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FIM World Championship Speedway Series Round 5: Krsko Stadium "I wanted to do much better this year, but it has just not been working out for me," Adams said. "But this time I had two good gate positions in the semifinal and final, and I wasn't about to mess them up." Adams, who moved to third behind Rickardsson and Pedersen in the overall rankings, was actually passed by Pedersen on the last lap of a pulsating final but cut back to regain the lead. "It was a good, fair race, and for a moment I thought Nicki had it, but I made a good cut back and got in front again," Adams said. The Chinese may not be too familiar with the vagaries of speedway, but if they were, then 2003 would surely be pigeonholed as the Year of the Collarbone. Fractured clavicles have been a feature of this season's GP series, and no fewer than six riders were forced to pull out of Saturday's field, three of them with broken collarbones. The missing half-dozen riders were Lee Richardson, Bo Brhel, Bjame Pedersen, Ronni Pedersen (himself a reserve) and long-term casualties Krzysztof Cegielski and Hans Andersen. Ryan Sullivan was also nursing a serious back injury after crashing in Sweden the previous week, but there was a first GP appearance of the year at the fifth time of asking for Britain's Mark Loram, the 2000 World Champion. He had finally recovered from the badly broken arm sustained while racing over the Easter program. The absentees left the early stages of the meeting looking thin on topclass names, with three Siovenians in the field, 40-something Hungarian stalwart Sandor Tihanyi getting a late call-up and British youngster David Howe, a wildcard at Cardiff last month, given a second taste of the big time. It was therefore understandable that it took a while for the racing 42 JULY 30,2003' cue I e (Right) England's Scott Nicholls (left) survived this close scrap en route to taking a position in The Final. Nicholls finished third. (Below) Greg Hancock (6) stumbled slightly in his bid to earn a second Wortd Championship when he failed to make The Final. Hancock made It to the semis before bowing out and now desperately needs a GP win to get himself back in the hunt. to hit any great heights. Sullivan, who won at Krsko last year and led the series ahead of Rickardsson, has also had collarbone problems this season, as well as his back injury, but that didn't prevent him from winning heat one ahead of Howe and Siovenian wildcard Izak Santej after Peter Karlsson had been excluded for breaking the tapes. Zagar, a Sloven ian who rides for British Premier League side Trelawny, shot away to win heat two as Todd Wiltshire got no further than the first two turns after dropping a chain. Loram followed Lukas Dryml home, with Mikael Max struggling in third place in three, and then Andreas Jonsson won four as Roman Povazhny, the Russian, battled past Piotr Protasiewicz. Turns three and four had already started cutting up, but it was a broken chain that ended Wiltshire's involvement in five as he chased after Max and Santej. The ruts then claimed Protasiewicz in six, the Pole losing his n e vv s line to allow Karlsson through into second place behind Tomasz Bajerksi. Sullivan made it two wins from two heats to reach the Main Event by winning heat seven, and Zagar got the home fans on their feet by emulating Sullivan's feat in eight, beating Jonsson into second as Loram saw off Howe for third place. The introduction of the seeded Main Event riders in heat nine finally got the pulses racing. Pedersen, a rider who always seems to court controversy, went down on the first two turns, and all four were called back for the rerun. On the restart, Pedersen hit a rut entering the back straight, and it launched him into the side of Gollob, who was sent crashing into the fence at a fair rate of speed. His machine landed on top of him, and though Pedersen was excluded, Gollob got up, shook it off and finished second behind Jason Crump in the second restart on a new bike. The first appearance of Rickardsson came in heat 10, but the Swede was rolling at the start and missed the gate altogether. Not that it mattered as he came inside both Rune Holta and Hancock inside the first lap to salvage second behind Adams. Povazhny, Max, Santej and Jason Lyons bowed out in heats 11 and 12, which meant Howe joined Zagar as a surprise qualifier for the Main Event. Howe cut under both Povazhny and Max on the third and fourth bends of lap one in heat 11. The Main Event began with Bajerski flying off gate four to beat Crump in heat 13 and Rickardsson finishing ahead of Nicholls in 14. Hancock, off gate two in heat 15, was then second behind Gollob when Dryml, pursuing him with some vigor, snagged the airfence down the finishing straight and was catapulted over the front of his machine. Loram laid down his bike as the air-fence was strewn across the track, but Dryml looked seriously hurt. He lost consciousness in the crash and was rushed to the hospital, but miraculously he appears to have escaped with just four broken teeth, a broken nose, a possible fractured jaw and two black eyes... Lucky him. The rerun finished Gollob, Hancock and Loram, and Adams and Pedersen then filled the first two places in heat 16 ahead of further exits in 17 and 18. This time the unlucky riders were Karlsson, Zagar, Howe and the luckless Dryml, by now in a hospital bed. (Left to right) The SlovenIan GP podium: runner-up Pederson, winner Adams and third-placed Nicholls.