If Slovenian Matej Zagar finishes the grandprix series with a place in the top eight, the 25-year-old Fynbo - and future Vojens rider - Anders Thomsen will be the regular grandprix participant from 2020.
Ib Søby
Rarely has a Danish athlete hoped for such Slovenian success as Anders Thomsen will do on Saturday night in Polish Torun. The peculiar scenario is because Matej Zagar is already secured grandprix status via this year's Grandprix Challenge in Croatia. In this race Matej Zagar won ahead of Niels Kr. Iversen and Australian Max Fricke. Thus, this trio had extended their grandprix status. Number four in Croatia became the Slovak Martin Vaculik. He is firmly in fifth place before Saturday's World Cup decision in Torun.
That's why Anders Thomsen, with his fifth place from Croatia, is the next man in the series. Therefore, he is now on the scene and ready to step into the ultimate scene of speedway sports. At the same time, the London Grand Prix has confirmed that they are following the Challenge result.
If it misses the Zagar-Thomsen combination in Torun, the Dane will become the first reserve in next year's series, which traditionally also triggers a number of grand prix starts. The next reserves will be Swedish Pontus Aspgren, Croatian Jurica Pavlic and Ukrainian Aleksandr Loktajev.
Anders Thomsen himself believes that the grandprix dream will be fulfilled on Saturday night.
& #8211; It's not the downfall of the world if it slips, but I'm convinced that Zagar is doing well in Torun. At the same time, I feel well prepared to enter the series next year. My team is extremely well-functioning, led by Hungarian Norbert Vasko, and with a possible grand prize place, it will be easier to find good sponsorships in the coming winter months, Anders Thomsen told the other at a meeting of his upcoming Danish club, Vojens, who from next season is back in the Danish league.
Anders Thomsen already started driving the speedway as a 3-year-old. His father, Jan Thomsen, also drove the speedway, promising the boy a 50cc micro racer the day he could ride a bike without a support wheel!
& #8211; I quickly learned that, and since then I have worked hard to make my hobby my way of life. Imagine being able to make a living from riding a motorcycle. That's fantastic, says Anders Thomsen.
Quickly, the trophies begin to fill up the boy's room in Funen.
Both in 50cc and 80cc Anders Thomsen won several Danish championships, both individually and on teams. In 2010 he won the unofficial 80cc World Cup - YGT - at Vojens Speedway Center. Victory time remains at 500cc, where he became European champion and took the World Cup silver in U21, and later three Danish team championships with Munkebo and Fjelsted.
This season - marked by the damage from the first European race in Güstrow - Thomsen has run for Fjelsted, Swedish Kumla and Polish Gorzow. But from next season he will replace Fjelsted with Vojens.
& #8211; It is a little sad, but there is no room for both me and my good friend Peter Kildemand in Fjelsted. That is why I am moving to Southern Jutland, but of course it also means something that Vojens is back on the international calendar. I would like to win, for example, a grand prize or a team World Cup here sometime in the future, says Anders Thomsen.
For the club in Vojens, Saturday night in Torun can offer an extra orange in the turban. You already have a contract with veteran Hans Andersen and the three young sky stormers Mads Hansen, Jonas Knudsen and Marcus Birkemose, but if Slovenian Matej Zagar stays in the top eight, the club suddenly has a new Danish grand prix driver, named Anders Thomsen.