Holder third in British final
The 2011 world speedway title hit the magnificent Millennium Stadium in Cardiff for round five, with the Australian again making it to the death knellAmerican legend Greg Hancock survived an epic first turn to triumph in round five 2011 FIM Speedway World Championship in Cardiff on June 25.
The Californian topped the rostrum ahead of Danish star Nicki Pedersen and Australian champion Chris Holder – the winner in Cardiff last year -- after winning a re-run final.
The first attempt at the race saw Emil Sayfutdinov hit the deck as he and Holder fought for supremacy. But even with the Russian excluded, there was barely daylight between the three remaining riders as they went into turn one in the restart.
Hancock, starting from gate four, kept the gas firmly on and powered around the boards to take charge and send his many fans at the Millennium Stadium wild.
Australia’s second rider, Jason Crump, was eliminated at the semi-final stage.
Hancock said: “I really had no choice but to keep the gas on. I put myself out there going into the corner and it got to a point where I thought ‘I want to shut off now. I’m in too deep.’
“But I couldn’t shut off because had I done that, at least Chris and I would have gone down hard.
“The only thing I could do was pray. I couldn’t close my eyes, but I wanted to. I hit a big lump of dirt coming off the corner, it shot me forward and then I had time to clean my underwear!”
Hancock now leads the world championship by 12pts after Polish racer Tomasz Gollob left Cardiff with a disappointing seven.Holder is third on 57pts, with Crump in sixth on 50.
The first heat of the night saw Crump take a convincing win and set himself up for a strong evening, but the three-time world champion was languid from that point on and his elimination at the semi-final stage didn’t come as a huge surprise.
“I came here pretty confident,” Crump said. “I started off really well in my first ride but from there on in I didn’t get it all together.
“There’s no excuse, it’s just ones of those meetings I have to put behind me and move on. I can’t ever remember a meeting where not one winner came from gate one on the night – generally the inside gate is the best but nobody wanted it tonight.
“Gollob and (Jarek) Hampel also had a bad meeting, but Hancock pulled another great ride out of the bag and has leapt well into the lead in the title, so I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Round six will be held on in Terenzano, Italy, on July 30.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER FIVE ROUNDS): 1 Greg Hancock 80, 2 Tomasz Gollob 68, 3 Chris Holder 57, 4 Jaroslaw Hampel 53, 5 Nicki Pedersen 53, 6 Jason Crump 50, 7 Emil Sayfutdinov 48, 8 Freddie Lindgren 40, 9 Kenneth Bjerre 38, 10 Andreas Jonsson 36, 11 Janusz Kolodziej 28, 12 Chris Harris 27, 13 Rune Holta 24, 14 Antonio Lindback 24, 15 Artem Laguta 10, 16 Magnus Zetterstrom 9, 17 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 18 Scott Nicholls 5, 19 Damian Balinski 4, 20 Matej Kus 3, 21 Mikkel B Jensen 2, 22 Tai Woffinden 2, 23 Simon Gustafsson 1.
FIM DOODSON BRITISH SGP SCORES: 1 Greg Hancock 20, 2 Nicki Pedersen 16, 3 Chris Holder 15, 4 Emil Sayfutdinov 13, 5 Kenneth Bjerre 11, 6 Andreas Jonsson 10, 7 Magnus Zetterstrom 9, 8 Jason Crump 8, 9 Janusz Kolodziej 7, 10 Tomasz Gollob 7, 11 Chris Harris 6, 12 Jaroslaw Hampel 5, 13 Scott Nicholls 5, 14 Freddie Lindgren 5, 15 Antonio Lindback 3, 16 Tai Woffinden 2, 17 Rune Holta 1, 18 Ben Barker 0.
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