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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128628
World Championship Qua lifi e r S erie s Intercontinenta l Fina l (Left) "Sudden" Sam Ennolenko once again experienced the heartbreak of failing to regain entry to the Wortd Speedway Grands Prix at the Intercontinental Final In Hoisted, Denmark. The American came to Hoisted nursing an injury and never got on fonn. (Abovel Sweden's Niklas Klingberg was the darting of Hoisted, w inning the meeting w ith a dramatic heat-14 perfonnance to ga in entry to the 2001 GP series. with la ck of match fitness as it was the wrist. "The doc said it wo uld probaby be okay , and it was down to me and how I felt," Ermo lenko said. "Afterwards, I c ould probably say it wasn't th e right thing to do , but where do you s tart and where do yo u finis h? There are no ill effe cts now . It's no d iffer ent now to how I fe lt at the start of the meetin g , so it c o m e s down t o probabl y more me not be ing race fit, not abl e to att ack it, than it' s down to m y ha nd . Whether it 's because I shou ld ha ve go t o n a bike and tried some thi ng before th is I do n 't know , b ut I co uldn 't do th at a nyway . I did n o da mage to m y ha nd, I couldn 't ha n d le th e si t uation , bu t I di dn 't know that until I tried it." Ermolenko tried practice on Frida y and said he had to keep gearing his bike lower to make it a co mfortable ride. "We sta rted o n that today , but it was the wrong se tup b e c a u s e the bike just didn 't have an y sp eed , " Erm ole nko said. "I got a fairly good start, I was secon d and I t h o u g h t okay , but I was waiting for something to happen, then I go t in a little bit of trou ble and that was it. So we set th e bike up th e wa y we ca me h e re in practice, and it was flying . But I made ST OR Y AN D PHOT OS BY J O H N H IP KI SS HOLSTEAD,DENMARK ,AOG. 12 "S udden S am" Erm o le nko saw his world c hampio nship ho pes dis appear, t ha nks to a diffic ult day at th e Inte rco nti ne nta l Final at Ho lste a d , his d rive hampered by a wrist inju ry that he had s uffered in Britis h racing s ix weeks before th is big day . The 1993 wor ld champion had b een in g rea t form th rougho ut the season and his 15-point maximum to win the O ve rseas title underlined that he was on to p of h is game. But h e wa s always faci ng a race against tim e to be ready for the next hurdle in the sprint for a pla c e in Gra nd Prix 2001. E rm ol en k o went o u t after t hree attempts to stay in control but readily ad m itt ed he was no t ra c e fit , e ven tho ugh the wrist d idn 't give him as much trouble as he had fea red . Now the qu e s ti o n s have a lready sta rted a bo ut whether Ermo le nko will ever be in a position to cha llenge for a G ra n d Pr ix place again as he is clea rly in the twilight of h is wonderful ca ree r. "We don't need to ta lk about that right now ," he sa id. But Ermo len ko did adm it his failure in Ho iste d was as mu c h to do 34 A U GU ST 30, 2000 ' c .U c • e n e vv so a m ista ke , as soon as I hoo ked up I knew I wasn't going to plow into th e fence, but I got clo se e no ug h for my foot peg to touc h it a nd it knoc ke d my footpeg off. You ha ve to go with thes e th ings . My wrist is defin itel y not right, a nd it would ha ve been easy to say I co u ldn 't do it , but after p ractic e I th ou ght 'it do esn 't hu rt a ny mo re.' I a ctua lly wok e up thi s m orning th inkin g it wa s a ll rig ht , so m a yb e we sho uld ha ve a go . But the who le rea so n I'm not on form is be c a us e of the accident." Er m ol e n ko admi tted that bowi ng out a t the Intercontinenta l Final is a h ug e disappointment as re-q ua lifying for th e Grand Prix had been his major a im . " I was up for it this year , " Ermolenko sa id. "I wa tched the video of m y c ra s h ju s t the ot her day. The first t ime I saw it, I was d az ed and c onfused , this time ar ound I thought, 'Wha t th e hell is he [J ason Bunyan] do ing !' Th e k id was out of contro l, a nd this is the effect. I'm knocked out of th e Grand Prix aft er a ll the efforts . Who knows what's in m y future , but at thi s stage I'm disappointe d , more for th e effort that went into it. It was easy not to go home to America to ride , it was e a s y not to do all thes e thing s and just sit b a c k . But I' m a ra ce r and I want to win . I put every t hi ng toget her an d it was lo o k in g go od, m y b ikes a re very fast , it 's unfortunate I could n 't do it. It will proba bly sink in la ter how disappointe d I am ." By sta rk contrast, Sweden 's Nikla s Klingberg couldn 't have bee n ha p pier as he clutched the spoils of vic tory and enj oyed count less c o ngratulat io n s as th e autog raph h unte rs formed a queue to congratu late h im for winning the meeting and advancin g to the next stage. The fact that he's in the 2001 Grand Prix series still hadn 't reall y s u n k in yet after t he meeting. "Eve ryth ing we nt perfect so I can 't complainl" Klingberg said , but he did a cknowledge that he had his heat- 14 st unts to th ank for th at . On e mo ment of shee r ra c ing s av vy finally separated Klingb erg from the rest a t Hoisted - a n d it was e nou g h to prop el h im into t h e 2 0 0 1 Gr a nd Pr ix s e ri e s . Klingberg w a s unb e a ten on n in e p o ints wh e n h e ro lle d t o t he line a gai ns t t hr ee m a in co n te n de rs in Nicki Ped ers en (8) , Run e Hol ta (7) a nd Gary Ha ve lo ck ( 7) d uri ng the p ivotal he at ra c e . Whe n the tapes ros e , it app e a red that o ne preci ous a utomatic q ualify ing s lo t for t h e Inte rco n ti nent a l Champion wa s about to be snatc hed from Kling berg's grasp . He tra ile d in last place , with Ho lta at the .opposite end of the fie ld, fol lowe d c los e ly by Havvy a nd Peder se n. At the end of the third la p , Kling berg drove h a r d under th e Dan e goi ng into th e c orner, then set a fte r the former Engl a nd sk ipper. Switch ing his line on the final bend , he took Havelock to the fence and jus t ca ught him over the line . "T h a t was the hea t t h a t decided th e meeting ," Klingberg sa id. "Eve ry one was a high scorer in that race. I made q u it e a go od start but Nicki Pedersen took m e quite wide in the first be nd . Then I had to come from the ba c k." S o what about the Grand Pr ix? "You really need to be the re now if yo u want to take one more step up ," sa id Klingberg . "It' s e asier for sponsors and e verything. Speedway is go ing up in Swede n , it's rea lly good. But I'm just th inking one m e eting at a time , I'll have to s it down a nd th ink about the Gra nd Prix later." eN Hoisted Speedway Hoisted, Denmark Resuhs:August12,2DDD O /A : I. Nik las Klin gberg ( 14 ) ; 2 . Rune Holte ( 12): 3. Nicki Pedersen ( I J): 4. Jason Lyons ( 10): 5. (T IE) Joh n Jorgen sen (9 )/ Jes pe r Jense n ( 9 )/Gary Havelock (9); Steve Johnston (9 ); 9 . See n W ilson (8 ); 10. (TI E) Bj eme Pedersen (7) /Pa u! Hurry (7): 11. Martin Dugard (4) ; 12. (T IE) Stefan Andersson (3 )/ La rs Gu nne stad ( 3) ; 14 . (T IE ) D a vid Ho we (2) /Kaj Laukk anen (2 ); 15. Shaun Ta cey ( 1): 16 . Sam Ermolenko (0),