IN
THE
WIND
P22
HANCOCK ON THE VERGE
J
aroslaw Hampel
won the Scandina-
vian Speedway Grand
Prix on Saturday night
in Stockholm, but
Greg Hancock moved
to within just 10 points
from claiming a third
World Speedway
Championship with his
second place finish at
the Friends Arena.
Hampel turned in a
21-point maximum per-
formance to take the
win after scoring just 12
points in the previous
four rounds. It was the
first time a rider scored
maximum points in a
Grand Prix since his compatriot
Tomasz Gollob went through the
card unbeaten in the 2010 Nor-
dic GP at Vojens.
Polish star Krzysztof Kasprzak
leapfrogged Britain's defending
World Champion Tai Woffinden
for second place in the standings
after finishing third and he sits
12 points behind Hancock with
one round remaining. Australian
Chris Holder finished fourth on
the night in Stockholm.
Hancock has endured a tor-
rid month after suffering mul-
tiple fractures of his left index
finger in Gorzow on August 30.
The 44-year-old had two pins re-
moved from the digit last week to
get himself back on track for the
Friends Arena event.
Despite starting with a last
place, he piled up 15 points in his
final six outings and admits his
heroic performance was beyond
his comeback expectations.
"I set my goals high and I
definitely exceeded what I ex-
pected," Hancock said. "I'm
pretty excited right now. I hadn't
ridden for almost a month and I
had a couple of laps of practice
on Thursday night. I had some
on Friday too. I feel great. That
second place in Stockholm was
a massive achievement for me
personally in terms of my confi-
dence and belief. It's nice all the
hard work we put into this still
pays off."
Hancock could seal his third
World Championship with a dou-
ble-figure return in the Torun FIM
Speedway Grand Prix of Poland
on October 11, and that target will
be reduced with every point sur-
rendered by title rivals Kasprzak
and Woffinden.
But the cool Californian isn't
letting thoughts of lifting the title
enter his mind.
"We don't want to talk about
that! I just want to do the best
I can and I want to be World
Champion too."
The night in Sweden belonged
to Hampel.
(From left to right) Greg Hancock,
Jaroslaw Hampel and Krzysztof
Kasprzak celebrate after the Scan-
dinavia Speedway Grand Prix on
Saturday night.
