A legend back in the elite? This statement gives hope
Jarosław Hampel is currently at the Polish national team training camp in Malta. The experienced competitor is considering fighting for participation in the Grand Prix series again.
Jarosław Hampel will be 42 this year. However, his masterclass on the track continues. This was confirmed at the end of last season, when he led Platinum Motor Lublin to the Polish team championship. In the upcoming competitions he will be a player of Enea Falubaz Zielona Góra. At the same time, he is still thinking about whether to return to the Grand Prix series, i.e. the fight for the individual world championship.
Hampel doesn’t rule anything out
The titled rider spoke on this matter in an interview with the official profile of the Polish speedway national team on social media. As he pointed out, he looks not at his age, but at his skills. A return to the Grand Prix series is possible.
– Age is only a number. I feel I can prepare for the season at the highest level. I will take part in all qualifiers. I’m not ruling anything out. I think that the SEC (European Individual Championship – editor’s note) would be a very interesting option for me and I would like to appear in this edition. I will be thinking very hard about the Grand Prix. I’m certainly not ruling out this option, Hampel emphasized.
Some time ago, it seemed that during this year’s edition of the Polish Grand Prix at the National Stadium, “Mały” would receive a wild card and say goodbye to participation in the elite cycle. However, it seems that even if you receive an invitation to the tournament, it will not be goodbye.
A living legend of Polish speedway
Let us remember that in the past, the Polonia Piła graduate won three medals at the Individual World Championships. In 2010 and 2013 he won silver, and in 2011 bronze. Polish fans will remember the 2010 season in particular, when Hampel was the leader of the general classification for some time, and in the end he turned out to be weaker only than Tomasz Gollob. The last time we saw Hampel as a regular participant in the series was in the 2015 season, when he was unable to fight for the podium due to a fatal injury.
Despite the passage of time, Hampel is still called up to the Polish national team. With the national team, he won the team world championship six times.
