POLAND and Australia are hot favourites to battle it out for automatic progression to the World Cup Final this weekend.
The first event of the competition takes place on home territory for the Poles, Leszno - scene of their memorable win in the event in 2007.
Vojens is the eventual destination for the Ove Fundin Trophy to be decided, and with the Race-Off meeting set to be stronger than ever, teams will be determined to avoid a Thursday date in Denmark.
Poland boast a line-up with plenty of top-level experience as Tomasz Gollob, Rune Holta and Krzysztof Kasprzak are all current GP riders, and
Jarek Hampel and Wieslaw Jagus are former members of the series.
Kasprzak said: "The World Cup Final was the biggest night of my career and definitely the best result. We'll try to make it the same this week."
Australia are slightly less experienced overall, but there is little doubt that Davey Watt and Chris Holder have the pedigree and ability to offer strong support to established trio Jason Crump, Leigh Adams and Ryan Sullivan.
Emerging nation Russia provided plenty of entertainment when they competed at Coventry last season, and they will look to make sure of a Race-Off place at least with the Hungarians looking to in-form Matej Ferjan to boost their chances of an upset.
