GREAT Britain star Tom Brennan came agonisingly close to a place in the Speedway Euro Championship Challenge after missing out in a run-off.

The Poole Pirates and Birmingham Brummies racer scored an impressive 11 points in his SEC qualifier at Mureck in Austria with the meeting won by former Pirates and Eastbourne star Timo Lahti.

Brennan finished level on points with Bartlomiej Kowalski in fourth place, meaning a run-off was required for the final qualifying position, where he was edged out by the Polish youngster who finished third in the SGP2 series last year.

Meanwhile Adam Ellis also missed out in his qualifier at Hungarian venue Debrecen, as he finished in eighth place on eight points.

Brennan is set to return to England to feature in Poole's upcoming double header, away at Edinburgh Monarchs on Friday and Berwick Bandits on Saturday.