Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127960
SPEEDWAY WORLD INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES By J o h n Hipkiss LlNKOPPL\IG, SWEDEN, AUG. 28 ormer World Speedway Champion and Sw edish speedway star To ny Rickard s son to ok a no the r s te p toward his second World cro wn wh en he cla ime d his th ird win of the World GP season at the Linkopping track in his hom e country. Rickard sson , who was the las t rider ever to w in a Wor ld speedway ti tl e under the old one-d ay champions hip format, mir rored his 1994 title-winning st yle as he made fou r perfect starts to lead all rid ers in to the Big Fin a l, and w ith h is chief threat, fell ow Swed e jimmy Nils en , only managing to make the Co nsolation fina l, Rickardsson now looks to have a better chan ce than ever to win the title . And w hat of Califo rnians Greg Hancoc k and Billy Ha mill? We ll, the Tea m Exide duo has certainly seen the end of th eir tw o-year reign in Wo rld Cham pio ns hip speedway. In fact, both are no w fa ced wi th having to be on th e ir g u a r d f01' s urviva l in to n e xt year's cha mpions hip series, as they are t ied for s ix th pl a ce in th e s ta n d ings, a nd on ly th e to p eigh t a u to ma tica lly qu a lify fo r th e ' 99 GPs . Han cock had his bes t GP o f th e ye a r, a s he fin ally m ad e a Big Final , where he finishe d fourth , but Hamill once again s truggled, and fail ed to ma ke it through to the semis aft er his tw o quali fying rid es wer e comp leted . F A ~ ~ ~ 40 PRE-MAIN EVENT It ali an legend Arma ndo Cas tagn a mad e a flyin g star t and com pleted an impressive' ride in heat one to edge ou t Denmark's Brian Andersen, wh o was a leading con tend er for the title last season. He got the start and took And ersen out ~de in the first turn, and Andersen a fa ile to ge t enoug h drive d own the back straight to make up ground . Au ssie Leigh Ad am s fired a warning s h o t to hi s rivals with a ne w -tra ck record rid e of 59 sec onds in heat tw o, beating the previous record set by no ne other than Rickardsson. Poli sh you ngster Piot r Protasiewicz was the su rprise w in ner of heat th ree, ahead of former Wor ld Champ io n Ha ns N ielsen, with Ton i Kasp er p ulling ou t on the second lap d ue to bik e prob lem s. (Ab ove) Tony Rickardsso n (4) led Chri s Lo uis (18), Peter Karlsson (23) and Greg Hancock (1) in the Big Final to card a vict ory at the Swedish Grand Prix. The Swede Is th e odds-on favo rite to lift the title at the ser ies fi nale in Polan d. (Right) Tit le contende rs Tomasz Goll ob (3) and Jimm y Nilsen (8) suffered wha t will probably be fatal blow s to the ir titl e hopes. Gollob 's eng ine exploded, kn ocking him out of the semis, and Nilse n fail ed to tr ansfer to the Big Fina l, all but assuring the title fo r . Rickardsson. England' s Chris Louis, a colleague of Rickard s s on in th e a ll -con q ue r ing Ipswich team in the British League, prod uced a sig n of thin gs to come with a co m forta ble w in in hea t four to mak e s u re of h is pro gre s s fro m th e e a rly stag es. After eve ry pr e-main-event rid er had one race und er their belt, it was obvi ou s that passing was going ~o be d ifficult on the wi de-open spaces of the Link opp ing trac k, alt hough the surface was good, considering practice had been cance led due to the rain that had fallen 24 ho urs earlier. Heat five was the first race in which riders were eliminated and it was bad news for both j esp er B. j e n s e n a nd Zo ltan Ado rjan, w ho mad e th eir wa y homeea r ly a fte r mi ssin g the s t a r t, allowing Craig Boyce and Andy Smith to progress. The bes t ra ce of the pre-main event came in heat 7, in which Mark Loram, who has been a disappointment in the series so far, went from third to first in superb style. He was squee zed ou t in the first turn bu t mana ged to dive under Sebastian Ularnek, and then edged out Castagna to drive the massive crowd wild . . n There was a scare for Peter Karlsson, the Swedish wild-card ent rv, wh en the tapes went up, as he was 'clea rly ~9t read y to start heat nin e. If the red lights had not com e on, Karlsson would have been out of th e com petiti on through-a misunderstanding, but the referee put the stoplights on to give Karlsson a second chance. He took it wi th both hands,' as he played his part in a thrilling rerun whic h saw Cra ig Boyce go from first to third and thu s fail to qua lify. Andersen and Karlsson both passed him , as the drama started to heat u p. Ulame k and Kaspe.r were the victims