Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

hampagne-style speedway bubbled up into a rich Grand Prix vintage at Eskilstuna in Sweden on a Saturday night. The first GP staged at the atmospheric Smedstadion went down as a special occasion in every sense for a crowd of around 10,000, most of whom spent the majority of an enthralling evening balancing on the edges of their seats. One averted one's eyes away from the action at one's own peril. One blink meant missing yet another pertinent pass, or losing track of who was leading whom. Victory on the night belonged to reigning champion Jason Crump, but the Aussie's win left five-time World Champion and series leader Tony Rickardsson claiming the sympathy vote. Though the racing progressively became more compelling, and sometimes Simply sensational, the only major "incident" was reserved for the final, when Nicki Pedersen rear-ended Danish compatriot Bjarne Pedersen and was excluded. Rickardsson, who had won the open- C ing round in Poland with seven straight wins, was a clear leader going into the final lap and looked set for a second GP victory out of two when the collision between the two Danes forced the race to be stopped. Nicki Pedersen was trying to follow Crump under Bjarne Pedersen on the third and fourth turns, and the lesser-known Dane, briefly caught in no man's land, was clattered into the fence. Under GP rules, Polish referee Marek Wojaczek had to rerun the race, and Crump seized this second chance with both hands. Though Bjarne Pedersen again led from the start, Rickardsson wedged past him on lap one, only to lift slightly on the first two turns of lap two, giving Crump the invitation to boldly cut back and sweep from third to first. It was the masterful move of a true World Champion and trimmed Rickardsson's lead at the head of the World Championship race to two points with seven rounds to go, but neither Crump nor Rickardsson declared themselves satisfied with their machinery. Both had run in last place during their 40 MAY 25,2005 • CYCLE NEWS qualifying heats, though on both occasions a graveyard gate three (which was responsible for 14 of the 23 last places) had been a factor. "I wasn't happy with my bikes early on and, like Tony, I made changes," Crump said. "The gates changed quite a lot as the meeting went on, and having three in the final wasn't the best. But I was determined to give it everything and had nothing to lose." Though the track had less dirt on it than for a regular Swedish League meeting, it was there for those brave enough to search for it, and it possessed a multiplicity of different racing lines. The passing and repassing grew in intensity, and while Rickardsson's charge from the back to win heat 16 was pure theater, the highlights came thick and fast. Scott Nicholls, excluded for a tapes offence in his first ride, had a real shoulder-to-shoulder scrap with Crump in heat eight, passing the Aussie but then being overhauled himself. Crump twice got the better of Bjarne Pedersen to win heat 12, and Tomasz Gollob and Rune Holta fought tooth-and-nail in heat 14. Passes were coming from here, there and everywhere, and the meeting developed into the most dramatic of crescendos. Nicki Pedersen beat Crump to win heat 20, a race that ended Greg Hancock's hopes of reaching the semifinals. Hancock, who had dropped from first to third in heat six but then won heat I I with a big outside swoop, briefly challenged Nicki Pedersen and Crump after Hans Andersen had been excluded, but a third place saw him finish on six points when eight were needed to clinch a semifinal spot. Rickardsson and Bjarne Pedersen took the honors in the first semi, and the much tougher second semi saw Nicki Pedersen blast around the outside to head home Crump as Andersen drove past Leigh Adams. Hancock, who had reached the semis in Poland, had to watch from the pits this time, but his famous grin was wider than ever, despite the disappointment of missing out. His wife, Jennie, had presented the 1997 World Champion with the cou-

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