World Cup - Event Three report

[Peter 0]

In the third and final group meeting of the speedway world cup in Holsted, a determined Polish squad fought back from an early deficit to beat the more fancied Sweden and join Denmark and Australia as automatic qualifiers for Saturday's grand final.

 

The now familiar patters of the preceding meetings was repeated as the “big guns” slugged it out wheel-to-wheel with the lessor nations scrapping around for any points they could find. On Tuesday evening it was the turn of the Hungarians to be totally outclassed but a strong performance over the latter part of the meeting saw the Russians finish on 28 points and qualify for the race-off on Thursday by virtue of a higher world ranking than Slovenia who also scored 28 last night.

 

Right from the off Sweden showed why they were rated as odds-on shots by the bookmaking fraternity to win this meeting. Five time world champion won two of the first seven races with Andreas Jonsson, Peter Karlsson and David Ruud also enjoying a heat win to leave their country holding a three point lead over Poland and looking strong.

 

Further wins by Jonsson and Karlsson in heats nine and ten pushed that lead out to four approaching the half way point as the Poles then got in to gear and launched a superb recovery.

 

Piotr Protasiewicz, Jarek Hampel, Tomasz Gollob and Tomasz Bajerski slammed in four straight Polish wins to put them a point ahead after Ruud could do no better than third in heat fourteen. Rickardsson then blazed away to his third win of the night to level the score after heat fifteen then Jonsson raced away with heat sixteen to push the Swedes back in front as the lead changed hands again only for Sebastian Ulamek to take heat seventeen from Karlsson and square it off.

 

Russia, chasing a target of 28 points minimum to make the second chance race-off, were in with a fighting chance of doing just that and elected to play their “tactical joker” in heat seventeen where Sergei Darkin's points would count double. Seeing as he'd finished last in the preceding race it seemed something of a gamble.

 

But he showed great composure and improved form to see off Protasiewicz with Ruud at the rear for Sweden the momentum changed yet again with the Poles holding a two point lead while Darkin's half dozen put the Russians in sight of another go on Thursday.

 

Hampel, looking as stylish as they come, helped himself to a personal fourth win of the evening in heat nineteen leaving Rickardsson behind him then Gollob was first home in the next – incredibly trying to team-ride with Russia's Roman Povazhny in an attempt to block out Mikael Max – to give his country a four point advantage which looked like being enough.

 

Or was it? Karlsson took heat twenty-one to become the first Swedish winner since heat sixteen and with Hampel only able to manage third – his first defeat – a two point swing in favour of the Swedes made it sweaty palm time. Who would hold their nerve the best over the remaining three heats was the big question.

 

That was quickly answered. Gollob always controlled heat twenty-two from the front but with Ruud unable to find a way through from the back the Poles went five up. Even so, they were not safe as if they went six ahead then the Swedes would have a “hail Mary” chance on the last heat with a tactical joker and would need to hope the Polish representative met misfortune.

 

Rickardsson did win the penultimate race but knowing that second place was enough, Bajerski didn't put in too much of a challenge and instead secured the second place that sent to Poles to Vojens and the Swedes to a confrontation with Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Finland and Russia after Povazhny's third place gave them the magic number of 28.

 

And then a little drama to conclude matters. Csaba Hell hit a rut on turn one of heat twenty-five and shot in to Jonsson sending both flying and Hell in to an exclusion. Three rider lined up for the re-start. Jonsson was chasing Protasiewicz with the Russian Gafurov chasing him. This time, Gafurov found a rut which shot his front wheel in to the air and left him not choice but to t-bone the doubly unlucky Jonsson. Fortunately no injuries but now just two riders – Jonsson and Protasiewicz – would contest another re-run.

 

Protasiewicz held a winning lead from Jonsson but then became the third rider in the same overall heat to find trouble getting way out of shape and baling out leaving Jonsson to ride round alone for his three points.

 

HUNGARY: 9

Zoltan Adorjan 0

Norbert Magosi 7

Sandor Tihanyi 2

Szabolcs Vida 0

Csaba Hell 0

 

SWEDEN: 56

Tony Rickardsson 14

Mikael Max 9

Andreas Jonsson 14

Peter Karlsson 13

David Ruud 6

 

RUSSIA: 28

Sergei Darkin 9

Renat Gafurov 4

Semen Vlasov 6

Roman Povazhny 7

Denis Gizatulin 2

 

POLAND: 58

Tomasz Gollob 13

Tomasz Bajerski 12

Sebastian Ulamek 11

Piotr Protasiwicz 9

Jarek Hampel 13

 

Heat Details....................................................Hu Sw Ru Po

1: T Rickardsson, T Gollob, S Darkin, Z Adorjan 0: 3: 1: 2:

2: T Bajerski, N Magosi, M Max, R Gafurov 2: 4: 1: 5:

3: A Jonsson, S Ulamek, S Vlasov, S Tihanyi 2: 7: 2: 7:

4: P Karlsson, P Protasiewicz, R Povazhny, S Vida 2: 10: 3: 9:

5: J Hampel, D Ruud, D Gizatulin, C Hell 2: 12: 4: 12:

6: D Ruud, R Povazhny, S Ulamek, Z Adorjan 2: 15: 6: 13:

7: T Rickardsson, P Protasiewicz, N Magosi, D Gizatulin 3: 18: 6: 15:

8: J Hampel, M Max, S Tihanyi, S Darkin 4: 20: 6: 18:

9: A Jonsson, T Gollob, R Gafurov, S Vida 4: 23: 7: 20:

10: P Karlsson, T Bajerski, S Vlasov, C Hell 4: 26: 8: 22:

11: P Protasiewicz, M Max, S Vlasov, Z Adorjan 4: 28: 9: 25:

12: J Hampel, A Jonsson, R Povazhny, N Magosi 4: 30: 10: 28:

13: T Gollob, P Karlsson, D Gizatulin, S Tihanyi 4: 32: 11: 31:

14: T Bajerski, S Darkin, D Ruud, S Vida 4: 33: 13: 34:

15: T Rickardsson, S Ulamek, R Gafurov, C Hell 4: 36: 14: 36:

16: A Jonsson, T Bajerski, Povashny, Z Adorjan 4: 39: 15: 38:

17: S Ulamek, P Karlsson, N Magosi, S Darkin 5: 41: 15: 41:

18: Darkin (TJ), P Protasiewicz, S Tihanyi, D Ruud ® 6: 41: 21: 43:

19: J Hampel, T Rickardsson, S Vlasov, Tihanyi 6: 43: 22: 46:

20: T Gollob, M Max, R Povazhny, C Hell 6: 45: 23: 49:

21: P Karlsson, R Gafurov, J Hampel, Z Adorjan 6: 48: 25: 50:

22: T Gollob, S Vlasov, N Magosi, D Ruud 7: 48: 27: 53:

23: T Rickardsson, T Bajerski, R Povazhny, S Tihanyi 7: 51: 28: 55:

24: S Ulamek, M Max, Magosi (TJ), Gizatulin 9: 53: 28: 58:

25: A Jonsson, C Hell (X), Gafurov (X), P Protasiewicz (X) 9: 56: 28: 58: