Luke Becker scoring 21 out of 24 possible points for Team USA was not enough to advance to the next round. American riders were 4th in the Speedway of Nations semi-final at Daugavpils in Latvia.
Each team entered with two senior riders and one under-21 rider. Winner of each heat received 4 points, 2nd rider – 3 pts, 3rd – 2 pts and 4th – 0 pts.
Seven teams took part in a SoN semifinal on September 17th with the best three teams going to the final. The best was the Polish team, with the Swedish team second. USA competed with Denmark in the last-chance heat where Leon Madsen and Mikkel Michelsen beat Luke Becker and Broc Nicol.
This is what Steve Evans, the Team USA manager, had to say afterwards about the performance of Blake Borello, the under-21 rider:
“(Blake) came into the USA team last night knowing cards stacked against him; no way to get the usual testing / race meetings in ahead of his USA debut due to Covid logistics. He did all we asked, was calm, cool and a pleasure to deal with. Waited till heat 18 for his debut (we ran by an exact strategy to maximize team points) and by then the track was trash. Kept a good pace till he fell down but followed team orders, remounted and did his four laps… .”
The FIM Speedway of Nations final will be held at the National Speedway Stadium in Manchester UK on October 16th & 17th.
Semi-final 1 – Daugavpils (Latvia), September 17th
1st Poland 37 – Zmarzlik 21, Kubera 13, Miskowiak 3
2nd Sweden 34 – Lindgren 23, Aspgren 8, Hellstrom-Bangs 3
3rd Denmark 32+7 – Madsen 12+4, Michelsen 18+3, Hansen 2
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4th USA 28+2 – Nicol 7+0, Becker 21+2, Borello 0
5th Finland 24 – Lahti 18, Aarnio 6, Salonen 0
6th Slovenia 17 – Ivacic 10, Skorja 7, Grmek 0
7th Czech Republic 17 – Milik 11, Franc 4, Chlupac 2
Semi-final 2 – Daugavpils (Latvia), September 18th
1st Australia 35 – Doyle 23, Fricke 12, Rew 0
2nd Latvia 34 – Lebedev 18, Mihailov 14, Gusts 2
3rd France 30+5 – Bellego 15+3, Berge 13+2, Goret 2
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4th Germany 27+4 – Huckenbeck 22+4, Grobauer 0, Blodorn 5+0
5th MRF (Russia) 25 – Logachev 10, Borodulin 13, Karion 2
6th Italy 19 – Covatti 7, Castagna 12
7th Ukraine 19 – Loktaev 15, Lysak 0, Levishyn 4
Final lineup – Manchester (Great Britain), October 16th & 17th
Great Britain
Latvia
Poland
Australia
Sweden
France
Denmark