Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Speedway CJi1"IA' Round 3: Polish Grand Prix WORLD INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPSERIES (Left) Tomasz Gollob (left). shown here leading Stefan Danno (right). brought the house down In his home country when he put a brilliant last-comer move on Jimmy Nilsen to win the Polish Grand Prix in Wroclaw. Gollob is now clearly the main contender for the World Championship. (Below)Winner Gollob (center) is flanked by a pair of Swedes - runner-up Jimmy Nilsen (left) and third-placed Stefan Danno (right). By John Hipk iss WROCLAW, POLAND, JULY3 a lis h s ta r To ma sz Goll ob is th e red-hot favorite to become the new -World Ch a m pion a fter h e edged out main th reat Jimmy N ilsen a t the Polish Grand Prix in Wrocl aw , Poland. Gollob extended his lead over Ni lsen to nin e poi nts wh en he went for broke on the last lap of the final. diving under the Swede at full speed going in to the third turn. Although Nilsen battled back in to the lead a s Co llo b's momen tum to ok h im o u t to the fen ce , th e Po le regained his line to catch his rival in a fra ntic race for th e flag . Th e pa rtisa n Polish cro wd was sent into a frenz y by a b rilliant swoop , bu t it was hardly in P N -5 ..., 24 kee pi n g wi th a m e eti n g th at w a s increasing ly processional. Fans were soo n up and roaring whe n th in gs finally go t u nd er way fo r hea t one. By then Ryan Sullivan was back in the pits , having been exclud ed for moving at the start, soon after the new 15second board made its GP de but. John Jor g en sen co n tes ted the lea d with Rafal Dobrucki on the res tart, but Dob ru cki kep t things jammed go ing into the p it turn , and then Rob ert Da d os came under the Dan e off that corne r, to hu ge cheers. Th e lineup for heat tw o wa s a real cru nch, and the first ben d was as tight as expected. Greg Han cock led them in, but Mark Loram w a s s a nd w ic he d betw een Joe Screen (on the inside) and Billy Ha mill down th e ba ck stra ig ht. Screen go t th e edge into th e pi t turn a nd, on th e la s t lap, Hamill w e n t by Lorarn , who spent the remainder of the lap lo okin g dow n at a b urned -out clu tch. The track looked as if it was giving riders as bu mp y an outi ng as Wroclaw' s myriad tram lines, and Brian And erse n wa s ca ug h t o u t in h ea t th ree . Ja so n Crump nosed clea r of the Dane, and th e o rde r rem ain ed C r u m p , A n de r se n , Mik ael Karl sson and Mari o Jiro ut until the final ben d , when Anderse n took a tu m bl e , req u ir ing t rea tm ent be fore limping off the track. Pri or to h e at fo u r , C h r is Lou is jum ped aboa rd anothe r mach in e a nd jus t beat the tw o-minute 05-second) dead line. It d id the trick, however, as he challenged Hans N ielsen all the way, a bike ailment slowing I ielsen jus t ya rds b e fore th e li n e a n d allowing Lou is th ro ug h . A n dy Sm it h a nd H e nr ik Gu sla fsson rem ained in third and fou rth thro ugho ut. Th e first elimina tio n heat follo wed track grad ing and wa terin g and, in view of the eve n ts at Linkop ing, Lora m probab ly needed a few thou sa n d ga llo ns m ore put d own. He .go t close to Jo rge nse n a t the fini sh line, bUI not close enough, Gustafsso n and the Dane staying in, Loram and [irout go ing out. For the third GP in a row , a starting offe n se s e n t a ri der o ff for an ea rl y s how er; in th is case it wa s Smith . He certainly wa sn't the on ly rid er to move in h ea t s ix, b u t r ef ere e .Ton y Ste e le d ecided he was the first, desp ite Smith's protestations that it had been Hamill, on h is ins id e, who w as the cu lp rit. On e down, one to go , and it w as Anderse n who joined Smith in the also-r an d epar tment, ironically in a race that , up until th e fin a l few ya rd s of hea t three, h e loo ked to be avoid ing , w hile Sullivan and Ha mill we re safe - for now . There w e re no b ik e p robl e ms for N ielsen the second time ou t as he led hom e Screen in heat seven, Crump over-

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