VOL. 50 ISSUE 12 MARCH 26, 2013
Jaroslav Hampel (10) leads
Tomasz Gollob (4) and Nicki
Pedersen en route to winning
the final at the seasonopening New Zealand
Speedway Grand Prix.
GETS IT
The World Speedway
Championship kicks
off Kiwi style
Californian Greg
Hancock opened
his season with
a fourth-place
finish.
Grand Prix rounds, and when he
did return he wasn't in the best of
form.
The Leszno-born racer was
worried he may need some time
to rediscover the scoring power
that took him to second in the
world in 2010 and third in 2011.
So he was delighted to start 2013
with a bang in the land of the long
white cloud.
And that's where he starts:
Hampel is tied on 15 points with
Tomasz Gollob at the top of the
World Championship.
"I had a lot of worries in my
head because you never know
how it's going to be after a bad
season," Hampel said. "But I
tried to think positively. I worked
really well with my mental trainer
and when I started today, my
mind was very clear. I knew ev-
P95
eryone started from zero and it
was a different story this year.
"I had a good few races – not
from the beginning, but later on.
I found a good line and started
again pretty well. I jumped well in
the final and when I won, I was
really happy because I hadn't
got such a good result for such
a long time."
Hampel has made no secret of
how hard he worked over the winter to get back into peak physical
condition and he was delighted
to see his efforts bear fruit.
"I worked really, really hard,"
he said. "A long time ago, I started to prepare everything after my
bad season last year and my injuries. When I got back last year,
I didn't feel good again. But that
was at the end of the season. So
I worked hard in the wintertime
