Hancock wins third speedway title

Newly crowned triple world champion Greg Hancock is determined to continue writing history after cementing his spot as American speedway’s undisputed all-time great.

The Californian ripped up the record books once again as he lifted his third world championship in Poland on Saturday, October 11.

The 1997 and 2011 champion broke his own record by becoming the sport’s oldest world champion at 44 years and 130 days old, as well as the first American to win speedway’s biggest prize three times.

The Swedish-based hero joined silver medallist and Polish SGP winner Krzysztof Kasprzak of Poland on the world championship rostrum, as well as fellow triple world champ Nicki Pedersen, who beat Great Britain’s Tai Woffinden in a run-off for the bronze medal.

And despite Hancock’s younger rivals giving their all to chase him down, he already has ambitions to chase number four. He said: “If I wasn’t confident, I wouldn’t say I’m going to ride next year. Being world champ feels sweet every time.

“It still feels like it’s sinking in. The adrenaline is dropping now, but the actual sensation of being the champ is finding its place. It’s an incredible feeling. It really is.

“Every year I ride, the biggest carrot at the end is to win the world championship. The first one was fantastic; the second one was amazing and this is unreal.”

Hancock admits the huge turning point in his season came just three races in at the season-opening New Zealand SGP in Auckland in April. After three last places, he revived his night with two heat wins. He said: “I never thought I would have been happy to get six points. I started with three zeros, but came back with two wins and six points.

“I worked really hard last winter. I felt we had found the right everything to win. I felt so sure I was going to win in Auckland, so that was the best slap in the face I ever had. I went back to the drawing board and I’m pretty happy I got that slap right now.

“After New Zealand, I knew I had to play to my ability. I knew I couldn’t be somebody I wasn’t. I just went back to basics and we started building from that point on.

“The momentum grew, the bikes got better. The bikes were already good, but I think I started to work better with my equipment at that stage.

“The bikes were great. It was just me; it was the man who was over-confident at that stage. I had to back myself down and realise you’re only as good as your last race.”

Hancock’s third title win also saw him become the first rider to win the SGP series after having missed a round. He sat out the Nordic SGP at Vojens, Denmark on September 13 after suffering multiple fractures to his left index finger at the Gorzow SGP of Poland on August 30.

Krzysztof Kasprzak won the Polish final from Andreas Jonsson, Jaroslaw Hampel and Nicki Pedersen. Aussies Chris Holder and Troy Batchelor were well back and didn’t make the semis.

Holder and Jason Doyle are the confirmed Aussies for next year’s championship, while Darcy Ward and Batchelor are still in with a chance to make the 16-rider cut-off as well.

The final round of the 2015 championship will be held at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Greg Hancock 140, 2 Krzysztof Kasprzak 132, 3 Nicki Pedersen 121, 4 Tai Woffinden 121, 5 Matej Zagar 114, 6 Andreas Jonsson 103, 7 Chris Holder 100, 8 Jaroslaw Hampel 98, 10 Fredrik Lindgren 90, 11 Niels-Kristian Iversen 87, 12 Martin Smolinski 81, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 79, 14 Darcy Ward 75, 15 Chris Harris 48, 16 Michael Jepsen Jensen 42, 17 Peter Kildemand 33, 18 Bartosz Zmarzlik 17, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 14, 20 Kasts Puodzuks 10, 21 Peter Ljung 7, 22 Mikkel Bech Jensen 7, 23 Tomas H Jonasson 7, 24 Maciej Janowski 7, 25 Joonas Kylmakorpi 5, 26 Pawel Przedpelski 4, 27 Kauko Nieminen 4, 28 Andzejs Lebedevs 3, 29 Kim Nilsson 3, 30 Jason Bunyan 2, 31 Vaclav Milik 2, 32 Craig Cook 2, 33 Adrian Cyfer 2, 34 Lukasz Kaczmarek 2, 35 Lasse Bjerre 1.

BORYGO TORUN SGP SCORES: 1 Krzysztof Kasprzak 17, 2 Andreas Jonsson 17, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 11, 4 Nicki Pedersen 14, 5 Greg Hancock 13, 6 Tai Woffinden 9, 7 Adrian Miedzinski 9, 8 Kenneth Bjerre 8, 9 Chris Holder 7, 10 Maciej Janowski 7, 11 Troy Batchelor 6, 12 Matej Zagar 5, 13 Pawel Przedpelski 4, 14 Martin Smolinski 4, 15 Chris Harris 4, 16 Fredrik Lindgren 3, 17 Oskar Fajfer 0, 18 Michael Jepsen Jensen 0.