British lion Zach Wajtknecht raced to victory in the Grand Final at round two of the 2025 FIM Long Track World Championship powered by Anlas, Kineo and HKC Koopmann at Marmande in France on Sunday night with his first win in almost three years elevating him to the front of the title chase.
  • Zach Wajtknecht opens up four-point championship lead at round two
  • Lukas Fienhage stays in contention with second at Marmande
  • Defending champion Martin Smolinski misses podium for first time since 2023

The twenty-seven-year-old construction engineer, a silver medallist in 2022 and bronze medallist last season, dropped just one point during the Heat stages before charging to a tapes-to-flag win in the Grand Final on a track where he has recorded back-to-back podiums on his last two visits.

Wajtknecht’s haul of twenty-one points, when added to the nineteen he scored at the previous weekend’s opening round, gives him a four-point championship lead at the series’ halfway mark from Lukas Fienhage. Defending champion Martin Smolinski – who won seven days earlier at Mühldorf – failed to make the Grand Final and as a result has dropped to third, eight points behind Wajtknecht.

Frenchman Jordan Dubernard took the win in the opening Heat of the night, defeating Denmark’s Kenneth Kruse Hansen, before Britain’s Chris Harris scored an important early victory over Dave Meijerink from the Netherlands and 2020 champion Fienhage with Smolinski trailing home in fourth. Wajtknecht then completed the opening block with a win from home hero Mathias Trésarrieu and Dutchman Mike Meijer.

The Marmande track clearly suits Harris who won there in 2023 and the forty-two-year-old – who suffered a technical failure at Mühldorf that put him out of the Grand Final – made it two wins from two starts when he led home Meijer and Dubernard in his second Heat with Smolinski again back in fourth.

Meijerink then defeated Fienhage before Wajtknecht won from his compatriot Andrew Appleton and Trésarrieu to move into the joint lead alongside Harris with Meijerink third from Dubernard, but three-time champion Smolinski found himself in an unfamiliar position towards the bottom of the field with just two points from his two races.
The third block got under way with a victory for Fienhage from Appleton with Smolinski’s hopes of continuing his run of eleven consecutive podium finishes suffering a body blow when he could only manage third. Meijerink then took his second win of the night before Trésarrieu led home Wajtknecht, Dubernard and Harris.

With two blocks left and only three automatic places in the Grand Final available, Fienhage then won from Dubernard, Wajtknecht and Meijerink before Smolinski grabbed a lifeline with victory ahead of Trésarrieu and Harris kept himself in contention with his third win of the night.

With Fienhage, Wajtknecht and Harris locked together in the three qualifying positions and Meijerink and Trésarrieu just a point behind, everything rested on the fifth and final block of Heats.

Meijerink struck first to defeat the French pairing of Anthony Chauffour and Trésarrieu and Wajtknecht then booked his place in the Grand Final when he won from Smolinski before Dubernard claimed his second win of the night at the expense of Fienhage and Harris.

This gave Wajtknecht first gate pick for the main points-paying race of the programme ahead of Fienhage and Meijerink and sent Harris, Dubernard, Trésarrieu, Appleton and Smolinski to the Last Chance Heat to decide the remaining two Grand Final places.

Exactly one year ago to the day, Harris had found himself in an identical situation at Marmande. On that occasion he claimed victory in the Last Chance Heat and this time around he did it again with a last-lap pass on Dubernard as the pair made the cut and Smolinski found himself packing up early.

When the tapes went up on the Grand Final it was Wajtknecht who powered into the lead from the inside gate. Meijerink launched an early challenge that the British rider resisted and the positions appeared to be decided until Meijerink pulled out of second with a technical problem at the start of the final lap.

This handed Wajtknecht a comfortable lead and he took the chequered flag – and the championship lead – chased by Fienhage, Harris and Dubernard who acquitted himself well in his first-ever Grand Final.

The focus now shifts to round three at Scheessel in Germany on 24 August.