Perfect Pedersen in Czech Republic

by Alex Holowczak

Tonight, the Marketa Stadium in Prague saw the 2007 Speedway Grand Prix of Czech Republic, four weeks after Chris Harris won the British Grand Prix.

Nicki Pedersen was 11 points clear going into this race in the Championship standings. Here is a heat-by-heat run down of what happened.

1. Bjarne Pedersen won to give himself the perfect start - the home crowd were delighted as the wildcard, home rider, Lubos Tomicek came second for two points. Antonio Lindback's poor form continued as he came last.
2. Brilliant heat on paper that Nicki Pedersen won at a canter, Harris came second. American Greg Hancock came fourth.
3. Matej Zagar of Slovenia won a tight heat, beating favourite Leigh Adams.
4. Andreas Jonsson of Sweden took a surprise win ahead of Dane Hans Andersen and Aussie Jason Crump - the defending World Champion riding with a broken kneecap.
5. Scott Nicholls of Britain won from Crump, Bjarne Pedersen, and fellow Brit Chris Harris - a surprise result.
6. Zagar continued his perfect start, beating Hancock into second place. Gollob came last for his second heat in a row.
7. Nicki Pedersen made it 6/6. Jaroslaw Hampel only on 1 point after his two heats to this point.
8. Wieslaw Jagus won for Poland, again pipping Adams, and Hans Andersen. Lindback still rooted to the back.
9. Rune Holta won for the first time, beating Andersen into second place. Hancock was third.
10. Jonsson took his second win in his best start to a Grand Prix in 2007, Adams could only settle for two points in second place again. Harris in trouble as he could only come third.
11. Hampel took the win, ahead of Nicholls who was doing well for the Brits.
12. Nicki Pedersen beat Crump into second. Lindback last again!
13. Nicki Pedersen won in successive heats, this time beating championship rival Leigh Adams into second place. Gollob finally scored a point.
14. Crump won ahead of Holta, both of whom looked set for a Semi Final birth.
15. Hampel won to move into Semi Final contention, Anderson struggling and Harris in third almost certainly out.
16. Nicholls took another shock win, ahead of Hancock. Jonsson was excluded and injured himself - and unable to take part in the rest of the Grand Prix. Lindback retired from the Grand Prix citing injury, allowing a track reserve - another Czech - Josef Franc - to come into the race.
17. Jagus won to clinch a Semi Final place. Third place for Zagar put him through.
18. Nicki Pedersen made it 5 wins out of 5 and a maximum 15 points, finishing ahead of Nicholls. Andersen could only finish third, and was eliminated at the expense of the Brit.
19. Hampel won his third in a row to make the Semis, Crump followed him home to advance too. Hancock's third place eliminated him. Adams fourth place lost him a lot of ground in the championship on Pedersen, but he squeaked through to the Semi Finals.
20. Holta won to rubber stamp his Semi Final birth, Franc came second to send the home crowd home happy later in the evening. Harris was eliminated with his third place. Gollob finished a miserable night in last place.
21. Semi Final 1 - Nicki Pedersen won from Scott Nicholls to advance to the Final. Jagus and Zagar were eliminated.
22. Semi Final 2 - The two Aussies Crump and Adams were both eliminated at the expense of their Polish opponents, and Holta and Hampel advanced to the Final.
23. Final - Pedersen won to finish on 24 points for the evening, a perfect score. Hampel came second, Holta third, and the fairy tail from Nicholls ended with him in fourth place, a great follow up for Britain to Harris win.

Results

The tabulated results.

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	Nicki Pedersen		3					3					3	3					3			3		6	24
2	Jaroslaw Hampel	1						0				3				3				3			2	4	16
3	Rune Holta			1				2		3					2						3		3	2	16
4	Scott Nicholls			0		3						2					3		2			2		0	12
5	Jason Crump				1	2							2		3					2			1		11
6	Wieslaw Jagus		1						3			1			0			3				1			9
7	Matej Zagar			3			3						1			0		1				0			8
8	Leigh Adams			2					2		2			2						0			0		8
9	Hans Andersen				2				1	2						2			1						8
10	Andreas Jonsson				3			1			3						x	ns							7
11	Bjarne Pedersen	3				1				0				0				2							6
12	Greg Hancock		0				2			1							2			1					6
13	Chris Harris		2			0					1					1					1				5
14	Lubos Tomicek	2					1				0				1				0						4
15	Josef Franc																1				2				3
16	Tomasz Gollob				0		0					0		1							0				1
17	Antonio Lindback	0							0				0				ns				ns				0
18	Matej Kus																	0							0

• 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

Current World Championship Standings

Pedersen extends his lead to 27 points over Adams, who had a dreadful evening. The tie for third is broken, with Andersen moving two points ahead of Hancock. Crump overtakes Harris for fifth place. In the battle to get into the top 8, 7th downwards is still tightly grouped. Hampel jumps up from 11 to 7. Gollob falls from 8 to 12 with his poor showing. Holta and Nicholls both gain places. Zagar improved his form, if not his position. Lindback looks outclassed, and seems unlikely to stay in Grand Prix in 2008.

Pos	Rider							Template:Country data Nordic					Points
1	Nicki Pedersen	24	23	11	16	12	24						110
2	Leigh Adams	12	10	21	18	14	8						83
3	Hans Andersen	9	13	20	12	13	8						75
4	Greg Hancock	19	15	9	7	17	6						73
5	Jason Crump	12	13	4	9	15	12						65
6	Chris Harris	7	15	9	5	20	5						61
7	Jaroslaw Hampel	8	6	5	7	8	16						49
8	Andreas Jonsson	7	5	5	16	5	7						45
9	Rune Holta	2	6	9	5	5	16						43
10	Scott Nicholls	4	6	4	7	9	12						42
11	Wieslaw Jagus	14	6	6	3	0	9						38
12	Tomasz Gollob	10	3	9	11	3	1						37
13	Bjarne Pedersen	5	8	3	5	7	6						34
14	Matej Zagar	5	7	7	1	5	8						33
15	Antonio Lindback	3	0	3	9	7	0						22
16	Fredrik Lindgren			14									14
17	Kenneth Bjerre				10								10
18	Sebastien Ulamek		6										6
19	Jonas Davidsson			5									5
20	David Howe					4							4
21	Lubos Tomicek						4						4
22	Josef Franc						3						3
23	Mattia Carpenese	2											2
24	Morten Risager				2								2
25	Tomasz Gapinski		1										1
26	Daniele Tessari	0											0
27	Jesper B Jensen				0								0
28	Christian Miotello	0											0
29	Jonas Davidsson			0									0
30	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.

Alex HolowczakHall of Famer

854 days ago

Score 0

I did all that in a little over an hour. I'm delighted!

Nicholls rode excellently tonight - he really came through on a night when I expected more of Harris. But Pedersen was dominant and in my opinion ought to become World Champion from here. He has an entire Grand Prix in his pocket already. I'm surprised at Gollob though - I thought he'd do better.

Lindback should be switched with Lindgren in 2008. Lindgren rides as the wildcard in the Scandinavian race next up in two weeks - another good showing will cement his ride next season.

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ChristofMVP

854 days ago

Score 1

Nice to see an American in the top 5!

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