Adams Profits from Pedersen Collision

by Alex Holowczak

Leigh Adams took advantage of a mistake from Nicki Pedersen to win tonight's Speedway Grand Prix of Scandinavia.

It started off perfectly again for Pedersen, who won all five heats to qualify for the Semi Finals with 15/15. Going into the race, he led Adams by a huge 27 points - more than a race worth of insurance - and Adams could only muster 10 points from his opening 5 rides, advancing him to the Semi Finals nonetheless.

After a dreadful performance two weeks ago in the Czech Republic, Tomasz Gollob recovered from scoring just 1 point to score 13 tonight to put him second going into the Semi Finals. Wieslaw Jagus continued his form by advancing, as did Scott Nicholls, making his second Semi Final in a fortnight. Wildcard Fredrik Lindgren continued his impressive rides, making the Semis; Lindgren looks destined to be elected to join Speedway Grands Prix full-time in 2008.

He will probably join at Antonio Lindback's expense, who again could only score 3 points, and is ranked bottom of the 15 regular drivers in the championship. Reserve drivers Peter Karlsson and Kai Laukkenen - the first Finn in Speedway Grand Prix - did themselves justice scoring 5 and 2 points respectively.

Chris Harris, the winner in Great Britain, failed to make the Semi Finals, as did 1997 World Champion, Greg Hancock. Andreas Jonsson and Jaroslaw Hampel both missed the meeting with injuries, to make the race for the automatic top 8 for 2008 close.

In the Semi Finals, Lindgren was attempting an overtake on Pedersen, but they collided. Lindgren was excluded. In the rerun, Pedersen was not himself and came home third, allowing Hans Andersen and Jason Crump into the Final. Semi Number 2 saw Leigh Adams win to advance along with Tomasz Gollob. Scott Nicholls surprised Wieslaw Jagus in pipping him for third.

The Final pitted Gollob, a fan favourite and veteran of 10 Grands Prix wins, against Adams, second in the championship once again, going for his second win of the season, as well as Hans Andersen, the Danish captain, and defending and double World Champion, Jason Crump. Adams was boosted by the failure of Pedersen, and took full control of the Final in his best race of the night to take the double points on offer. Gollob came second, his first podium of the season. Crump claimed third, with Andersen unable to add to his total.

Here is the scoreboard from the evening:

Results

1. Gollob, Crump, Lindgren, Zagar
2. Andersen, Adams, Nicholls, B Pedersen
3. N Pedersen, Laukkanen, Lindback, Holta
4. Karlsson, Jagus, Hancock, Harris
5. Adams, Lindback, Karlsson, Zagar
6. Jagus, Crump, Nicholls, Holta
7. Gollob, Hancock, B Pedersen, Laukkanen
8. N Pedersen, Harris, Andersen, Lindgren
9. Harris, Zagar, Nicholls, Laukkanen
10. N Pedersen, Adams, Crump, Hancock
11. Jagus, Gollob, Andersen, Lindback
12. Lindgren, B Pedersen, Holta, Karlsson
13. N Pedersen, B Pedersen, Jagus, Zagar
14. Andersen, Crump, Karlsson, Laukkanen
15. Gollob, Adams, Holta, Harris
16. Nicholls, Hancock, Lindgren, Lindback
17. Holta, Andersen, Zagar, Hancock
18. Crump, B Pedersen, Harris, Lindback
19. N Pedersen, Gollob, Nicholls, Karlsson
20. Jagus, Lindgren, Adams, Laukkanen

    Semi Finals

21. Crump, Andersen, N Pedersen, Lindgren (X)
22. Adams, Gollob, Nicholls, Jagus

    Final

23. Adams, Gollob, Crump, Andersen

Table

Pos	Rider	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	Pts
1	Leigh Adams		2			3					2					2					1		3	6	19
2	Tomasz Gollob	3						3				2				3				2			2	4	19
3	Jason Crump	2					2				1				2				3			3		2	15
4	Hans Andersen		3						1			1			3			2				2		0	12
5	Nicki Pedersen			3					3		3			3						3		1			16
6	Wieslaw Jagus				2		3					3		1							3		0		12
7	Scott Nicholls		1				1			1							3			1			1		8
8	Fredrik Lindgren	1							0				3				1				2	x			7
9	Bjarne Pedersen		0					1					2	2					2						7
10	Chris Harris				0				2	3						0			1						6
11	Rune Holta			0			0						1			1		3							5
12	Peter Karlsson				3	1							0		1					0					5
13	Greg Hancock				1			2			0						2	0							5
14	Antonio Lindback			1		2						0					0		0						3
15	Matej Zagar	0				0				2				0				1							3
16	Kai Laukkanen			2				0		0					0						0				2

• e: retired or mechanical failure
• m: exclusion for exceeding two minute time allowance
• t: exclusion for touching the tapes
• x: other exclusion
• f: fell
• ns: non-starter
• nc: non-classify
• Semi-finals:
  • Heat 21: Riders placed 1st, 4th, 6th & 7th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
    
  • Heat 22: Riders placed 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 8th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
    
• Big Final (heat 23): The first and second placed riders in each of the Semi-Finals

In the World Championship, Pedersen's lead has been trimmed to 24 points, still well ahead of the field, and still a whole race ahead of Adams. Crump has risen to fourth ahead of Hancock.

The battle for the top 8 intensified in the absence of Hampel and Jonsson, with Gollob, Nicholls and Jagus all improving their positions.

Lindgren is only four points behind Lindback, and the two look likely to switch in 2008, as Lindgren has done his in two wildcard appearances, compared to Lindback, in seven full Grands Prix.

Races

Date	Grand Prix	City	Stadium	Winner	Report
April 28	Italy	Lonigo	Santa Marina Stadium	Nicki Pedersen	Report
May 12	Europe	Wroclaw	Olimpic Stadium	Nicki Pedersen	Report
May 26	Sweden	Eskilstuna	Smedstadion	Leigh Adams	Report
June 9	Denmark	Copenhagen	Parken Stadium	Andreas Jonsson	Report
June 30	Great Britain	Cardiff	Millennium Stadium	Chris Harris	Report
July 28	Czech Republic	Prague	Marketa Stadium	Nicki Pedersen	Report
August 11	Template:Country data Nordic Scandinavia	Malilla	G&B Stadium	Leigh Adams	Report
August 25	Latvia	Daugavpils	Spidveja Stadium		Report
September 8	Poland	Bydgoszcz	Polonia Stadium		Report
September 22	Slovenia	Krsko	Matija Gubca Stadium		Report
October 13	Germany	Gelsenkirchen	Veltins-Arena		Report

Standings

Pos	Rider							Template:Country data Nordic					Points
1	Nicki Pedersen	24	23	11	16	12	24	16					126
2	Leigh Adams	12	10	21	18	14	8	19					102
3	Hans Andersen	9	13	20	12	13	8	12					87
4	Jason Crump	12	13	4	9	15	12	15					80
5	Greg Hancock	19	15	9	7	17	6	5					78
6	Chris Harris	7	15	9	5	20	5	6					67
7	Tomasz Gollob	10	3	9	11	3	1	19					56
8	Wieslaw Jagus	14	6	6	3	0	9	12					50
9	Scott Nicholls	4	6	4	7	9	12	8					50
10	Jaroslaw Hampel	8	6	5	7	8	16						49
11	Rune Holta	2	6	9	5	5	16	5					48
12	Andreas Jonsson	7	5	5	16	5	7						45
13	Bjarne Pedersen	5	8	3	5	7	6	7					41
14	Matej Zagar	5	7	7	1	5	8	3					36
15	Antonio Lindback	3	0	3	9	7	0	3					25
16	Fredrik Lindgren			14				7					21
17	Kenneth Bjerre				10								10
18	Sebastien Ulamek		6										6
19	Jonas Davidsson			5									5
20	Peter Karlsson							5					5
21	David Howe					4							4
22	Lubos Tomicek						4						4
23	Josef Franc						3						3
24	Mattia Carpenese	2											2
25	Morten Risager				2								2
26	Kai Laukkanen							2					2
27	Tomasz Gapinski		1										1
28	Daniele Tessari	0											0
29	Jesper B Jensen				0								0
30	Christian Miotello	0											0
31	Erik Andersson			0									0
32	Matej Kus						0						0
	Edward Kennett					ns
	Tomasz Jedrzejak					ns
	Daniel King		ns

Bold names denote regular Speedway Grand Prix riders - all others are either wildcards, or track reserves.
Bold scores denote that the rider won that particular Grand Prix.

The top 8 riders automatically qualify for the 2008 Speedway Grand Prix season.

Next Race

The Speedway Grand Prix of Latvia will host Round 8, a race won in 2007 by Greg Hancock, the American rider. The favourites will have to be Pedersen and Adams, however. Jason Crump is finding form at last however. The wildcards shouldn't pose too much threat to the established guard in this race. It will be interesting to see if Hampel and Jonsson can return for that Grand Prix, so they do not lose gound on their top 8 riders. Although it looks like both will be chosen to reenter in 2008 anyway, with Jonsson winning earlier in the season in Denmark.