Handbags at Dawn in Cardiff SGP

http://www.worldspeedway.com/artman/publish/article_13278.shtml

The Speedway Grand Prix at Cardiff always brings that extra something. 2007 saw Chris Harris take his maiden win, an incredible achievement.


Then there was the year Tony Rickardsson famously rode “the wall of death” as he remarkably kept control his bike as he rode the fence! 2009 saw the bust up between Emil Sayfutdinov and Scott Nicholls which really sent the crowd into a frenzy.

What would 2010 bring? Luckily, a bit more of the same, this time we were nearly treated to two boxing matches! Ding Ding! Round 1 saw the match up between two Aussies, current World Champion, Jason Crump and newly emerging star, Chris Holder.

The relationship between the two had always been extremely positive with Crump being very supportive to the 22 year old and seemingly giving him his words of wisdom. After a “slight” clash between the two, Holder’s adrenalin was pumping and the anger towards his fellow compatriot was clear to see. A war of words erupted between the two whilst on their way back to the pits. No punches were thrown but clearly the Poole star was antagonised with the actions of the elder statesmen.

The two met again in the final of the illustrious GP at the Millenium stadium, this time Holder having the last laugh with taking his first victory. Crump was the first rider there to celebrate with the Torun rider and it was a nice moment to see. Holder was quick to apologise in the press conference for his actions, whilst Crump simply said “Chris had his skirt on and I had my handbag” laughing off the argument they had shared. The triple world champion’s body language perhaps showed signs of regret after the GP with being involved in this type of behaviour. Perhaps, the actions were more expected of Holder with being a newcomer to the series and more hot-headed, but it was surprising to see Crump caught up in the heat of the moment.

Round 2 saw a titanic fight between the two Danes, Nicki Pedersen and Hans Andersen. There is history between these two. Neither rider is perhaps achieving what they expect of themselves and are both being outshined by Kenneth Bjerre this season. After a close tussle in their heat, the Belle Vue star, got the better of the 2008 World Champion and on the final lap, Andersen gave the finger to his fellow Dane down the back straight. He then appeared to enjoy goading Pedersen across the line. This was something not picked up by the Sky cameras. As ever, the Gorzow star is normally at the centre of controversy and is portrayed at the pantomime villain, but on this occasion, I felt he was treated a tad harshly by Mr Andersen and by the spectators. Infact, I thought it was a fairly mature reaction by the 30 year old not to get involved in anything too physical after the encounter on track. He chose to have words face to face, helmets off. The old Nicki Pedersen may have found himself in more trouble but I was pleasantly surprised not to see it all kick off so to speak.

The Millenium stadium seems to stir up more emotions each year with the riders performing on the biggest stage in the sport. It certainly gives the fans a special treat and it was good to see no harm was caused in either incident with the Odense born rider later saying “Me and Nicki were just discussing sending each other Christmas cards”. Let’s see what 2011 brings!

CRUMP WINS EUROPEAN GP!

Current World Champion, Jason Crump roared to victory in the opening round of the Speedway Grand Prix series in Leszno, Poland. The 34 year old secured 19 points overall to be leading the World Championship for 2010, an ominous sign to his fellow rivals. This was a fantastic performance by Crump considering he had been suffering with injuries sustained in October where he received severe burns and broken bones. Many had doubts whether he would be fit enough to race at the start of this season, including the Aussie himself.

“I didn’t expect to be here today, so it was a bit of a bonus really. At the end of last season, I thought I would be able to start defending the World Championship in about June if I was lucky. So it’s a big bonus to be here at the start of the season and an even bigger bonus to get into the final.”

He beat off fierce competition in the final from Leszno rider, Jarek Hampel, who had top scored through the meeting with 11 points and Russian Emil Sayfutdinov.

Crump explained: “I can run, but I can’t really lift anything heavy with my left arm. So I’m very fortunate and I’m really happy to be here. I’ve always put a little bit of pressure on myself to be the world champion, and I want to try and win again.”

Home town favourite Hampel was pleased with his performance in second place after a two year break from the series.

“That was a good place for the beginning of this season. I wanted to try and win the competition but Jason was very fast from gate one in the final. I tried to close him down, but he was in front of me and I couldn’t go any faster. I like racing in the Grand Prix and I hope I race even better next time.”

Three times World Champion, Nicki Pedersen didn’t set the night on fire with a disappointing night by his standards. He ended up finishing third in the semi-final behind Crump and Sayfutdinov with a tally of nine points.

The wild-card Janus Kolodziej who rides for Leszno, alongside Hampel, was 80/1 before the meeting. He stormed into the final hoping to cause an upset amongst the GP regulars and to the delight of the massive Polish crowd. However, he was adjudged to be at fault with an incident with Sayfutdinov and was excluded in the final, causing a re-run with just three riders.

The next GP is in Gothenburg, Sweden on May 8th.

HEAT SCORES:
Jaroslaw Hampel (3-1-2-2-3) 11
Jason Crump (3-3-3-1-0) 10
Emil Sayfutdinov (3-1-1-3-2) 10
Janusz Kolodziej (1-3-3-2-1) 10
Kenneth Bjerre (1-2-2-2-3) 10
Rune Holta (2-3-1-1-2) 9
Chris Harris (2-3-0-0-3) 8
Nicki Pedersen (3-2-0-0-3) 8

Freddie Lindgren (1-1-3-3-0) 8
Hans Andersen (0-2-2-3-1) 8
Chris Holder (2-2-0-2-2) 8
Tomasz Gollob (2-0-2-1-1) 6
Andreas Jonsson (R-1-1-1-2) 5
Greg Hancock (0-0-3-0-1) 4
Magnus Zetterstrom (1-0-0-3-0) 4
Tai Woffinden (0-0-1-0-0) 1

Semi-Final 1: Hampel, Kolodziej, Holta, Harris.
Semi-Final 2: Crump, Sayfutdinov, Pedersen, Bjerre.
Final: Crump, Hampel, Sayfutdinov, Kolodziej (exc, foul riding).

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Jason Crump (19), 2 Jaroslaw Hampel (18), 3 Emil Sayfutdinov (14), 4 Janusz Kolodziej (12), 5 Rune Holta (10), 6 Kenneth Bjerre (10), 7 Nicki Pedersen (9), 8 Freddie Lindgren (8), 9 Hans Andersen (8), 10 Chris Holder (8), 11 Chris Harris (8), 12 Tomasz Gollob (6), 13 Andreas Jonsson (5), 14 Greg Hancock (4), 15 Magnus Zetterstrom (4), 16 Tai Woffinden (1).