Woffinden wins 2018 SGP series

Briton Tai Woffinden became the nation’s first ever triple world speedway champion in Poland on October 6 – and has now set his sights on matching the late Ivan Mauger and Tony Rickardsson’s record haul of six.

The Scunthorpe-born ace – who then grew up in Perth and started his speedway career in Western Australia – didn’t just win the 2018 Speedway World Championship at the final round in Poland; he topped the podium ahead of Russians Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov and Dane Niels-Kristian Iversen.

Woffinden, who also took gold in 2013 and 2015, was elated to make history and surpass fellow countrymen Freddie Williams and Peter Craven’s brace of world titles.

But now he’s ready to race for even more history as he bids to become only the third rider to retain the sport’s biggest prize in the SGP era since 1995.

He said: “After I won my 2013 championship, I was in a room with Nicki (Pedersen), Crumpy (Jason Crump), Greg (Hancock) and (Chris) Holder and I mentioned that I wanted to break the six-time world champion record.

“They all kind of had a little laugh between them. But I’ve done it three times in six years and I will do it six times.”

Woffinden added: “They say the hardest thing is being world champion – it’s not. The hardest thing is being world champion the following year.

“When you have that target on your back, it’s tough. I’ve had a few cracks at trying to win it back to back and now I have a third time. Hopefully it is third time lucky. I’ll put the work in and make sure I can give it my best shot next year.”

Woffinden won the championship on 139pts ahead of Bartosz Zmarzlik (129) and Fredrik Lindgren (109).

The three are automatic qualifiers for the 2019 world title, alongside Maciej Janowski, Greg Hancock, Artem Laguta, Aussie Jason Doyle and Sayfutdinov.

Those eight riders will joined by GP Challenge top trio Janusz Kolodziej, Iversen and Antonio Lindback, plus four wildcards: Patryk Dudek, Matej Zagar, Martin Vaculik and Leon Madsen.

That leaves Aussie Chris Holder out in the cold after nine consecutive years as a Speedway Grand Prix rider, which included a world title in 2012.

Holder finished 12th in the 2018 championship.

FINAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 139, 2 Bartosz Zmarzlik 129, 3 Fredrik Lindgren 109, 4 Maciej Janowski 104, 5 Greg Hancock 102, 6 Artem Laguta 97, 7 Jason Doyle 93, 8 Emil Sayfutdinov 89, 9 Patryk Dudek 84, 10 Matej Zagar 79, 11 Nicki Pedersen 74, 12 Chris Holder 65, 13 Martin Vaculik 52, 14 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 36, 15 Niels-Kristian Iversen 36, 16 Craig Cook 30, 17 Vaclav Milik 11, 18 Szymon Wozniak 8, 19 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7, 20 Andreas Jonsson 7, 21 Peter Ljung 5, 22 Michael Jepsen Jensen 4, 23 Oliver Berntzon 3, 24 Kevin Wolbert 3, 25 Kai Huckenbeck 2, 26 Daniel Kaczmarek 2, 27 Maksym Drabik 2, 28 Bartosz Smektala 2, 29 Mikkel Michelsen 1, 30 Robert Lambert 1, 31 Joel Kling 1, 32 Martin Smolinski 1.

TORUN SGP OF POLAND SCORES: 1 Tai Woffinden 15, 2 Artem Laguta 20, 3 Emil Sayfutdinov 11, 4 Niels-Kristian Iversen 10, 5 Bartosz Zmarzlik 15, 6 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 7 Greg Hancock 9, 8 Martin Vaculik 8, 9 Jason Doyle 7, 10 Nicki Pedersen 7, 11 Matej Zagar 6, 12 Maciej Janowski 6, 13 Chris Holder 5, 14 Vaclav Milik 5, 15 Daniel Kaczmarek 2, 16 Przemyslaw Pawlicki 1, 17 Igor Kopec-Sobczynski 0, 18 Dominik Kubera DNR.