'I'm very happy to be where I am' - Maciej Janowski eyeing 2022 Speedway Grand Prix podium finish
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Updated 29/04/2022 at 08:34 GMT
"Many people ask me 'When? Why not this year? You've been so close'. The journey of what we are doing is great and I'm very excited to represent my country". A determined Maciej Janowski is aiming for a podium finish in the 2022 Speedway Grand Prix after a series of 4th place finishes. Stream the 2022 Speedway Grand Prix on discovery+.
'Speedway represents my life!' - This is the Speedway Grand Prix
Maciej Janowski comes into the 2022 Speedway Grand Prix eyeing a first ever world championship medal having narrowly missed on a podium finish in four of the last five seasons.
The Polish rider has seven SGP wins to his name including last year’s season opener in Prague, however, Janowski has seen himself in fourth place in the final classification in 2017, 2018, 2020 and the most recent championship in 2021.
The 2022 FIM Speedway Grand Prix kicks off on April 30 with discovery+ providing live coverage of all 12 races and ahead of the opener in Gorican, Croatia, Janowski spoke to Eurosport about his preparations and expectations for the coming months.
How are your preparations for the season going?
My preparations were okay. It was a difficult start to the season, but life doesn’t always go the way you want it to. But we need to keep going focus on the start of the season. I am very excited for the new season of Speedway GP.
You obviously managed to get fourth place in the end in 2021, a good finish to the season - you've had quite a few fourths now – you are now looking to get on to that podium I guess?
Of course, every year, but many people ask me "When? Why not this year? You've been so close". The journey of what we are doing is great and I'm very excited to represent my country, my town and my club every year. Of course, it will be better to be on the podium, but we have had a couple of good wins and series so far. I'm very happy to be where I am.
This year Wroclaw has lost Artem Laguta from the team*, which is going to make things tougher, but you still have rider replacement and you still have a strong team. Can you cover for him?
It's hard to cover for the world champion. Of course, we cannot do much about it; but it is what it is. Of course it will be very hard for us. It looks like we will have much more racing, so we will see. But our team was very, very strong before and I believe it is still strong with a couple of young stars growing. So, I'm very, very happy and will see how it looks against the different teams.
Could Greg Hancock come into the team, out of retirement and cover for Artem – obviously, it's speculation but what would you think?
I would be very happy to race with Greg again, but I am not sure he wants to do that. It’s something I’ve heard for the first time from you. No-one has said anything to me about that, but I will message him to see what’s going on! He is a great person, he knows how to work with young riders and all the riders. He raced for so many years and was competing not so long ago. He knows how these machines work and what is right and what is wrong.
It wasn’t the result you wanted at the Speedway of Nations (Poland narrowly lost to Great Britain) up in Manchester – but is this Poland’s year?
We will see, this the fun part of speedway. That’s why it is exciting. We won over two days in Manchester; we were top of the score chart. But in the Grand Final, I made a mistake – or we made a mistake. The team was racing and we didn’t win and we made a mistake. That’s it. There’s no point thinking about what’s behind us. We need to focus on what we can change and what we can do better.
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Poland - Silver medal winners (L-r) Jakub Miskowiak, Maciej Janowski, Bartosz Zmarzlik and Rafal Dobrucki (Manager) during the Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations at the National Speedway Stadium, Manchester on Sunday 17th October 2021.
Image credit: Getty Images
And the World Cup is coming back next year, are you excited about that?
Of course, I think we all missed the World Cup. It is exciting and I will prepare to try and get into the team.
There is a new championship, the SGP 3 for the under-16s, 250cc. It’s in Wroclaw, in your town, and hopefully lots of GP riders will come from it.
It is very exciting about that for my young friends. I am a little disappointed to have never had a chance to do something like that when I was younger, but to be honest I am very happy for them and it is a great opportunity. This is how everything should start and look to let these young riders get the feeling of the GP and give them good advice to work hard.
*Reigning SPG world champion Artem Laguta will be absent from this year’s championship due to the FIM decision to ban Russian athletes in the wake of the ongoing invasion in Ukraine. Laguta was a teammate of Janowski for Betard Sparta Wrocław team
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The 2022 Speedway Grand Prix will be available live and ad-free on discovery+ with live race action also on Eurosport 2.
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