Comment: 2017 FIM Ice Speedway RD3

The mid-way point of the World Championship saw one contender ruled out of the title chase, and another gain momentum in the fight for overall glory.

Dimitry Koltakov will lead the World Ice Speedway Championship going into the mid-season break, but Igor Kononov has given him plenty to think about before we travel to Europe for the final two rounds of the campaign. Of the top four ranked riders in the world, only Kononov is yet to win a title, but 2017 could be the year he finally does it.

Not only did Kononov’s fourth successive victory narrow his Championship deficit; it was a complete domination of the field in Almaty that saw him notch a second consecutive maximum return. No other rider has managed to maintain an unbeaten run through a whole weekend in the last five years, and the last rider to win four rounds in a row was Nikolai Krasnikov. That Kononov has put himself into that bracket is impressive in itself: he was off the pace in most of his big heats in Togliatti, made only one of the two Finals, and after the opening round seemed likely to be a bit-part player in the Championship fight.

Now, despite trailing by two points, Kononov must be the Championship favourite. Dimitry Koltakov did well to limit the damage while his fellow countryman went on the rampage in Almaty, but despite his post-meeting smiles he must be feeling the pressure much more than he was after Shadrinsk, when he seemed to have control of the title race. Kononov has now beaten Koltakov in each of their last eight direct meetings, and has made up seven points over the last two meetings. If he can keep up that type of consistency, which has been his main weakness in the past, there is no reason he can’t seal a first title.

Fortunately for a rider in Koltakov’s position, carrying an advantage, there will be little opportunity to make large points gains in the two remaining rounds. We were already down to five Russian riders in Almaty, and now we are down to four, after an opening ride crash for Daniil Ivanov. Ivanov’s chances of winning a third world title in 2017 were already remote, but his absence means there are now only three contenders who can regularly beat one another - Koltakov was only beaten by Kononov in Almaty, Khomitsevich is dropping away from the leaders overall.

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With Daniil Ivanov crashing out, Jimmy Olsen already missing through injury, and Niclas Svensson in the wars again in Almaty, the Kazakhtan round ended with a disappointingly weak line-up that affected the amount of overtaking at the Medeo Stadium. Unfortunately the Kazakh riders lack the quality to match the European gladiators, and the Europeans in turn were rarely close to the Russians on the largest track on the 2017 calendar. It was a shame for the local fans that the home representatives were only squabbling at the back, because there is quite clearly a strong potential fan-base: around 6,000 was the official number put on the attendance this season, despite adverse weather conditions.

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You can’t fail to be impressed by evergreen veteran Vladimir Cheblokov and his continued efforts as the leading Kazakh rider. He can’t have been expecting to ride in yet another World Championship meeting, 24 years since his debut appearance on the world stage, as he only lined up as second reserve. But despite his last-minute call-up Cheblokov did the best of the locals, a good scrap with Jan Klatovsky the closest he got to challenging the permanent riders. Cheblokov was a part of Kazakhstan’s golden era in the mid-1990s, and took two FIM bronze medals with the national team, but the fact that he is still their leading rider more than two decades later shows how far the rest of the Kazakh squad still has to come. The town of Almaty has a team in the Russian Major League, the second Division, and although their scores at that level aren’t particularly inspiring, the fact that they are gaining plenty of track time can only be positive.

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The other veteran at his best at the latest round was Stefan Svensson, who extended his record of having appeared in every World Final in Almaty since the Medeo Stadium joined the calendar in 1989. The Swede’s battle with old rival Gunther Bauer will now likely decide sixth place in the final classification. Both were in double figures for the first time this campaign as they returned to the scene of past successes.

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Going into their home round next time out, both Max Niedermaier and Hans Weber will be keen to impress. If either or both fail to make the cut via the qualification rounds next season, how they fare against one another in the table will likely be the measure of whether they are deserving of a place in 2018. Weber was a nominated rider this campaign, and he hasn’t looked at all confident in World Championship company. Even though he picked up his best total of the campaign in Almaty even when he did get into a scoring position he looked tentative, looking backwards and content to defend positions. Confidence will come with more experience, and his success over fellow countryman Niedermaier in his final ride on day two may just be the boost he needs ahead of the trip back to Germany.

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Riders’ abuse of track limits is notoriously difficult to control in Ice Speedway, and again the boundaries were being pushed to the limit in Almaty. Ove Ledstrom twice appeared to run the whole bike across the inner line on turns one and two – on the opening lap of heat seventeen on day one and heat twelve on day two. We have already seen plenty of disqualifications for exceeding the inner limits of the circuits in 2017, so although nobody enjoys seeing a post-race result change rule-makers definitely need to find a way to create some consistency. I suspect this won’t be a problem in the two remaining rounds; indoor circuits have a dark base that will make any off-track excursions quite obvious to the referee.