Kvech, to hold a fantastic first-leg advantage.
He said: “It’s a massive job, but we have done it before. Torun had 12 on us in the semi-final last year and we went back to Lublin and turned that over. It’s definitely do-able and I think we all know we can do it. We just need to have some luck too.
“The fans are going to be going crazy, and that always helps. That can put the away riders off their game a little bit.
“It’s theirs to lose. All the pressure really is on them; they won’t want to stuff up a lead like they have done before.
“We didn’t really do ourselves any favours in Torun and now it’s up to us to claw it back. We will all be up for it. We’ll have plenty of practice beforehand and I am sure we will all be dialled in.”
After the Polish title decider, Holder looks forward to joining forces with Brady Kurtz and Jason Doyle in Australian green and yellow for FIM SON Semi-Final 2 against Denmark, Czech Republic, France, Ukraine, Finland and Argentina on Wednesday.
Having tasted SON victory at Vojens in 2022, Holder would love to swap 2024 silver for gold. He said: “It’s always a good event to change the racing up. Instead of doing it as an individual, you are doing it for your country and your team. We have a good record in the Nations, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.”
Tickets for the FIM SON are still available online. Secure your spot at Torun’s Marian Rose Motoarena HERE now.