Crump moves into second place

Polish superstar Tomasz Gollob rattled off an astonishing 24pt maximum to win the Danish world speedway GP at Vojens in Denmark last Saturday, and is now 19pts ahead of Australian Jason Crump at the top of the standings.

The 39-year-old Gollob produced his second seven-ride maximum of the season, and completed the demolition in the final ahead of local rider Kenneth Bjerre, world champion Crump and Nicki Pedersen.

If Gollob increases his lead to 25pts at the Italian GP on September 25, he will definitely be crowned world champion in his home town of Bydgoszcz on October 9.

But having lost the title in 1999 when he went into the final round with a 4pt advantage over Swedish legend Tony Rickardsson, Gollob was taking nothing for granted.

"I may have scored maximum points, but that doesn't mean I am world champion now," said Gollob. "It's a long journey. But hopefully Terenzano and Bydgoszcz will be good for me and I will be world champion.

"I'm in a good position now, but I'm not happy yet because I haven't won it. There are more meetings in the championship."

Crump acknowledged he would need a lot of luck to catch Gollob now.

"You can't complain when you are beaten by a guy who performs like that," Crump said, referring to Gollob.  "There is no way I could match that tonight and it is certainly going to be tough to catch him now.

"I am pleased with my own performance I have been riding better and better over these past few grands prix.

"I know my limits and I am riding within them at the moment but I am improving every week so I am confident I will be back stronger than ever next year."

Crump's compatriot Chris Holder was sixth in Denmark, the same position he holds in the championship.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (after nine rounds):
1 Tomasz Gollob 141, 2 Jason Crump 122, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 121, 4 Kenneth Bjerre 98, 5 Rune Holta 88, 6 Chris Holder 83, 7 Greg Hancock 81, 8 Chris Harris 76, 9 Hans Andersen 71, 10 Andreas Jonsson 70, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 70, 12 Nicki Pedersen 67, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 60, 14 Tai Woffinden 39, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Davey Watt 13, 17 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback 6, 21 Niels Kristian Iversen 6, 22 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 23 Jurica Pavlic 5, 24 Scott Nicholls 4, 25 Matej Kus 3, 26 Leon Madsen 3, 27 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 28 Nicolai Klindt 1, 29 Linus Sundstrom 1.

FIM DANSK METAL NORDIC SGP POINTS:
1 Tomasz Gollob 24, 2 Kenneth Bjerre 17, 3 Jason Crump 15, 4 Nicki Pedersen 12, 5 Jaroslaw Hampel 11, 6 Chris Holder 10, 7 Andreas Jonsson 9, 8 Magnus Zetterstrom 8, 9 Hans Andersen 7, 10 Niels Kristian Iversen 6, 11 Rune Holta 6, 12 Greg Hancock 6, 13 Fredrik Lindgren 5, 14 Chris Harris 4, 15 Tai Woffinden 2, 16 Davey Watt 1, 17 Nicolai Klindt 0, 18 Patrick Hougaard 0.