Statistical Summary of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga. Brady Kurtz is the best speedway rider of the competition

The 2024 speedway season has already gone down in history. After an exciting main phase and full of drama playoffs, INNPRO ROW Rybnik advanced to the PGE Ekstraliga. As for individual statistics, Brady Kurtz dominated, achieving the highest race point average and scoring the most points. Who was behind him?

In METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga, Kurtz had no equal. The Australian remained in the shadow of Krzysztof Buczkowski until halfway through the season, but at some point he surpassed the Pole in terms of numbers and moved to the top of several rankings. One of them is the average rankings, in which the leader of INNPRO ROW achieved a score of 2.402 pts/race. In this classification, Buczkowski was second, with an average of 2.351 pts/race. The 38-year-old led ABRAMCZYK POLONIA Bydgoszcz all the way to the finals with his effective riding. The podium in this ranking is closed by Gleb Chugunov, who before the season transferred to ARGED MALESA Ostrow from the extralig BAYERSYSTEM GKM Grudziądz. His name is associated with a number of 2.241 pts/race.

In terms of points scored on the track, the top three present similarly. In the 2024 season, Brady Kurtz secured 222 points. In the playoffs alone, he had 65. Moreover, the Australian only ended one meeting without a double-digit score. It happened… in the second league final. Behind Kurtz is Krzysztof Buczkowski, who lost this rivalry by just seven points, having ridden one more match. Following the leader of ABRAMCZYK POLONIA, the third place is occupied by the representative of #ORZECHOWAOSADA PSŻ Poznań – Oleksandr Loktayev. Thanks to a phenomenal second half of the season, the Ukrainian could record a total of 194 points.

When dividing the above statistics by individual heats, naturally, Kurtz finished first the most times. It happened 55 times. In the case of Buczkowski, it was 49 times, and Loktayev 46. The story is different in the second places classification. There, the leaders are Chris Holder (34), Szymon Szlauderbach (33), and Andreas Lyager (32). The rider most often rewarded with just one point after the race was Norick Bloedorn, with 34 instances. As for the ignoble fourth places, Franciszek Karczewski mainly crossed the line without a point (25).

The “king of bonuses” was Mateusz Szczepaniak. The speedway rider collected 27 throughout the season. That’s almost seven times more than last year when Rohan Tungate topped this ranking. Now, the Australian is in third place in this regard.

It is also worth mentioning the best riders of different formations. The most effective junior of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga in the 2024 season was Sebastian Szostak, thanks to whom his ARGED MALESA also ranked best in this lineup, averaging 7.44 points per match from speedway riders under 21. In the Polish seniors category, the Ostrow team still leads. Their result is an average of 21.44 points per match. It looks quite different in the ranking of riders from outside Poland. Foreign riders were the strongest point of #ORZECHOWAOSADA PSŻ Poznań (29.44 pts/match). In the case of U24 riders, Tim Sorensen from ABRAMCZYK POLONII Bydgoszcz turned out to be the most successful transfer. The Dane finished the competition with an average of 1.783 pts/race, which earned him 26th place in the league. Interestingly, right behind him, in 27th place, was his compatriot – Jonas Seifert-Salk, with a result of 1.662 pts/race.

The unlucky title of the season can be attributed to Wiktor Rafalski. The junior of TEXOM STALI Rzeszów had mechanical failures five times this year. Overall, the motorcycles of speedway riders refused to cooperate 55 times, which compared to last year’s competition is a higher number – in 2023 it happened 52 times. The most tapes were broken by Miłosz Wysocki (2). This accounts for 12.5% of all broken tapes throughout this year. The letter “W” was, in turn, recorded 83 times across 68 matches.

Fans are also an important aspect of every sport. They most willingly came to the stadiums in Bydgoszcz, Rybnik, and Krosno. Overall, 350,618 fans sat in the stands of all venues in the 2024 season. More about METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga stadium attendance can be read HERE.

Marcin Rusewicz