PIRATES racer Maciej Janowski was dejected to fall short of a Speedway Grand Prix spot at Wimborne Road as he faces another season in the cutthroat Polish qualifiers.

Janowski finished 12th in the Grand Prix Challenge on Saturday with seven points on a night which saw current SGP star Niels-Kristian Iversen win the meeting on 13 to guarantee his place in the 2014 World Championship.

Poole asset Krzysztof Kasprzak, also a full-time SGP rider, was second on 12 to secure qualification, while Denmark’s Kenneth Bjerre finished third on 11 to earn a return to the elite after a one-year absence.

But it was not a good night for the Pirates as Janowski failed to win a race, claiming three seconds, a third and a fourth, while Tomas H Jonasson could only pick up six points.

Janowski faces a titanic tussle year after year to even take part in the qualifiers. He must compete against some strong national rivals for one of Poland’s places in the international quarter-finals before battling his way into the Challenge.

So ‘Magic’ was disappointed to be sent back to square one again. He said: “Of course this is not the end of the world, but it’s not easy to get qualification for this every year, especially through the Polish rounds.

“But this is speedway and we can’t look back. I must go forward to the next meeting and be faster and better.”

Janowski could still bag one of the four permanent wild cards on offer from SGP organisers BSI Speedway and the FIM.

The 2011 world under-21 champion admits it is a giant step up, but he is determined to test himself on the sport’s biggest stage.

He said: “I don’t know if I’m ready or not. I just want to be there and I’ll do everything to be there.

“I want to think what I did wrong on Saturday, try to learn from this and hope I don’t make the same mistakes next time.”

Rider scores: Niels-Kristian Iversen (3-3-3-3-1) 13, Krzysztof Kasprzak (3-2-2-2-3) 12, Kenneth Bjerre (3-1-2-2-3) 11, Martin Smolinski (3-2-0-3-2) 10, Chris Harris (2-3-1-2-2) 10, Troy Batchelor (0-2-3-1-3) 9, Michael Jepsen Jensen (0-3-3-0-1) 7, Hans Andersen (2-0-2-3-0) 7, Daniel King (2-3-1-1-0) 7, Piotr Pawlicki (0-1-1-3-2) 7, Daniel Nermark (1-1-3-1-1) 7, Maciej Janowski (2-1-2-0-2) 7, Tomas H Jonasson (1-0-0-2-3) 6, Vaclav Milik (1-2-1-1-X) 5, Timo Lahti (1-0-0-0-1) 2, Peter Kildemand (R-0-0-X-R) 0.