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/128339
e may have been branded as Public Enemy Number O ne by British fans in the past few weeks, but Den mark's Hans Andersen prospered in adversity to celebrate a fairytale first Gra nd Prix win of his career at the Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg. The controversial 23-year-old Dane accused of he lping Peter Karlsson beat Great Britain's Scott Nicholls for Swede n to lift the Speedway World Cup at Poole earl ier this mo nth - won five of his seven races in battling th rough from heat three, and he made the start off the inside gate to defeat series leader Jason Crump, five time World champion Tony Rickardsson and Greg Hancock in the final. Andersen, the only rider to win from the outside on a night when the inside grid was always advantageous, ran a third in heat seven , but apart from that it was re latively clear sailing. He actually beat Crump t hree times , though the first of those wins in heat 19 came when the Aussie was excluded by Polish refe ree Marek Wojacze k for dropping it on the first turn after an amaz ing incident involving re igning World Champion Nicki Pedersen. Pedersen, off gate two, was marginally in front of Crump, who was starting off the inside, when the Aussie suddenly kicked out at the Dane with his right boot. Such practice is ce rtainly not to be recommended - the result could have been calamitous for Crump had he made contact with Pedersen's rear wheel - and the Auss ie came down as Pedersen refused to be intimidated by such strange and unexpecte d tactics. Ande rsen's victory also raised his GP stock, which comes after he failed to finish in the all-important top tw o at the World Championship qualifying final in Vojens due to an ignition failure he had while in second place in the final. "It was an amazing day, the best ever," beamed the young Dane, who had neve r reached a GP final before and has moved up from 19th place overall in the GP series to I Itho "My first bike seized after my first ride and I had to jump on my numbe r-tw o bike, but when small th ings went wrong I ignored them and focused on going forward , and it paid off tonight . I felt good going into the final, and 1 drew gate one . I have proved I can do it in a Grand Prix." But if Andersen, who made some jetpropelled starts, won a famous battle , the war remains in Crump's capable hands . The Aussie, who has now reached five of th is year's six finals, increased his lead at the top of the standings from 14 points to 23, and both Leigh Adams, who was eliminated in the second semi-final, and Hancock, who share second with 91 points, concede that Crump will now have to throw it away for e ither of them to catch him in the final three rounds. Crump said: "I was 14 points ahead H (Above) Tony Rickardsson (right) tr ies to keep Crump (left) at bay during the fina l. Crump would eventually make the pass for second place, with Rickardsson holding on to th ird. (Below) American Greg Han cock (left ) made the final and finished fourth, Hancock is tied for second in the se ries standings. www.cyc lenews.com CYCLE NEWS • SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 31