
Australia's Jason Doyle now faces a huge battle to win the 2016 Speedway Grand Prix series after he crashed hard at the penultimate round in Poland on October 1, won by Dane Niels-Kristian Iversen.
Doyle went down in heat three, forcing him out of the meeting with shoulder, elbow and lung injuries. American veteran Greg Hancock capitalised by gaining an 11pt lead in the series with just one round remaining at Melbourne's Etihad Stadium on Saturday, October 22 – a venue where Hancock dominated in 2015.
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Hancock is now on 134pts ahead of Doyle (123), reigning world champion Tai Woffinden (115), Bartosz Zmarzlik 113, and Australia's second rider, Chris Holder (109).
Iversen won after overhauling triple world champion Hancock in the final, while Zmarzlik finished third and Matej Zagar of Slovenia claimed fourth place.
Hancock is now in a strong position to win his fourth world title, but spared a thought for the stricken Doyle. He said: "I can feel for Jason because I have been there. He’s a tough guy and I hope his injuries are not so serious that he can’t come back in Melbourne. He deserves a fair shot. Seeing his accident hit me inside. I know he didn’t go in there very well.”
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Greg Hancock 134, 2 Jason Doyle 123, 3 Tai Woffinden 115, 4 Bartosz Zmarzlik 113, 5 Chris Holder 109, 6 Piotr Pawlicki 91, 7 Maciej Janowski 85, 8 Fredrik Lindgren 82, 9 Niels-Kristian Iversen 79, 10 Matej Zagar 79, 11 Antonio Lindback 79, 12 Peter Kildemand 64, 13 Nicki Pedersen 62, 14 Andreas Jonsson 46, 15 Chris Harris 36, 16 Michael Jepsen Jensen 21, 17 Patryk Dudek 8, 18 Martin Smolinski 8, 19 Pawel Przedpelski 8, 20 Danny King 7, 21 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7, 22 Anders Thomsen 5, 23 Kim Nilsson 5, 24 Peter Ljung 4, 25 Vaclav Milik 3, 26 Tobias Kroner 2, 27 Denis Stojs 1, 28 Jacob Thorssell 1, 29 Nick Skorja 1, 30 Daniel Kaczmarek 1, 31 Kacper Woryna 1.
TORUN SGP SCORES: 1 Niels-Kristian Iversen 15, 2 Greg Hancock 16, 3 Bartosz Zmarzlik 13, 4 Matej Zagar 15, 5 Chris Holder 11, 6 Michael Jepsen Jensen 10, 7 Piotr Pawlicki 10, 8 Fredrik Lindgren 9, 9 Pawel Przedpelski 8, 10 Tai Woffinden 8, 11 Andreas Jonsson 7, 12 Maciej Janowski 5, .13 Antonio Lindback 5, 14 Chris Harris 3, 15 Peter Kildemand 2, 16 Kacper Woryna 1, 17 Oskar Bober 0, 18 Jason Doyle.