Ward's incredible world title debut

The Australian produced a sublime third place in the 2011 Polish speedway GP, but he's still unsure whether he wants to race full-time in the 2012 championship

Australian speedway rider Darcy Ward has refused to be drawn on whether he is ready to go full-time in grand prix racing next year, despite finishing third on an incredible world championship debut in Torun, Poland on August 27.

The double world under 21 champion (standing to the right in attached photo) started his night with two third places, before exploding with one of the rides of the season to scythe under world champion Tomasz Gollob and Greg Hancock to win an epic heat 12.

Ward then ended the super-fast Jaroslaw Hampel’s unbeaten streak in heat 13, before picking up second place behind eventual meeting winner Andreas Jonsson in race 19. He got revenge on the Swede in the semi by pipping him to the chequered flag, but

Jonsson and Hampel out-gated him in the final to deny the 19-year-old a debut victory.

Ward’s only possible route into the 2012 championship is to receive a ‘permanent’ wildcard from the promoter and the FIM. But Ward has no intention of diving hastily into a competition, where financial backing and a strong back-up team can prove just as important as a rider’s ability to ride a motorbike.

He said: “It’s too early to say. I don’t really have a comment. It’s not really my decision and it’s a decision I’ll have to think a long time about. This was just a one-off meeting. These guys do 11 rounds. It takes a lot out of you.

“I do every league (Poland, Britain and Sweden) and I feel a bit tired. But I still feel okay. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes."

For now Ward is happy to celebrate his triumphant debut on the sport’s biggest stage. Even though collecting third spot was an incredible achievement, it was clear the teenager felt he could have topped the rostrum after storming into the last four.

He said: “I was hoping for a semi and then I thought I’d walk away pretty happy. But now I don’t know what to feel. I don’t know whether I’m happy. Something is going on inside of me that I’ve never felt before. It’s pretty good. I had some good heat races and beat some good guys. But I thought that if I could make it to the final, anything could happen. I got third and once I was in third, I was just holding that inside line.

“I’m pretty happy. I’m over the moon. It was a special night. When you’re on parade and they call your name, it’s pretty good. For me this was one of the best nights of my career so far.”

Ward led home Swede Antonio Lindback in the Torun final, while his two campatrtiots Jason Crump and Chris Holder were banished from proceedings after only scoring 7pts in the heats.

With three rounds to go, Crump remains fifth in the standings on 79pts, behind Hancock (117), Hampel (100), Jonsson (92) and Gollob (88). Holder is seventh on 77pts, and Ward is 17th after just the one appearance.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER EIGHT ROUNDS OF 11): 1 Greg Hancock 117, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 100, 3 Andreas Jonsson 92, 4 Tomasz Gollob 88, 5 Jason Crump 79, 6 Emil Sayfutdinov 79, 7 Chris Holder 77, 8 Kenneth Bjerre 72, 9 Nicki Pedersen 65, 10 Fredrik Lindgren 60, 11 Antonio Lindback 60, 12 Chris Harris 43, 13 Rune Holta 41, 14 Janusz Kolodziej 39, 15 Magnus Zetterstrom 19, 16 Thomas H. Jonasson 17, 17 Darcy Ward 15, 18 Artem Laguta 12, 19 Matej Zagar 9, 20 Scott Nicholls 5, 21 Damian Balinski 4, 22 Matej Kus 3, 23 Mikkel B Jensen 2, 24 Tai Woffinden 2, 25 Simon Gustafsson 1.

TORUN SGP OF POLAND SCORES: 1 Andreas Jonsson 20, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 18, 3 Darcy Ward 15, 4 Antonio Lindback 12, 5 Greg Hancock 13, 6 Tomasz Gollob 12, 7 Rune Holta 8, 8 Magnus Zetterstrom 7, 9 Chris Holder 7, 10 Jason Crump 7, 11 Emil Sayfutdinov 7, 12 Nicki Pedersen 6, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 6, 14 Freddie Lindgren 5, 15 Artem Laguta 1, 16 Chris Harris 0, 17 Piotr Pawlicki DNR, 18 Emil Pulczynski DNR.

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Ward's incredible world title debut

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