Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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IN THE WIND P44 Sayfutdinov Wins Swedish Speedway Grand Prix R ussian racer Emil Sayfutdinov celebrated his first FIM Speed- way Grand Prix (SGP) win in six years in Hallstavik, Sweden, June 6. The Salavat-born star heads to the Monster Energy FIM Speed- way of Nations Finals at Togliatti, in Russia, July 20-21, as World Championship leader after win- ning the Norrbil Swedish Speed- way Grand Prix final ahead of Martin Vaculik, Maciej Janowski, and first-time finalist Max Fricke. Sayfutdinov had not celebrated an SGP success since topping the podium at the 2013 British SGP in Cardiff in a year that saw him mount a title charge before his hopes were dashed by injury. After a three-year absence from the series, Sayfutdinov has been battling to get back on top of the SGP rostrum since 2017. How- ever, despite achieving that aim in Hallstavik, he's not going to cel- ebrate this success for long with six riders separated by five points at the top of the standings Sayfutdinov, who is deadlocked on 47 points with Patryk Dudek and Leon Madsen at the top, said, "It feels amazing. I have been working for that for a long time— six years. When I came back to the SGP series in 2017, it was hard for me. I had my goal and a plan, but it didn't work." Slovak star Vaculik is firmly in the title hunt, as he holds fifth place on 44 points—level with Bartosz Zmar- zlik in fourth. While he was unable to take victory in Hallstavik, he was glad to pile up the points. "I am happy with the perfor- mance," Vaculik said. "I am racing well. And everything is working awesome for me. I'm very pleased with how many points I scored. That's the main goal in the Grand Prix—to score the most points possible. I did a good job. Con- grats to Emil, he was awesome today. He was very fast." Third-placed Maciej Janowski, last year's Hallstavik winner, was delighted to get back on to the SGP podium after a tough start to the season. He's been hampered by the shoulder ligament injury which kept him out of the opening round in Warsaw. "Magic," now 13th in the stand- ings on 24 points, said, "That was a very tough night, and I am out of energy, but finally we got some good points." John Hipkiss Emil Sayfutdinov returned to the top step of the Speedway Grand Prix podium for the first time in six years. Hodges Injured Prepping For Evel Live 2 Jump F MX rider Axell Hodges suf- fered a hard fall upon landing while performing a practice jump in preparation for his attempt to break the world's record for the longest motorcycle jump of 350.98 feet. Hodges was going to try and break Robbie Mad- dison's record leap on Sunday, July 7, in San Bernardino, Califor- nia, for History Channel's live TV show "Evel Live 2." Hodges hoped to flirt with the 400-foot mark, requiring him to hit the specially con- structed ramp at the San Bernardino In- ternational Airport at more than 100 miles per hour, and the violence of his crash attested to that. He broke both ankles. "I was feeling really good on my [KX450] and was reaching distances that were looking good for Sunday's event," he said on Instagram. He added, "I'm shocked I'm not in worse shape and feel extremely grateful to have been able to get up from this crash." Mark Kariya