Chris Holder wins Swedish speedway GP

Australian champion Chris Holder won the rain-soaked Swedish round of the Speedway World Championship in Gothenburg on May 15.

The meeting was abandoned after 16 races after heavy rain which had lashed the Ullevi Stadium all evening rendered track conditions and visibility too poor to continue.

Along with the bad weather, the meeting was marred by an horrific crash for three-time world champion Jason Crump in heat 10, when he spun off on turn three and landed hard on his right shoulder, dislocating it.

Holder was top of the score chart with 10pts when the meeting was stopped and was level with Greg Hancock. Like the American, the Sydneysider had two heat wins and two seconds to his name.

But Holder came out on top as he pipped the Californian to the chequered flag in a fiercely contested heat 11.

Holder was also assisted by Swedish star Antonio Lindback, who tumbled on the last lap of heat 16 while holding third place. This would have been enough to put him atop the podium, as he had won his opening three races.

Holder was more than happy to take the gold medal in these fortunate circumstances, particularly after missing the semi-finals on a countback at the opening GP of the season in Poland.

“You’ve got to have luck. You can’t just win without any,” said Holder. “Fortunately it worked out well for me this time. Last time in Leszno I got done on countback. That was a bit of bad luck, but this time I won because Antonio couldn’t see.

“I’m stoked. The conditions were terrible and I had just had a great run. It worked out and I came out on top.

“I had all the gates and I just made some good decisions with the bike. I had a lot of speed, but I used my head.”

Holder’s triumph puts him fifth in the world championship on 19pts.

Defending champion Tomasz Gollob, who led the standings going into Gothenburg, remains at the summit after scoring six. He is tied on 24pts with Hancock, but the Pole is first in the pecking order after finishing higher in the 2010 championship.

Russian hotshot Emil Sayfutdinov scored 8pts and stands third on 22. And despite bagging just 4pts, European SGP winner Nicki Pedersen is still handily-placed in fourth with 21.

Meanwhile, Crump now faces a race against time to be fit for the Czech GP at
Prague’s Marketa Stadium on May 28, where he previously claimed a hat
trick of wins from 2002-2004.

“I just couldn’t see a thing going into the third bend. In those conditions it’s pretty difficult to save anything and before I knew it, I was hitting the ground. It’s disappointing after all the work we’ve put into get things going for this round, now it’s on to the next…”

FIM MERIDIAN LIFTS SWEDISH SGP RESULT: 1 Chris Holder 10, 2 Greg Hancock
10, 3 Antonio Lindback 9, 4 Janusz Kolodziej 8, 5 Emil Sayfutdinov 8, 6
Thomas H Jonasson 8, 7 Jason Crump 6, 8 Andreas Jonsson 6, 9 Tomasz
Gollob 6, 10 Freddie Lindgren 6, 11 Jaroslaw Hampel 5, 12 Nicki Pedersen
4, 13 Chris Harris 4, 14 Kenneth Bjerre 2, 15 Rune Holta 1, 16 Artem
Laguta 1, 17 Simon Gustafsson 1, 18 Dennis Andersson 0.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER TWO ROUNDS): 1 Tomasz Gollob 24, 2 Greg Hancock 24, 3 Emil Sayfutdinov 22, 4 Nicki Pedersen 21, 5 Chris Holder 19, 6 Jaroslaw Hampel 17, 7 Freddie Lindgren 17, 8 Janusz Kolodziej 17, 9 Kenneth Bjerre 12, 10 Jason Crump 11, 11 Chris Harris 11, 12 Andreas Jonsson 11, 13 Rune Holta 10, 14 Antonio Lindback 10, 15 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 16 Damian Balinski 4, 17 Artem Laguta 1, 18 Simon Gustafsson 1.