SPEEDWAY
WORLD INDIVIDUAL
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Round 6: Danish G dPrix
ran
(Left ) A dream cone
true: Greg Hancock
was lifted In
celebration after the
Dan ish GP in Vojens.
Denmark. as he .
became the fifth
American in history to
win the Wortd
Speedway
Championship.
(Below) TItle rivals and
great friends: Billy
Hamill (foreground}
when he completed his third successive
win an d was through to the top scorers'
race, so end ing a marvel ous reign as
cham pion for Hamill, who finis hed up
the yea r second in the series points
stand ings, making America ns 1-2 in the
wo rld for the first time in the history of
speedway.
aUAUFYING HEATS
Wo rld Cham pionshi p co n te nde r
Brian Andersen sh owed plenty of guts
an d d eterm ination to ge t th e be tte r of
Toma sz Gollob in the first race. Ande r-
races in side Hancock
in heat three. In order
to reta in the
sen wa s racin g wit h a pin in his broken
championship, Hamill
needed to w in the A
fi nal and hope that
Go Uob. The re was drama in hea t tw o,
Hancock did no better
than third in the B final.
By John Hipkiss
VOjENS, DENMARK, SEPT. 20
m~ri ca ' s
A
Greg Hancock cornpleted a dream season w hen he succeeded countrym an and lifelong
fri end Billy Hamill as World
Speedway Champion with a superb performance in the final Grand Prix of the
'II
season .
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In d oing so, the 27-year-old from
Costa M esa, California , became only the
fifth American in World Championship
history to lift the prestigious crown, and
he became only the second American behind 1996 cha m pion Hamill - to win
the title under the Gra nd Prix Series format. In fact, Americans have fared well,
liftin g the title twice in the three years
since the six-race series has replaced the
one-day World Final.
Going into the meeting, Ha ncock was
14 points ahead of Hamill and needed to
qualify for the A final to be sure of victory - and he achieved it in sty le. He was
World Cha m p io n as ea rly as heat 13,
collarbo ne, but he showed no ill effects,
with an agg ressive firs t bend to take ou t
wh en horne wild card [esper B. jensen
los t con tro l and too k Chris Loui s out.
Ama z tn gt y, Eng lis h referee Frank
Ebdon a llowed a ll fou r rid ers back in
