Peter 0 Posted August 4, 2003 Defending champions Australia automatically qualified for Sunday's speedway world cup final after just edging out Great Britain in Outrup. In a classic two horse race, Australia stretched out to a seven point lead only for the tide of fortune to dramatically turn Britain's way and set up a high tension finale. Matej Zagar got the Slovenians off to a flyer with a big win in heat one from Scott Nicholls with Todd Wiltshire third and Italian Maida some way back. Lee Richardson raced away with the second from Sullivan was the Aussie's first heat winner in the third and David Norris kept up Team GB's fine start with a second after leading Adams for three laps. Gary Havelock pumped himself up to jet away from Jason Crump and looked on for a shock win until he dropped back with a troublesome throttle but had enough in hand to hold on to second place. GB and Australia had already opened up a small chink of daylight between themselves and Slovenia with the Italians, as Germany were yesterday, seriously outclassed. Jason Lyons outpaced Dean Barker in heat five to emphasise the trend that Australia and Great Britain would be fighting it out for the win and the Slovenian target being to exceed the Finnish score of yesterday and qualify for the race-off on Thursday. An Australian won the next three heats from a Brit and the sequence wasn't broken until heat nine when Lee Richardson sped up the inside of Todd Wiltshire to take the lead and win. Norris then raised his game and chipped another point back with a fine win over Sullivan in heat ten as the Brits refused to give in to the more fancied Australians who lead by just two points from Team GB on a total of 25. It remained a two point gap after the next series of races, two won by an Australian and two by a Brit whose fighting spirit was typified by Barker's chase and pass of Wiltshire in heat thirteen. Adams then outpaced Richardson to win heat fifteen and give the Australians a three point lead at the interval stage after which nine heats would be left to race and the tactical permutations assumed a greater importance. If The Brits went six or more points behind they had the option of nominating a rider to score double points in just one race which would obviously close any gap significantly. But the Aussies will have been well aware of that and probably not wanting to get in to that situation. Zagar popped out to take heat sixteen to repeat his heat one success but with Sullivan second the Australians nosed a further point in front. And that lead became five points after heat seventeen in which the smooth Adams helped himself to his fourth win of the evening. Crump roared around early leader Richardson in heat eighteen to put the Aussies six ahead, blow any “tactical” second place ploys out of the water and open up a potential recovery route for Great Britain. Lyons beat Norris in heat nineteen to push it out to a seven point lead. Then with races running out Team GB manager Neil Middleditch played his remaining card putting his faith in Lee Richardson to score double points. And how things changed after a heat of high drama. Zagar, also racing for double points as Slovenia attempted to exceed Finland's score from yesterday, lead narrowly from Wiltshire entering the back straight. Richardson cruised up the inside of both to take the lead. Wiltshire threaded a way past Zagar and gave chase to Richardson as the two went wheel-to-wheel. Wiltshire put in a big inside challenge late on only to unluckily hit a rut and throw a chain. A huge slice of British luck as Richardson's six points coupled with Wiltshire's misfortune meant a six point chunk taken out of Australia's lead which at a stroke had become just a single point. All square after heat twenty-one when Richardson became the first to defeat Lyons. Momentum firmly with the Brits with just five heats to go – still room for a few more twists of fate perhaps. Not in heat twenty-two when Norris came good again to defeat Wiltshire and put Team GB ahead for the first time and on course for an automatic route to Sunday's final if they could hold on to it over the last three heats. Sullivan swept around Havelock to record his first win of the meeting at a crucial point to level it all up again with now just two races to go as the tension mounted to almost unbearable levels. Another win from Leigh Adams in the penultimate heat over Barker put the Aussies back in front by a point going in to the final race. Crump would go for Australia and Nicholls for Great Britain. If Crump won, Australia would go through. If Nicholls won and Crump came second it would mean an all-or-nothing race off to decide which team would be off to Vojens. Crump got the marginally better start, held off a stiff early challenge from Nicholls before pulling out a comfortable winning margin to complete his own maximum and send his country, defending champions, to the final and sentence Great Britain to Thursday's race-off where they must finish in the top two to gain the opportunity of another crack at the Aussies. Slovenia – for whom Zagar was their only real scorer and the only man to win a race bar a Brit and an Aussie – fell short of their target of 33 points and finished the night on 28. The Italians – only racing due the American withdrawal – mustered six points. But on an evening where fortunes were influenced by just a few links of chain, the heavy odds-on favourites had the power at the death with big guns Crump and Adams but team GB can hold their heads high and on form shown this evening can prevail on Thursday and set up a renewal come Sunday. Poland, Sweden, Russia and Hungary contest the remaining group qualifier in Holstead on Tuesday evening. Speedway World Cup, qualifier event two, Outrup: Australia 62 Todd Wiltshire 7, Ryan Sullivan 11, Leigh Adams 15, Jason Crump 15, Jason Lyons 14 Great Britain 60 Scott Nicholls 11, Lee Richardson 19, David Norris 12, Gary Havelock 8, Dean Barker 10 Slovenia 28 Matej Zagar 13, Izak Santej 4, Jernej Kolenko 5, Ales Dolinar 4, Denis Stojs 2 Italy 6 Andrea Maida 2, Simone Terenzani 0, Cristian Miotello 3, Daniele Tessari 0 Simone Muratelli 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
poona 0 Posted August 4, 2003 Top report Peter, would have been a top meet to see. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BTL 0 Posted August 4, 2003 Top report Peter, would have been a top meet to see. I agree brill report Peter, look forward to watching it on SKY tomorrow morning (or should I say this morning)! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Peter 0 Posted August 4, 2003 Thanks for the kind words, but being the honest person I am, I copy and pasted the report from the speedway section of www.crash.net !! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ozyace 0 Posted August 5, 2003 WOW! What a fantastic website that is. Thanks Peter Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tick Tock Man 0 Posted August 7, 2003 Has anybody got the heat results for this match? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shazzybird 10 Posted August 7, 2003 I've been on the crash site hour and a half now it's excellent some really good photos in there even if they are mostly Arena Essex Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Sir Lunchalot Posted August 7, 2003 Crash net have had a revamp of their site for the better I see. They used to only let you see thumbnails of the pictures they have on their site and if you wanted to see the larger version you had to pay for the privelege. They are also the masters of "rewriting" other peoples match reports to embellish them and jazz them up so that it seems that the crash net reporter was actually at the meeting. I have to hand it to them, they do a very professional job of things too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
