Features

Russian stadium to host speedway showpiece

Anatoly Stepanov Stadium in Togliatti, Russia has been awarded hosting rights to next year’s edition of the FIM Speedway of Nations Finals event.

The event will be held on July 20-21 at the stadium, which is a regular venue for world-class ice speedway events.

Russian duo Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov are the defending SON champions having claimed victory at this year’s Finals in Wroclaw, Poland.

Togliatti also hosted the 2017 GP Challenge, which served as the final qualification round for the 2018 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series. Next year’s FIM SON Finals will feature speedway’s top seven national sides, with Russia qualifying as host nation.

The multi-purpose stadium serves as the home of Russian speedway and ice speedway teams Mega-Lada Togliatti, and also has a technical sports school for children, a sports bar, a hotel and the only specialised youth speedway track in Russia.

BSI Speedway managing director Torben Olsen said: “It has long been our wish to bring the FIM Speedway World Championships presented by Monster Energy to Russia.

“Following their Monster Energy SON win last summer and the country’s hugely successful staging of the FIFA World Cup, there really couldn’t be a better time to be taking this event to Togliatti.Togliatti is among the finest track racing stadiums in the world and I’m sure we’re in for some great action from the sport’s top national teams.”

Image: FIM/BSI Speedway