Hancock wins in Slovenia, Doyle best of Aussies

World champion Greg Hancock insisted stormed to a sensational Slovenian Speedway Grand Prix win in Krsko on September 12.

The 45-year-old Californian racked up 20 points out of a possible 21 after topping the rostrum ahead of world championship leader Tai Woffinden, Dane Peter Kildemand and triple world champion Nicki Pedersen.

Hancock’s heroics took him up to second in the standings on 102pts, but still 25 shy of the phenomenally consistent Woffinden with just three rounds remaining — including Melbourne's Etihad Stadium on October 24.

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Australia's three representatives all bowed out at the semi-final stage in Slovenia, with Jason Doyle and Chris Holder third and fourth in their race, and Troy Batchelor fourth in the second semi-final.

Holder is sixth in the overall standings on 78pts, just one in front of Doyle. The top eight finishers in the 2015 championship receive automatic entry into the 2016 hostilities.

Next up is the Stockholm SGP, which takes place on September 26 at the Friends Arena — a venue built just yards from the Solna apartment where Hancock started his young family with wife Jennie.

As a proud Swedish resident with a huge fan base in the country, Hancock would love to deliver what would be his first ever victory in his second homeland. He said: “I have never won a round in Sweden and I have always wanted to. It’s a great country and I have a lot of history, family and sponsors there. There are a lot of great people there, who have taken me to another level going back over the last 10 or 15 years. I owe those guys a lot and nothing would feel better than to stand on top of the podium at the Friends Arena.”

Runner-up Woffinden admits he’s “on top of the world” after finishing second in Krsko for the

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 127, 2 Greg Hancock 102, 3 Nicki Pedersen 98, 4 Matej Zagar 89, 5 Niels-Kristian Iversen 81, 6 Chris Holder 78, 7 Jason Doyle 77, 8 Maciej Janowski 72, 9 Michael Jepsen Jensen 66, 10 Peter Kildemand 59, 11 Andreas Jonsson 55, 12 Troy Batchelor 49, 13 Chris Harris 43, 14 Tomas H Jonasson 40, 15 Jaroslaw Hampel 31, 16 Krzysztof Kasprzak 29, 17 Bartosz Zmarzlik 17, 18 Antonio Lindback 14, 19 Craig Cook 7, 20 Mikkel Michelsen 6, 21 Tomasz Gollob 4, 22 Timo Lahti 3, 23 Kasts Puodzuks 3, 24 Vaclav Milik 2, 25 Piotr Pawlicki 1, 26 Robert Lambert 1, 27 Adrian Cyfer 1, 28 Aleksander Conda 1, 29 Denis Stojs 1.

SLOVENIAN SGP SCORES: 1 Greg Hancock 20, 2 Tai Woffinden 18, 3 Peter Kildemand 13, 4 Nicki Pedersen 13, 5 Niels-Kristian Iversen 11, 6 Jason Doyle 11, 7 Chris Holder 9, 8 Troy Batchelor 9, 9 Maciej Janowski 9, 10 Matej Zagar 8, 11 Chris Harris 4, 12 Andreas Jonsson 4, 13 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3, 14 Michael Jepsen Jensen 2, 15 Tomas H Jonasson 2, 16 Aleksander Conda 1, 17 Denis Stojs 1, 18 Ziga Kovacic DNR.