ZAGAR CRASHES, WINS SPEEDWAY
GP OF POLAND
S
lovenian star Matej Zagar
defied a frightening fall to
boost his FIM Speedway World
Championship medal hopes with
a heroic Gorzow FIM Speedway
Grand Prix of Poland victory, Au-
gust 29.
The Ljubljana-born rider took
a ride back to the pits in an
ambulance after Aussie Cham-
pion Jason Doyle dove hard
under Nicki Pedersen in heat 18,
catching the Dane's front wheel.
The triple world champion fell
hard, taking Zagar with him.
Zagar—racing on his Polish
Ekstraliga home track—landed
awkwardly with his bike nearly
clearing the third-bend safety
fence.
Pedersen walked back to the
pits unaided but withdrew from
the meeting with a suspected
neck injury. Zagar emerged from
the ambulance and showed in-
credible steel to win the re-run.
After finishing behind World
Champion Greg Hancock in his
semi-final to reach the last four,
Zagar rounded the American
legend in superb style to claim
his third career Speedway GP
win. He now has 81 champion-
ship points. This puts him one
point behind Hancock in third
and four short of Pedersen in
second. Great Britain's World
Championship leader Tai Woffin-
den holds a 24-point lead at the
summit with four rounds to race.
But Zagar is firmly in the
medal hunt, even if scoring
points was the last thing on his
mind following his fall, which
left him with abdominal pain and
headaches.
"When I was sitting on the
track, I had other worries about
IN
THE
WIND
P26
Matej Zagar won the Grand Prix of Poland.
