Speedway Grand Prix 2019

2018 Speedway Grand Prix Recap

Tai Woffinden will start the defence of his Speedway Grand Prix in May when the opening round takes place in Warsaw, Poland. The question is whether Tai can defence his crown this year and land a fourth World Title.

Tai failed to defend either of his previous two titles. He won it back in 2013 but could only finish fourth in 2014. He returned to win it again in 2015 and then in 2016 finished runner up to Greg Hancock.

It was a fantastic 2018 for Tai, becoming Britain's most decorated rider at this level after winning his third world title. He scored 15+ points in seven of the ten SGP's to finish ten points clear of Bartosz Zmarzlik.

Fredrik Lindgren (3rd), Maciej Janowski (4th) and Greg Hancock (5th) were best of the rest last year but the front two were some twenty points clear of those.

2019 Speedway Grand Prix Schedule

The schedule remains at ten rounds as last years was as there is still no resolution in Australia. Meaning for the second year running, the series will end in Torun.

• R1 - Warsaw, Poland  (18 May)
• R2 - Krsko, Slovenia  (01 Jun)
• R3 - Prague, Czech Republic  (15 Jun)
• R4 - Hallstavik, Sweden  (06 Jul)
• R5 - Wrocław, Poland  (03 Aug)
• R6 - Målilla, Sweden  (17 Aug)
• R7 - Teterow, Germany  (31 Aug)
• R8 - Vojens, Denmark  (07 Sep)
• R9 - Cardiff, Great Britain  (21 Sep)
• R10 - Torun, Poland  (05 Oct)

Speedway Grand Prix Changes in 2019

The biggest change this year is the introduction of Qualifying! Each bike will be fitted with a timing device meaning during practice their laps will be timed.

On Friday nights ahead of the Saturday night SGP each rider will be timed on their practise laps this year it's important to do well in practice! Those with the quickest lap times will now have a chance to choose their starting gates for the SGP.

This will obviously give the better riders a bit of an edge going into the GPs. Which makes you wonder what impact overall this is going to have over the year but rewarding those for practice runs will be interesting.

Who wins the Speedway Grand Prix 2019?

I have a feeling this year is going to be a cracker, especially with the new changes. The obvious two are Woffinden and Zmarzlik who battled it out last year, It's hard to believe that Zmarzlik is still only 23.

Woffinden is coming into his eighth SGP whilst Zmarzlik only his fourth but let's not forget Woffinden won on his third appearance and Zmarzlik comes here off a much better season than Tai did when winning it.

Forty-eight-year-old Greg Hancock will be making his twenty-fifth SGP appearance and there is no sign of him letting up! The four-time winner of this event was fifth last year.

The other veteran of the field, Fredrik Lindgren makes his tenth appearance at the SGP. Freddie is one of the most likeable guys on the circuit and produced his best finished last year when an overall third. If he is to win a world title then time is running out for him.

Jason Doyle won it back in 2017 and a lot was expected in 2018 but he just never got going. He only made one of the first seven finals which was not good enough. His runner up spots in Krsko and Teterow all nothing but consolation points.

If we look at the betting then the front pairing of last year are expected to dominate again, Woffinden is 9/4 and Zmarzlik is 7/2 and then there is a big gap to both Doyle and Lindgren who are 8/1.

The past couple of years the eventual winners scored well on the opening weekend and it tends to be the case most years where a solid start is rewarded later in the year. It seems defending a lead is much easier than chasing down the leader.

My Speedway Grand Prix 2019 Bets

I personally believe that it will, like last year be between Tai and Bartosz. Bart is going to have to make a better start than last year, he only picked up 13 points from the opening two GP's. Compared to Tai who picked up more than that in the opening GP (15) and 31 in the first two.

He has more experience now too with last year behind him and the re-ordering of the schedule could help. Once again they open in his home country of Poland but now Slovenia has been moved to the second GP.

The importance of this is that Tai has a nightmare in Slovenia last year picking up just five points compared to Barts twelve and in 2017 Tai also only picked up eight points so with the move to the second GP, that has to play into Barts favour.

I would love to see Tai win a fourth world title and he may well do so this year. However, I am just siding with BARTOSZ ZMARZLIK. With the further experience of last year looks to be making great strides in this sport.

Whilst I think those two will fill the top two places once again. I have also gone with the forgotten man Emil Sayfutdinov to make the top three.

This guy burst onto the speedway stage back in 2009 when finishing third in his debut season. However, there is a general feeling that he just never went on to fill his potential.

Injuries didn't help in 2010 but have since gone on to finish 6th, 5th & 6th before having three years away, he returned in 2017 to finish 6th and last year was 8th. He has a decent start last year but in the second half just crumbled.

All speedway fans know he has that something special in his locker and if he can find some sort of consistency then he has a shout. I just feel, looking at the riders this year that he could have a very good year and make the top three come October.

Speedway Grand Prix 2019 Tips

Bartosz Zmarzlik to win the world title at 7/2

1st Bartosz Zmarzlik & 2nd Tai Woffinden - Straight Forecast at 6/1

Emil Sayfutdinov to finish Top 3 at 5/1

Be sure to have a read of our 'Best Bookie for Speedway Betting' article to get the most out of your betting!