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Australia's Leigh Adams (4) got his 2005 championship campaign off to a good stort
by making the final and finishing second. Adams placed fourth in the 2004 series.
Five-time World Champion establishes
footing with series-opening win
By MIKE BERRY
PHOTOS BY JOHN HIPKISS
44
MAY 11, 2005 • CYCLE NEWS
ony Rickardsson bit the bullet to conjure up a superhuman effort in the
European Grand Prix in Poland. Not only did the five-time World
Champion reel off seven sublime wins out of seven to win the first
Grand Prix of the season, he also defied the discomfort of a serious
lower-back injury to do so. Rickardsson, now aboard motors tuned by
former Grand Prix rival Brian Andersen, was ultraquick and totally committed, and
his performance was, beyond question, one of the greatest ever in the 10 years of
the GP series.
Though in considerable pain after crashing in his native Sweden the Tuesday prior
to the GP (his posterior was apparently lurid shades of black and blue), Rickardsson
was still light-years ahead of his 15 rivals. After stringing together five qualifying wins,
one of which saw him reel in Greg Hancock on the last lap of heat seven, Rickardsson
saved his best for the last two races. An expert pass of the fast-trapping Jarek
Hampel in the first semi-final was a mind-blowing moment under the circumstances,
and he followed it by moving aside young whippersnapper Antonio Lindback on the
T
