World Championship Speedway Grand Prix Series
Round 5: Marketa Stadium
The climb back to those heady
heights of 1996 must have seemed
like a mountain at times for Hamill in
recent years. A broken back sustained at the Polish GP in Bydgoszcz
at the end of 1998, a 1999 season
spent knowing full well it was GP
Challenge time come the end of the
series, that's two "wasted" years
straight away. But it all came good
again at Prague, where Hamill defeated series leader Tony Rickardsson
and third-placed Jason Crump in a
three-man final after Tomasz Gollob
was excluded for tape touching.
"It feels good, it feels really good,"
Hamill said. "I've been trying to get
through the qualifiers, and it just
seemed like nothing was going right
for me this year. The way the format
is, the Grand Prix is so unforgiving,
especially if you're in the qualifying
heats. Guys like Peter Karlsson found
that out in Prague, and the stuff that
happened to him usually happens to
me! There's just no room for error,
you've got to be spot on. We were
competitive in Prague right from the
word go, and we actually just got better and better as the meeting went on.
Hamill and his crew made some
changes after the semi-final, and they
were changes for the better, as he
(Left) Billy Hamill receive. the
ceremonial victory to.. after blowing
_ay the competition at the Czech GP
for the MCond etralght year.
(Below) During the Main Final, Hamill
(foreground) eecaped from
pointe leader Tony Alckardeeon petti
for a clutch victory.
_rle.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY JOHN HIPKISS
PRAG
