Speedway GP world champion Robert Lambert refused to let complacency creep in as he captained Torun to their second straight PGE Ekstraliga title in Wroclaw on Sunday.
Torun triumphed 46-44 on the night, adding to their 55-35 win at the Marian Rose Motoarena on September 20, to win the play-off final 101-79 on aggregate after two sublime performances.
The visitors stole a march on Wroclaw with three 5-1s to end the first leg, and they led 15-9 after just four heats to deny the home side the fast start they needed to stay in the title hunt.
Lambert led the Torun scoring on 11 paid 12 points, with Emil Sayfutdinov impressing on eight paid nine. A 16 paid 17-point salvo from Artem Laguta and 14 from world No.3 Brady Kurtz wasn’t enough for Wroclaw, who badly missed the injured Bartlomiej Kowalski.
Having carried a 20-point lead to the Olympic Stadium, Lambert is elated his side kept Wroclaw under pressure and didn’t ease off the gas as they flew out of the blocks to secure the first back-to-back titles in Torun’s history after only 10 heats of the second leg.
He said: “It was crazy. I was thinking we would be going down to heat 15. Twenty points is not that big when you think about it. Five or six 5-1s and they are back in the game.
“We were fully focused, and I am so happy that we managed to do it by heat 10. You can get complacent, if you think, ‘Oh, we are 20 points up,’ and then you risk going into the meeting not focused and not ready.
“I said to the boys, ‘We start from zero and imagine it like that.’ It keeps the meeting close, and we won the meeting in the end, so that was a massive achievement.”
Wild celebrations followed with the Torun fans massed on turn three, and Lambert paid tribute to the hundreds who joined them in Wroclaw and those who also made the trip to Lublin to see them win gold in 2025.
He said: “Last year, the final was even further away, but they were with us again and they are such great fans. Even though things were a little up and down at the start of the season, they still supported us. They have been great all the way through the season.”
For full scores from the PGE Ekstraliga play-off final, CLICK HERE.