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Adams missed the cut by just a point.
Jonsson, who had slid into the fence in
his first ride, rode hell-bent-for-Ieather to
salvage a vital point in heat 20, passing
Bjarne Pedersen entering the last lap, but
he then finished third, behind Hancock
and Nicki Pedersen, in the first semi, after
Andersen had fallen while trying to get on
terms with Hancock.
Lind back defeated Rickardsson for the
first time in his career in a rousing second
semi, as Crump lost ground by finishing
last, but the Swedish master took his
revenge over his apprentice in the final.
Hancock finished second when he battled
back past Lindback after initially being relegated to third.
A crowd of nearly 25,000 were inside
Parken, and their patience was tested by
a faulty starting gate. It began badly when
the tapes entangled Bjarne Pedersen at
the start in heat one; Polish referee
Wojciech Grodzki allowed the race to
continue before watching the video and
calling for a rerun.
Further problems came to a head in
heat 14, when the tapes twice failed to lift
evenly, the second occasion alm05t seeing
Richardson strangled as they failed to snap.
A long delay followed before the
meeting wa5 able to continue, with
Hancock, having used the dead time to do
some "gardening" on the outside gate,
winning heat 14 at the third attempt on
his way to finishing with 12 points.
"I'm chuffed to finish second, and this
is a big turning point in the season for
me," Hancock said. "We had all the intentions of making it equally as good or better in Cardiff, and it didn't go that way.
Tonight we came prepared with two really good bikes, one that was set up for
something completely opposite if conditions changed, so I knew that I had a good
setup, and it was a case of making it work.
"In the final," Hancock continued, "I
thought I was going to make a much better start than I did, but Tony hit it
absolutely perfect, and what can you do
when the guy does something like that? I
jumped into plan B and made a good cutback, but Antonio got around me. He
then hit a bit of a hole going into turn
three and left me a nice little gap, so I
took advantage of it, and my bike just
pulled right through it. I looked at Tony
and thought, 'Man, to catch him is going
to be virtually impossible,' so I had to fight
and hold my position."
Hancock and Rickardsson are the only
two riders who have appeared in all 75
GPs since the series was launched in
1995, and Saturday's victory was
Rickardsson's 18th overall.
"Tony's just a sensation," Hancock
said, "and I can't help but look up to him.
He's like another Bruce Penhall for me.
It's like I'm 15 again when I watch him.
When you see a guy doing what he's
doing, he's so focused and it's working.
He's got a slight advantage there somewhere. Whether it's the bike or mentai,
or both, it's hard to say, but we're all just
standing back and admiring it."
eN
PARKEN COPENHAGEN STADIUM
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
RESULTS: JUNE 2S, 2005 (ROUND 5 OF
9)
SEMI I: I. Greg Hancock; 2. Nicki Pedersen; 3.
Andreas Jonsson; 4. Hans Andersen.
SEMI 2: I. Antonio Undback; 2. Tony Rkkardsson; 3.
Jarek Hampel: 4. Jason Crump.
FINAL: I. Tony Rickardsson; 2. Greg Hancock; 3.
Antonio Lindback; 4. Nicki Pedersen.
FIM WORLD SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX SERIES
POINTS STANDINGS (After 5 of • roun