Bartosz Zmarzlik: These last matches are crucial for all teams (interview)

– I focus on myself and the team. In every match, we want to score points because that is our job – said Bartosz Zmarzlik, in an interview for ekstraliga.pl. ORLEN OIL MOTOR won against NOVYHOTEL FALUBAZ 47:43, and the four-time world champion scored 14 points.

Paweł Pokorski (ekstraliga.pl): Was this the match you expected?

Bartosz Zmarzlik (ORLEN OIL MOTOR Lublin): Yes, I knew it would be a tough match. Of course, we are approaching the play-off round, and NOVYHOTEL FALUBAZ will do everything to be there. These last matches are crucial for all teams. There are no easy matches, that’s what I think.

The track after those rains – what did you expect? What was it actually like?

It was good. Really good. Many races should have pleased the fans. The rain wasn’t that bad. We had a track test, and it was ready to ride.

In that last, deciding race, did you feel that Zielona Góra was keen to bring a satisfying result? Przemysław Pawlicki drove you hard to the fence.

It was a normal track situation. I had to ease off the throttle and lost speed and had to rebuild it. It’s important that we finished 3:3.

How did you like riding here? Four “threes,” but it wasn’t like you didn’t have to work hard?

I rode really well. I am very satisfied with the event.

It’s probably a hint for the track master in Zielona Góra, that you rode too well?

Generally, I have had good performances in Zielona Góra, and I enjoy riding here. Nice track, allows for a lot. Just like now – it was well-prepared, and you could ride nicely.

If you had to choose an opponent in the first round of the play-offs, would it be NOVYHOTEL FALUBAZ?

I don’t mess with such things. I focus on myself and the team. In every match, we want to score points because that’s our job. We want to do it for the fans, to present ourselves well. There’s no time for such thoughts. You’re in the workshop all the time, you’re preparing all the time. During the break between events, we’re not sitting and drinking coffee, I’m constantly in the workshop planning for the next match. Sometimes things happen that are not as I would like. You have to keep thinking, searching, tweaking. I need to have everything figured out and come to the match ready. I know what I have chosen and try to adapt to it.

Exactly – you spend time in the workshop, tweaking, searching. But isn’t it that young riders don’t do this, relying on mechanics and then not fully understanding what’s going on with their motorcycle?

I don’t know, everyone has their style. There are surely riders like that and riders who aren’t. I can’t imagine it. If I don’t touch it, I won’t understand how it works, I’ll sit as long as it takes to understand. Supposedly, these motorcycles are very simple technically. But sometimes small changes cause colossal differences and you wonder why it happens this way and not another.

Paweł Pokorski