Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

the D Final, one that was to keep him in the series. ielsen's preparations for the C Final had to be hastened. The ultra-professional is more acclimated to watching the minor finals from the pits. But he had to go to the tapes twice as Crump's innocuous fall caused a rerun. ielsen his reserve mount seconds before his opening ride when a coil wire came adrift. . Hamill came out in heat eight and produced a vital victory over Chris Louis and then trailed his teammate Hancock in heat nine. Both Team Exide riders missed out on all the action behind them as the previously unbeaten Gollob came under challenge by Smith, the latter launching a surprise attack on the third lap. Gollob managed to regain third place as the meeting stepped up a gear. Leigh Adams impressively won heat 10, and Rickardsson had to rely on a second-lap mistake by Karlsson to enable him to stay on level terms with Hamill. But Gustafsson maintained a healthy points advantage by comfortably winning heat 11 from Mark Loram, while Crump collected what was to be his last point of the meeting when he beat the still-pointless Cox. Drama in the pre-interval heat occured when backmarker Louis took a fallon the first bend turn, and after a momentary roU on the track and a quick checkover by the medical crew, was able to walk back to the pits - excluded. In the rerun Nielsen had a small advantage over ErmoJenko, but the American homed in on the last turn of the opening lap. Unfortunately for Ermolenko, he just dipped the wheel of Nielsen and landed in the fence. After a quick dust-down, he also walked back to the pits, leaving Nielsen and Boyce to battle it out head to head. Nielsen erred on the back straight, but it went unpunished and he coasted to his first win of the meeting but he still had a lot to do. . Hancock became the first to double figures with a heat-13 victory while Boyce, still desperate for points,.managed to double his tally with a second place over Karlsson and Cox. Nielsen's nightmare continued as he had to endure a battle with fighter Loram. Having seemingly done enough to collect a point, Nielsen had nothing left, nor any distance in which to do it, once Loram had swept through to third place on the very last tum. Heat 15 was a classic. Hamill, after nearly ending up in the crowd when Ermolenko drove underneath him, battled expertly from the back on what was becoming a heavily rutted surface to take second spot ahead of Screen and Crump. The win was vital for Ermolenko as he doubled his score and was beginning to show his best GP form of. 1996. Rickardsson became the first rider to lower Gustafsson's colors, and although out of contention for a bigger point haul, Gollob was unchaUenged by Louis, who suffered a seized motor. Ermolenko took a very wide line as fence as they began the second lap. He remained down, and as the red stop lights came on, so did Hancock's red exclusion light. The remaining three riders returned to the start, and this time Hamill made no mistake at the tapes and gained the advantage on GoUob in the run to the (Above) Gustafsson (left), one of the home-country heroes and a favorite to win the event, finished second and now sits fourth In the World Individual Championship Series standings. (Right) Disastrous day: Reigning World Champion Hans Nielsen (right) had the worst day of his Grand Prix career, finishing ninth. (Below) American Sam Ermolenko, shown here in heat 17, put together a decent day at the Swedish round, finishing second In the B Final behind Tony Rlckardsson of Sweden (middle). he gained his second consecutive win, but once again Rickardsson missed an opportunity when he trailed in third place. Hancock also dropped crucial points as he was relegated to fourth place after a promising start. But there was to be no such problem for Hamill as he cruised to his second win and an A-final berth. He celebrated in showrnanlike fashion with a victory lap - part of which he rode standing, one-footed, on his saddle. His win came at the e"Pense of Gustafsson, who also was assured of a place in the big race, and Adams was left sweating as he leveled on 11 points with Hancock and Rickardsson. Gollob's three points in heat 15 took him also to 11, but more significantly for the series as a whole, his win came at the expense of Nielsen, who was only: going to make the C final. An all-British race brought the curtain down on the heats as all except race winner Chris Louis were out again in the first of the finals. GRAND PRIX HEATS Boyce, suffering more frantic repairs to his bike after having changed the back end completely, survived the two-minute time allowance and then seized on a last-bend mistake by Smith to gain a race win at last in wasn't to be troubled as he finished clear of Louis and Karlsson. Rickardsson was kicking himself at this stage. His rival had dropped precious points and an A-final third place would have taken him to within just a point, but he had to be content with a Bfinal appearance and delighting the speedway 'crowd with a sheer brilliant pass on Ermolenko to leave himself nine GP points behind Nielsen. And so to the A final. The long walk to the tapes for the determining of gate positions allowed the riders to soak up the atmosphere and, after the "ceremony," Hamill was pushed away. But his bike would not start, and as the riders were beckoned to the tapes, he had to jump onto his second bike and take his place on the inside. "1 would have preferred the outside and would have chosen that, if 1 had the opportunity," Hamill admitted. "But Henka (Gustafsson) had first choice, and so 1 had no option. I had to go from the outside." As the tapes rose, GoUob, who had no choice of gate positions and had to take trap two, was quickly away, but Gustafsson had the crowd on its feet as he scraped through a gap left between the fence and GoUob. But on lap two the roller-coaster meeting took another twist. At the back, Hancock slid into the first turn. Gustafsson tried hard to get the outside line, but Hamill was firing, and he wound up being $10,000 richer and 25 Grand Prix points better off. Hamill again celebrated in rodeo style. Hamill's eyes are now firmly set on overhauling Nielsen during the British Grand Prix. "Tonight was a great victory for me, and London is only a couple of weeks away, so that's better for me," Hamill said. "I don't have too long to wait, and obviously I am riding high at the moment and I'm just hoping the wave will continue. [t's very important to have a lot of support behind you, and there were quite a few Swedish supporters here tonight backing me. It's really great when you come to these foreign places and the supporters support you even if you are an American. It's really a good feeling." His final wish on a night when he remained "mentally strong" was that one day the Grand Prix will move to America and that a similar victory could be witnessed by his friends "back home." 0" Swedish Grand Prix Linkoeplng, Sweden Results: August 10, 1996 (Round 4 of 6) Qu.ilifying H .... O/A POlNTS: 1. Henka Gustafsson (13); 2. Billy Hamill (12); 3. (T1E) Greg Hancoc.k/Toman Gollob/Tony Rickardsson/Leigh Adams (11); 7. Sam Erqtolenko (10); 8. (TIE) Mark Lor.m/Hans Nielsen (7); 10. (TIE) jason Crump/Chris Louis (5); 12. (TIE) Peter KarIssonIJoe Scn-en (4); 14. Andy SmHh (3); 15. Craig Boyce (2); 16. Marvyn Cox (1 ~ GRANO PRIX MEATS o FINAL: 1. Craig Boyce; 2. Andy Smith; 3. Joe Scn-en; "- Marvyn Cox. C FINAL: 1. Hans Nielsen; 2. Chris Louis; 3. Karlsson; 4. jason Crump. B FINAL: 1. Tony Rickllrdsson; 2. Sam Ermolenk.o; 3. Mark Loram; 4. Leigh Adams. A FINAL' 1. Billy Hamill; 2. Henk. Gustafsson; 3. Tomasz Collob; 4. Greg Hancock. WORLD INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES STANDINGS (After 4 of 6 rounds): 1. Hans Nielsen (77 poinl./2 win.); 2. BiI\y H.mill (70/1); 3. Tony Rick.rdsson (68); 4. Henrik Gustaff.on (56); 5. Greg Hancock (54); 6. Tommy Knudsen (41/1); Chri. Louis (39); 8. Peter Karlsson (37); 9. Toma.. Gollob (29); 10. (TIE) Sam Ermolenko/Gary Havelock (27); 12. Mark Loram (26); 13. joe Scn-en (23~ 14. Leigh Adams (21~ 15. Craig Boyce (18~ 16. Andy Smith (17); 17. (TIE) jason Crump/Marvyn Cox (14); 19. Gerd Riss (ll); 20. Stefano Alfonso (6). Upcoming Rounds: Round 5 - London, England, August 31 Round 6 - Vojens, Denmark, september 21

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