British hero Chris Harris insisted “I always relish a challenge” as he stands five good rides away from an astonishing Speedway GP comeback at the FIM SGP Challenge in Terenzano on Saturday.
The top four riders in what’s always a fiercely contested event are guaranteed places in the 2027 Speedway GP World Championship.
Current Speedway GP riders Robert Lambert, Andzejs Lebedevs, Kacper Woryna, Dominik Kubera and Michael Jepsen Jensen all bid to defend their places in the series. Meanwhile, former SGP regulars Maciej Janowski, Kai Huckenbeck and Kim Nilsson all join Harris in competing to regain their spots at the sport’s top table.
The line-up is completed by Luke Becker, Rohan Tungate, Keynan Rew, Jaimon Lidsey, Anders Rowe, Frederik Jakobsen and Italian hero Paco Castagna, who all bid to qualify for the first time.
Harris last raced full-time in the Speedway GP World Championship in 2016, but the 43-year-old could roll back the years in Italy, where he qualified at the last FIM SGP Challenge the country staged at Lonigo in 2014.
The Cornishman would love to regain his spot in Speedway GP – 20 years after he made his full-time series debut in 2007, winning the FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Cardiff along the way that year.
He has certainly shown his class in the qualification rounds.
Harris said
“I’ve always had a fairly good record in the Challenges when I have been in them,”
“It will be a lot tougher this time around. I am a lot older. The other guys are a lot younger and a lot faster. But I am always up for a challenge; I never back down from one.
“If I didn’t want to be testing myself against those guys in the GPs again, I wouldn’t have entered. I am definitely up for another crack at it. It won’t be the easiest of jobs this weekend, and if I got in, it wouldn’t be the easiest season, as I would know.
“But I always relish a challenge. I have good people behind me, so we’ll go there with an open mind, have some fun and enjoy it.
“I think everyone in that field will look at me and probably not worry about me whatsoever. They won’t be scared that I am in the field, so I can just go there and enjoy it. I am not expecting anything other than to test myself against these riders, and we’ll see where I finish up at the end of the night. Obviously, I want to go there and qualify, but I am not putting any pressure on myself that I have to qualify or do this or do that. I will just take every race as it comes.”
FIM SGP CHALLENGE LINE-UP: 1. Chris Harris (Great Britain), 2. Kacper Woryna (Poland), 3. Luke Becker (USA), 4. Dominik Kubera (Poland), 5. Paco Castagna (Italy), 6. Maciej Janowski (Poland), 7. Michael Jepsen Jensen (Denmark), 8. Anders Rowe (Great Britain), 9. Robert Lambert (Great Britain), 10. Frederik Jakobsen (Denmark), 11. Kim Nilsson (Sweden), 12. Andzejs Lebedevs (Latvia), 13. Kai Huckenbeck (Germany), 14. Jaimon Lidsey (Australia), 15. Keynan Rew (Australia), 16. Rohan Tungate (Australia), 17. Nicolas Vicentin (Italy), 18. Brando Lunardi (Italy).
Courtesy of FIMSPEEDWAY.COM
Chris Harris - Photo Courtesy of FIMSPEEDWAY.COM
