Speedway in Germany was overshadowed by its more popular track racing variant "Sandbahn" (Longtrack). However, the country occasionally hosts the Speedway Grand Prix of Germany and has produced one Speedway World Champion, Egon Müller in 1983. Another German rider is Martin Smolinski, who won the New Zealand Grand Prix in Auckland in March 2014. In 2018 German youngsters Norrick Blödorn and Ben Ernst won the world titles in 85 ccm and 250 ccm, showing the results of drastically improved support for young riders in the past decade.