After seven hard-fought racing days at the 2025 FAI Qualifying Sailplane Grand Prix at Terlet, Tijl Schmelzer from Belgium won the final race, putting him in the overall lead. He finished the Grand Prix racing event four points ahead of Dutch pilot Peter Millenaar, who took the 2nd place podium position. Fellow Dutchman Roelof Corporaal took the third position on the podium.

SGP Netherlands was the ninth of 10 qualifying SGP competitions in the SGP Series 12. The winning pilots from each qualifier earn a place at the SGP Final, and a chance to be the next FAI Sailplane Grand Prix World Champion. Both Tijl and Peter have now qualified for the SGP Final at St Auban, France to take place 24 – 30 August.

photo Arjan Vrieze

Twenty pilots flew in the contest, including several World Gliding Champions. Among them were Stefan Langer and Michael Sommer from Germany, and Nick Hanenburg from the Netherlands. The races are Grand Prix style, with all pilots crossing a starting line in the sky at the same time. The pilots who get home first are the winners.

The final race at SGP Netherlands was the culmination of a great soaring week at the host airfield at Terlet. The daily races were from 200 to 250km in distance, and the fleet completed the course each day at speeds from 100 to 130 kph. The final race, however, was a long 403 km, which Tijl completed at a speed of 105 kph.

No clear winner was able to push ahead and stay at the front of the table during the contest. Tijl and Michael Sommer won two races each but, as ever, the key to winning a series of races is consistency. Although Sommer proved again his championship racing skills, after a couple of days when he finished towards the back of the fleet, he was pushed into 4th place overall.
You can see the full results at sgp.aero/netherlands2025

The final SPG Qualifying event is SGP Poland at Nowy Targ 24 – 31 May. This contest also has a star-studded list of pilots including multiple World Gliding Champion Sebastian Kawa from Poland, previous SGP World Champions Tilo Holighaus from Germany and Frenchman Didier Hauss.

photo Arjan Vrieze

You can follow all racing action as it takes place with live tracking at:
live.glidernet.org

Full results each day are at sgp.aero/poland2025
facebook.com/faisgp

by Sean Young