IN
THE
WIND
P24
POLAND WINS FIM SPEEDWAY
WORLD CUP
T
eam Poland's captain Piotr
Pawlicki was elated to skipper
his country to their seventh Mon-
ster Energy FIM Speedway World
Cup win in Manchester, July 30.
Pawlicki's men topped the po-
dium at the National Speedway
Stadium at 39 points, topping
hosts Great Britain, who won sil-
ver for the first time since 2004
with 32, last year's winners Swe-
den (30) and Australia (22).
While Krzysztof Kasprzak
(eight points) played his part in a
fifth SWC title triumph and 2013
winner Patryk Dudek (10) won
his second gold medal, Pawlicki
(10) and Bartosz Zmarzlik (11)
won the Monster Energy SWC
for the first time.
"This is a big night for Po-
land," said Poland's captain
Pawlicki. "This is our seventh
gold medal and I am very happy.
Great Britain skipper Tai Wof-
finden inspired the Lions to their
first SWC rostrum finish in a de-
cade with an incredible 19-point
haul, which put his team the
closest they have been to gold
since they lost the 2004 SWC
crown by a point at Poole.
Dejected Swedish skipper An-
dreas Jonsson was baffled with
his team's mid-meeting slump as
they came up short in the race
for gold.
Jonsson said, "We just lost
it. I thought we fought all the
way through the meeting from
the beginning until the end. But
somewhere in the middle of the
meeting, we just lost the setup."
The U.S. team didn't make
the transfer after making some
last-minute team changes. Greg
Hancock withdrew from the
event and the team called up
reserve Luke Becker in what
was his first race overseas. He
joined teammates Ryan Fisher,
Billy Janniro and Broc Nicol,
who was a late replacement for
Ricky Wells. The team managed
just six points. CN
1. Poland (39)
2. Great Britain (32)
3. Sweden (30)
4. Australia (22)
