Statistical Summary of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga. Brady Kurtz the Best Speedway Racer of the Competition

The 2024 speedway season has already made history. After an exciting regular season and dramatic playoffs, INNPRO ROW Rybnik advanced to PGE Ekstraliga. As for individual statistics, Brady Kurtz reigned supreme, achieving the highest race average and scoring the most points. Who was behind him?

In METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga, Kurtz had no equals. The Australian, although initially overshadowed by Krzysztof Buczkowski, eventually surpassed the Pole in terms of numbers and topped several rankings. One of these is the average score ranking, where the leader of INNPRO ROW achieved a score of 2.402 pts/race. Second in this classification was the aforementioned Buczkowski, with an average of 2.351 pts/race. The 38-year-old led ABRAMCZYK POLONIA Bydgoszcz to the final of the competition with his effective racing. Completing the podium in this ranking is Gleb Chugunov, who transferred to ARGED MALESA Ostrów from the Ekstraliga BAYERSYSTEM GKM Grudziądz before the season. He, in turn, averaged 2.241 points in each race.

In terms of points scored on the track, the top three remains similar. In the 2024 season, Brady Kurtz scored as many as 222 points. In the playoff phase alone, he scored 65. Furthermore, the Australian only once ended a meeting without a double-digit score, which happened… in the league’s second final match. Following Kurtz is Krzysztof Buczkowski, who lost the rivalry by just seven points, racing one more match. After the leader of ABRAMCZYK POLONIA, in third place is a representative of #ORZECHOWAOSADA PSŻ Poznań – Oleksandr Loktayev. Thanks to a phenomenal second half of the season, the Ukrainian managed to score a total of 194 points.

When dividing these statistics into individual races, Kurtz most frequently finished first. This happened 55 times. In the case of Buczkowski, it was 49 times, and Loktayev 46. The scenario is different in the second-place classification. Leading here are Chris Holder (34), Szymon Szlauderbach (33), and Andreas Lyager (32). The most frequent rider awarded just one point after a race was Norick Bloedorn, who achieved this 34 times. As for the infamous fourth places, Franciszek Karczewski mainly reached the finish line without scoring (25 times).

The “bonus king” was Mateusz Szczepaniak. The rider gathered 27 bonuses throughout the entire season. This is almost seven times more than last year when Rohan Tungate topped the ranking. Now, the Australian took third place in this regard.

It is also worth mentioning the best riders from each formation. The most effective junior of METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga in the 2024 season was Sebastian Szostak, thanks to whom ARGED MALESA also performed best in this category, scoring an average of 7.44 points per match with riders under 21. In the category of Polish seniors, the team from Ostrów continues to lead with an average of 21.44 points per match. However, the situation looks different in the rankings of international riders, where foreign racers were the strongest side of #ORZECHOWAOSADA PSŻ Poznań (29.44 pts/match). Among riders under 24, Tim Sorensen from ABRAMCZYK POLONIA Bydgoszcz turned out to be the most successful transfer. The Danish rider finished the competition with an average of 1.783 pts/race, placing him 26th in the league. Interestingly, just behind him, in 27th place, was his compatriot Jonas Seifert-Salk, with a result of 1.662 pts/race.

The unluckiest player of the season can be considered Wiktor Rafalski. The junior from TEXOM STALI Rzeszów had five mechanical failures this year. In total, speedway riders’ motorcycles failed 55 times, which, compared to last year’s competition, is a higher number. In 2023, there were 52 breakdowns. Miłosz Wysocki had the most starts (2). This accounts for exactly 12.5% of all dropped starts this year. The letter “W” was noted 83 times in the program during all 68 matches.

Fans are also an important aspect of every sport. They most eagerly went to the stadium in Bydgoszcz, Rybnik, and Krosno. In total, 350,618 fans took seats in all venues during the 2024 season. More on stadium attendance in METALKAS 2. Ekstraliga can be read HERE.

Marcin Rusewicz