World No.2 Brady Kurtz underlined his FIM Speedway Grand Prix title credentials for 2026 after storming to victory at the International Individual Ekstraliga Championship (IMME) in Lodz on Saturday evening.
Kurtz went straight through to the final on 12 points along with former Speedway GP rival Mikkel Michelsen, with Slovak star Martin Vaculik and Polish racer Przemyslaw Pawlicki winning the two semi-finals to join them.
The Aussie then jetted from the tapes to take victory on Speedway GP’s newest track, winning the final ahead of Vaculik in second, Michelsen in third and Pawlicki in fourth place.
With Kurtz falling just a point short of becoming Speedway GP’s first-ever debut-season world champion in 2025, topping the podium ahead of such a stellar field is a huge boost ahead of the SGP opener in Landshut on May 2.
Zmarzlik also scored 12 points in the heats, but his night ended when he finished second to Lublin teammate Vaculik in semi-final one, with Emil Sayfutdinov third and Artem Laguta fourth in the race. Pawlicki won semi-final two ahead of Jack Holder, Piotr Pawlicki and Maksym Drabik.
Holder scored 10 points over his first five rides – a figure matched by Piotr Pawlicki, while Laguta notched nine. Przemyslaw Pawlicki picked up eight, with Vaculik, Sayfutdinov and Drabik registering seven points.
SGP trio Leon Madsen, Dominik Kubera and Michael Jepsen Jensen all missed the semi-final cut on six points, while European champion Patryk Dudek collected two.