Speedway
~~ Round 5: Polish
GP
LDINDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONSHIPSERIES
By J ohn H ipkis s
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BYDGOSZCZ, POLAND, AUG. 28
I'1J: ans Nie lsen is read y to bring the
cu r tai n d own o n his g lorious
career - and he appe~ rs se t to go
out at the very top.
ielsen won a ll fou r of h is races in
the Polish Grand Prix, w hich was easily
the mos t en terta ining a nd dram a tic of
the five ro unds so far. The race for the
sport's ultim a te pr ize is now d own to
two riders - Tomasz Gollo b cu rren tly
hol d s a s lender four-point ad vantage
ov er reigning World Speed way Cha mpion To ny Rickard sson. C ollob was the
pre-meeting favorit e as he had the backing of 25,000 fana tica l Pol es - bu t this
meeting belon ged to Nielsen, who will
likely go down as one of the sport's alltime grea ts.
Go llob was sti ll in the runn ing as the
sem i-finals approached , a nd it was only
a ra ce of brill ia nce fro m Mark Lor a m
wh ich d en ied him a place in the final. It
was the fac t tha t he a p pea re d so flat.
The lively Collob, shifting a ll ove r his
machine to find gri p.and tackling d iffer ent lines on a track he kno ws inside and
o ut , w a s n ot th ere . Th e sp arkl e wa s
missing. Only Gollob cou ld tell wh eth er
the pressure of expectat ion go t to him ,
but rarely could a mod ern day spe ed w~ y rider have bee n under such intense
pres sure: a World Cham pionshi p lead er
coming into a penultimate GP with the
re ignin g Champ br eathing d own hi s
(Above) Multitime World
Cham pion Hans
Nielsen is lifted
for th e
celebrato ry
victory to ss
after the Dane
rod e to a cle an
sweep in the
Po li sh GP at
Bydgoszcz
(Right)
Reig ning World
Cham p ion Tony
Rickardsson
(right) had a
fine night at
Byd goszcz,
finishing
second to .
Nie lsen and
vaultinq himself
bac k into
co nt ent ion f or
another
championship
title by also
fin ishing
second to
Nielsen in the
GP Fina l.
