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/128383
Round 4 WORLD SPEEDWAY most like clockwork, it was another Grand Prix weekend, another win for former World Speedway Champion "ony Rickardsson. The Swede with the insatiable appetite for World Championship titles moved 32 points clear of nearest rival Jason Crump after winning a spectacular British GP in front of a crowd of 38,460 at Cardiff's magnificent Millennium Stadium. Rickardsson has already been king on five occasions, and a coveted sixth World crown is now his for the taking. This was his 17th Grand Prix victory and his third in four rounds in 2005 (his fifth in seven going back to 2004). It was also his 47th final, and his eighth final in a row. That his three major challengers were left by the wayside must have made Saturday's champagne moment in the final, when Rickardsson conjured up one of the most breathtaking rides of his career, all the tad sweeter. Defending World Champion Jason Crump had a nightmare evening, being excluded three times on a night when the refereeing of Marek Wojaczek was a mixture of the good, the bad and the indefensible. Nicki Pedersen was in the thick of things but only managed six points, while Leigh Adams fell short of the semis. As Rickardsson's rivals surrendered ground, A 30 JUNE 22, 2005 • June 11, 2005 ~ FIM World Speedway Grand Prix Series a cluster of emerging whippersnappers made their presence felt. Jarek Hampel, back from a hand injury that had sidelined him for the previous two GPs, looked fast and was a deserving runner-up. Bjarne Pedersen reached his second final of the season, and Hans Andersen reached his first. Andreas Jonsson scored the same points in one GP that he had scraped together in the first three, and both Antonio Lindback and Scott Nicholls reached the semis. Rickardsson began the night by bouncing off the airfence in his opening ride in heat three. He was laboring in third place and about to be passed by British wildcard David Norris when the most inoffensive of brushes saw the GP leader bail out. It looked a clear case of going down too easily, and Wojaczek's exclusion of Norris began a series of baffling decisions from the man in charge. Rickardsson switched bikes to win the rerun, with Tomasz Gollob second and Nicki Pedersen, a clear leader in the first running, left counting the cost of the stoppage after finishing in third. Hampel and Nicholls had won the first two races off the inside, with Bjarne Pedersen all over Crump for second in the first heat and Lindback jumping into the tapes in heat two. The usual comforts associated with the CYCLE NEWS red helmet color at Cardiff soon vanished. The balance of power shifted to such an extent that there was only one more victor off the inside - Jonsson in heat 12. In contrast, the outside produced 10 of the 23 winners. Rickardsson was the first to benefit in the rerun of heat three, and yellow also took heats four and five, Jonsson stealing ahead of Greg Hancock in the former as Lee Richardson stalked Adams at the back, and heat five going to Nicki Pedersen. Crump's night hit the buffers on the first turn of heat six. Andersen came down on the first turn as he grappled for ground with Crump off the two outside gates. Whatever angle you viewed it from, there looked to be little or no contact, and it was surely a cast-iron call for all four back. Much to Crump's indignation, Wojaczek activated his white exclusion light, and the rankled Aussie had to watch Richardson split Andersen and Gollob in the second take. Hancock became the second tapebreaker in heat seven, and Rickardsson survived another hazard in heat eight, when a rut on the second corner threw him off kilter and he lost the lead to Tomasz Chrzanowski, as well as messed up Adams. It took him the blink of an eye to regain his composure and muscle back under the young Pole. Hampel collected another slick win in heat nine, darting away into the distance as Adams got the measure of Andersen in a shoulder-to-shoulder battle for second. Crump was left facing the prospect of early elimination in heat 10. Starting from the outside, he attempted to swoop around Rickardsson and Hancock coming off the second bend. But when Rickardsson helped Hancock wide, Crump suddenly saw the gap fill up in front of his goggles. He was left with nowhere to go but the deck, but again Wojaczek showed no mercy. Common sense pointed to a restart with all four - for the sake of both the championship and the night - and Crump's bewilderment was compounded when the referee chose to do just that in heat I I, when some first corner carnage resulted in Bjarne Pedersen following his rearing steed into the fence after tangling with Nicki Pedersen and Richardson. He showed no ill effects to win the rerun, and behind him Richardson set about salvaging his night with an all-out offensive on the 2003 World Champion. He had several unsuccessful bites before raising the roof by storming under the Dane on the final lap. Back came Bjarne Pedersen to return the favor, but in doing so, he drifted out into no man's land on the final two bends, and Richardson Zipped back inside. Ryan Sullivan had watched all this from the back and withdrew after the race, still