Crump wins Danish Grand Prix

Triple world champion Jason Crump bagged his first Grand Prix win in two years in Copenhagen on June 9, but admitted a favourite for this season’s world title race is “harder to pick than a broken nose.”

The Australian triumphed in the Metal Danish Speedway Grand Prix at Parken Stadium after fending off Fredrik Lindgren and Greg Hancock to win the final.

It was Crump’s his first SGP gold medal since he won the FIM European Grand Prix at Polish track Leszno on April 24, 2010 – two years and 46 days ago.

The Bristol-born rider has been in blistering form in this year’s series. He has reached the semi-finals of all five rounds and finished second in Prague and fourth in Auckland.

He is second in the world championship on 73pts and trails defending champion Hancock by just two in the race for top spot. With Nicki Pedersen eight behind Crump on 65 and Crump’s fellow Australian Chris Holder 12 adrift on 61 in fourth, this season’s title race remains well and truly open.

“I have raced in seven Grand Prix finals here in the last 10 years and won four of them,” the 23-time Grand Prix winner said.  “It’s been two years since I won my last Grand Prix and I had forgotten how good and how sweet it feels.”

“It was really important to win here tonight. The Grand Prix can be disappointing and frustrating, and then when you win one, you remember why you go through all the aggravation, hard work and all the disappointments.

“It was so good to hear the Australian national anthem, and I can say it has given me a real confidence boost and I’ll be chasing all the way to the end to get the No. 1 plate back on my bike again.”

Crump admits he was given “a bit of a talking to” by his uncle and mechanic Drew Street midway through the Copenhagen heats, which inspired him to end his five rides with two race wins and book a semi-final berth.

Crump was joined by his son Seth at the post-meeting press conference, and his wife Mel and daughter Mia are also regular fixtures in the SGP paddock.

Meanwhile, Pedersen has hit back at claims from Holder that he “played” to get the Aussie excluded from the GP.

Speaking to Speedwaygp.com, Holder said Pedersen had eased off at the end of the third lap and took the hit in a bid to earn himself a rerun and keep his meeting alive.

Holder was controversially disqualified by referee Wojciech Grodzki, although Pedersen was also thrown out after tumbling under pressure from eventual runner-up Freddie Lindgren in the rerun.

The Danish champion concedes that his bike was spinning and he didn’t have the setup for the slickening track. But he believes Holder left him no room going into turn one.

“Into the turn there was no space for me. What does he want me to do? I can’t really stay on it if there’s no room and that’s part of the game,” Pedersen said.

The meeting was also marred by a nasty crash involving Danish star Kenneth Bjerre and world No.3 Jaroslaw Hampel in heat one.

While Bjerre walked away, Hampel required treatment for a dislocated ankle, which was put back into place. It is unclear how long he will spend on the sidelines.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Greg Hancock 75, 2 Jason Crump 73, 3 Nicki Pedersen 65, 4 Chris Holder 61, 5 Tomasz Gollob 52, 6 Fredrik Lindgren 52, 7 Emil Sayfutdinov 48, 8 Jaroslaw Hampel 46, 9 Andreas Jonsson 38, 10 Antonio Lindback 34, 11 Bjarne Pedersen 29, 12 Peter Ljung 29, 13 Chris Harris 27, 14 Kenneth Bjerre 25, 15 Hans Andersen 24, 16 Thomas H Jonasson 11, 17 Josef Franc 9, 18 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 7, 19 Michael Jepsen Jensen 7, 20 Mikkel B Jensen 4, 21 Peter Kildemand 2, 22 Jason Bunyan 1.

DANISH SGP POINTS: 1 Jason Crump 18, 2 Fredrik Lindgren 15, 3 Greg Hancock 17, 4 Chris Harris 10, 5 Emil Sayfutdinov 11, 6 Bjarne Pedersen 10, 7 Nicki Pedersen 9, 8 Chris Holder 9, 9 Andreas Jonsson 8, 10 Peter Ljung 8, 11 Michael Jepsen Jensen 7, 12 Kenneth Bjerre 5, 13 Mikkel B Jensen 4, 14 Hans Andersen 4, 15 Tomasz Gollob 3, 16 Antonio Lindback 3, 17 Peter Kildemand 2, 18 Jaroslaw Hampel 0.