pie's first child last Thursday night, a baby
boy they have named Wilbur Eric. Wilbur
was the name of Hancock's grandfather
and is his father's middle name, while Eric
originates from his wife's family.
"1 got to be there at the birth, and it
was wonderful," Hancock said,· "the best
thing ever. For me, it was the greatest day
in the world. It was nothing like winning
the world title, or achieving your best
goal; it was something completely different. It was another ball game altogether,
and it is the best feeling in the world, and
I can't wait to spend time with him."
As for the meeting, Hancock added: "It
was a horrible night for me. I was battling
all night. but I never got the setup right
and I never got going. I had a good practice, but the track was a little harder and
slicker than Friday and I just couldn't seem
to get the advantage some of the other
guys got. I was there, but just didn't have
enough. The track is usually a lot deeper,
and we came with engines set up for that,
from past experience at the track. It
caught us by surprise a little, and we will
go away and study the video of the meeting and see what went wrong."
Hancock sits in seventh place overall,
more than 2S points behind Rickardsson and
Crump, and even at this early juncture, the
Grand Prix appears set to develop into a
two-horse race between the reigning champion and the Swede who is chasing a recordequaling sixth crown this season.
CN
SMEDSTADION ESKILSTUNA
ESKILSTUNA, SWEDEN
RESULTS: MAy 14, 2005 (ROUND
2
OF
9)
SEMI I: I. Tony Rickardsson; 2. Biame Pedersen; 3.
Antonio Undback: 4. Kenneth Bjerre.
SEMI 2: I. Nicki Pede~; 2. jason Crump; J. Hans
.".ndcrsen; 4. leigh Adai'T\S
FINAL: I. Jason Crump; 2. Tony Rkkard.sson; 3. Bjame
Pedersen; 4. Nicki Pedersen.
FIM SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX POINTS STAND·
INGS (Mer 2 of 9 rounds): I. Tony Rickardsson (4511
win): 2. JMon Crump (43/1 win); 3. Leigh Adams (33); 4.
Nicki Pedersen (26); S. Antonio Undback (24); 3. Bjame
Pederwn (22); 7. Greg Hancock (17); 8. Scott Nicholls (13):
9. Toman Gollob (12); 10.J....k Hampel (10).
UPCOMING ROUNDS:
Round 3 . Krsko, Slovenia, May 28
Round 4 . Cardiff, Great 8riloin, June 11
(Right) Bjame Pedersen (10) put tagether a
fine meeting in Sweden to finish third in the
final. Pedersen was ensured the last podium
spot after he was knocked down by Nicki
Pedersen, who was excluded, in the Final.
CYCLE NEWS • MAY 25, 2005
41
