Challenge Speedway European Championship: Race cancelled in Lonigo - Kai Huckenbeck fails

After 16 of 20 heats, the European Championship Challenge in Lonigo was over, as the track was no longer in a condition suitable for racing. After the third round, an attempt was made to get the track in shape again. However, as there was no improvement, the race was cancelled and scored after four runs. At this point, the points were distributed in such a way that the riders in the top six had seven points or more, meaning that no jump-off was necessary.

With five points, Kai Huckenbeck was outside the top six at this point and therefore missed out on sporting qualification for the series. The North German had a lot of bad luck: In his first run, Huckenbeck and the eventual winner Jan Kvech touched as they entered the first corner and the race was cancelled, much to the chagrin of the leading German. Kvech overtook Kai at the restart, leaving one point on the line. In his second run, Huckenbeck was leading again when the run had to be cancelled after a crash. At the restart, the Werlter again only managed second place. After third place in the third heat and a zero in the fourth heat, the chance of qualifying was a long way off, as Huckenbeck would hardly have made it into the top six even if he had won the fifth heat, which was no longer run.

The six qualifiers from the Challenge join Patryk Dudek, Andzejs Lebedevs, Leon Madsen, Kacper Woryna, Nazar Parnitskyi and Michael Jepsen Jensen, who were seeded in last year's top six for the 2026 European Championships and, surprisingly, are all in the Grand Prix. In the coming days, three more participants will be called up to the permanent line-up via wildcard.

Results Speedway-EM-Challenge Lonigo/I: