World speedway: Holder second in Poland

Australia’s Chris Holder has produced a brilliant performance in the Polish round of the 2013 Speedway World Championship in Gorzow, scoring with 14pts on the night alongside his eventual conqueror in the final, local star Jaroslaw Hampel.

Hampel stormed past world champion Holder on lap one, and promptly pulled clear to take the chequered flag – his first in Poland -- ahead of the Sydneysider and Briton Tai Woffinden, who produced a miraculous performance to achieve third just 12 days after undergoing surgery to plate and screw the collarbone he shattered at the British round in Cardiff on June 1.

It was also Hampel’s second win of the season. He said: “It was my first Grand Prix win in Poland and what can I say? It was an amazing feeling. We had thousands of people in the stadium and the crowd was really wild when I started in the final.

“When I got in front, I felt all the people stand up around me and that was really cool.”

Hampel started the night with just 1pt from his opening two rides. But he scored seven in his next three heats to edge into the semis on a countback with 8pts

Holder was gutted to be passed in the final for the second time this season after Russian Emil Sayfutdinov relieved him of first place in Gothenburg on May 4. But he was content with the silver medal.

“I didn’t realise I rode such a good first corner in the final, but I made a little mistake,” said Holder. “If you make half a mistake you get passed really easily. I stuffed up and Jarek was there, he passed me and took off. I didn’t have the pace to catch him. He was gone. But I’m happy with second. It feels good to be on the podium.

“Gorzow is a tricky track and I was having a tough time getting around it, but my mechanics were awesome. They got the bike working a lot better for me and towards the end it was a bit better to get around. I was a bit faster.”

Emil Sayfutdinov, who scored a round-high 15pts in Gorzow, leads the title on 84pts, ahead of Woffinden (73), Holder (68), Hampel (66) and Nicki Pedersen (64).

Next up is the Danish Grand Prix in Copenhagen’s PARKEN stadium on June 29 before the 2013 Speedway World Cup kicks off in mid-July.

GORZOW SGP POINTS: 1 Jaroslaw Hampel 14, 2 Chris Holder 14, 3 Tai Woffinden 12, 4 Greg Hancock 12, 5 Emil Sayfutdinov 15, 6 Niels-Kristian Iversen 11, 7 Krzysztof Kasprzak 10, 8 Andreas Jonsson 9, 9 Nicki Pedersen 8, 10 Fredrik Lindgren 7, 11 Matej Zagar 7, 12 Bartosz Zmarzlik 6, 13 Martin Vaculik 4, 14 Tomasz Gollob 4, 15 Antonio Lindback 3, 16 Ales Dryml 2, 17 Adrian Cyfer DNR, 18 Lukasz Cyran DNR.