Chris Harris, Martin Smolinski and Zach Wajtknecht may currently be fighting it out in the top-three of the 2023 FIM Long Track World Championship, although they will have some additional opposition when the fourth Final of the series gets under way at Scheessel in Germany this coming Sunday (20 August).
Fans love wild card riders for the extra excitement they always bring – last time out at Marmande in France we saw Dutch racer Dave Meijerink shake up the established order – and the German supporters will have a homegrown favourite to cheer on at Scheessel.
Erik Riss is a name familiar to Track Racing fans around the world. The son of eight-time FIM Long Track World Champion Gerd, the twenty-seven-year-old also won the title in 2014 and again in 2016 before shifting his focus to Speedway.
Last year Riss was part of the German team that raced to the FIM Long Track of Nations title and the good news for home supporters – which could also be bad news for his points-chasing rivals – is that he is heading to Scheessel with victory on his mind.
“I want to go there and win it, that is all,” he said. “I do follow Long Track so I know what is happening. Scheessel is a thousand-metre track so a lot of it is about gating and whoever has got the quickest engine and I know I have got a good engine for it so I am definitely capable of winning. I think Martin Smolinski with be quick and Chris Harris will be quick, but if I beat them there should be no-one in the way.”
A racing prodigy, despite his family ties to the sport – his older brother Mark is also an accomplished rider – Riss did not start competing until he was sixteen, though Long Track success was almost immediate.
“My first actual race season was in 2012. I was doing both Long Track and Speedway in Germany and I qualified for the [Long Track] GPs in 2014 and won it the first year. I then won it again in 2016.”
Winning two titles in three years – he was second in 2015 – played a major role in his decision to concentrate on Speedway.
“It was a lot of success really quickly and I lost interest – it didn’t spark a fire inside me anymore to do it again. Then I set my goals on Speedway and focussed on that because nowadays there are more competitions to take part in and more things to achieve and I had already achieved everything I wanted to do when I was riding Long Track.”
However, while his drive to win Long Track titles burned brightly before burning out, Riss still enjoys the sport and is eagerly anticipating Sunday’s showdown.
“Long Track is a bit different to Speedway and I would say more enjoyable to ride. It is mainly down to the bikes having rear suspension and being a lot smoother to ride – Speedway bikes can be quite erratic and they can be weapons if they are not set up properly and you have not got the right engine underneath you, with Long Track bikes it does not really matter what engine you have got as long as it is strong.
“When you ride a lot of Speedway and then jump on a Long Track bike it is really enjoyable because it is so smooth and easy.”
Sunday’s action will get under way at Scheessel with the first heat at 14:00 local time.
The full series is available as a Pay-Per-View broadcast via a livestream package on the Tapes Up TV channel. For more details click here.