FIM Long Track World Champion in 2020 at the tender age of just twenty-one, Germany’s Lukas Fienhage is fully focussed on a repeat performance this year, although he is well aware that wrestling the title away from his compatriot Martin Smolinski will not be an easy task.

Success in the demanding and spectacular sport came early to Fienhage who was already a medallist in the FIM Long Track of Nations (LToN) before he achieved the ultimate accolade of FIM World Champion in just his second full season in the series. He added another gold two years later when he helped his nation to victory in the 2022 LToN, although he is still chasing a second individual crown.

“I think to become a one-time world champion is ‘easy’ compared with repeating the success and becoming a double world champion which is the hardest thing,” he said. “I want to put everything in and show what I’m capable of.”

Currently third in the 2024 FIM Long Track World Championship powered by Anlas, Kineo and HKC Koopmann following May’s opening round in Herxheim, Fienhage will celebrate his twenty-fifth birthday two days before the penultimate round of this year’s series on home ground in Vechta, a venue he has enjoyed a long association with.

“I started riding at the age of five with a PW50. On my sixth birthday I raced my first race in Vechta in my hometown. After losing by a lap because I was so short of power I told my dad I needed something faster and a couple of weeks later I got a KTM 50 and after that I was beating everyone.”

With a strong family association with Long Track – his father raced and his father’s uncle Walter Scherwitzki was a GP regular in the 1980s and 1990s – it was almost inevitable that Fienhage would compete, but he never imagined that he would become an FIM World Champion.
“Winning the title was an incredible feeling, like a dream come true. I am often asked how it felt, but I don’t have a proper answer. There are so many feelings it is very hard to describe.”

Fienhage has started his 2024 campaign strongly following a solid off-season racing Speedway in France where he lives with his girlfriend and he also competes regularly in Germany and is considering joining a Polish club as well.

With thirty-nine-year-old Smolinski currently leading the title chase, it is shaping up to be a classic battle of youth versus experience, however Fienhage is confident he has everything he needs to ultimately triumph.

“Guys like Martin are very experienced riders and I have a good team behind me with people like four-time world champion Robert Barth who support me and do my engines perfectly. I can’t complain anymore about not having enough power!”

The FIM Long Track World Championship Challenge takes place this coming Sunday at Mühldorf in Germany before the second of this year’s five Finals to decide the 2024 FIM Long Track World Champion is staged on 13 July at Marmande in France. For more information click here.

The 2024 FIM Long Track World Championship is being streamed LIVE on FIM-MOTO.TV with a full-season pass that covers all five Finals as well as the FIM Long Track of Nations priced at just €34.90.