Doyle and Holder to begin SGP title fight

Australians Chris Holder and Jason Doyle kickstart their 2017 Speedway (SGP) campaigns in Slovenia on Saturday, April 29, in a championship that will again culminate at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium in October.

Holder is one of four SGP world champions in the 16-rider 2017 field, alongside reigning No. 1 Greg Hancock from America, Dane Nicki Pedersen and Briton Tai Woffinden, while Doyle was in a position to join that exalted company in 2016 before he crashed heavily at the penultimate round in Poland and had to sit out the Holder-dominated Melbourne finale.

Doyle's absence smoothed the way for the evergreen Hancock to win his fourth SGP title at 46 years of age, but the contenders to steal the America's crown will be coming thick and fast in 2017.

A now fully fit Doyle, the world No. 2, will fancy his chances after winning four rounds in 2016, while Woffinden is probably the most spectacular rider in the pack when his A game is on. Holder will be full of confidence after his sublime performance in the last SGP round in Melbourne, while Russian racer and double world under 21 champion Emil Sayfutdinov is expected to make a big splash on his return to SGP after three seasons out.

New world No.3 Bartosz Zmarzlik will also have title aspirations, along with Piotr Pawlicki, Antonio Lindback, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Matej Zagar and Maciej Janowski.

Meanwhile, Polish champion Patryk Dudek and Slovak No.1 Martin Vaculik join the line-up for 2017 after making it through the GP Challenge, along with Fredrik Lindgren.

The 2017 SGP series will visit nine countries over seven months, with the Etihad Stadium round to be held on Saturday, October 28.

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2017 FIM SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX CALENDAR

2017 FIM SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX LINE-UP (in ranking order with rider numbers)