IN
THE
WIND
P54
VACULIK TOPS WORLD SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX OPENER
S
lovak racer Martin Vaculik an-
nounced his FIM Speedway
Grand Prix return in sensational
style after storming to Aztorin
Slovenian SGP glory in Krsko,
April 28.
The Zarnovica-born star
bounced back brilliantly from
three years out of the World
Championship, topping the ros-
trum ahead of Fredrik Lindgren
and Patryk Dudek.
All three riders earned their
places in the SGP series by pack-
ing the podium at last season's
GP Challenge in Vetlanda and
the qualifiers' heroics in Slovenia
underlined the strength of one of the greatest line-
ups in series history.
The trio now tops the World Championship,
with Lindgren leading the way and Vaculik sec-
ond—both tied at 16 points. Dudek is third with 13.
Gorzow and Vetlanda man Vaculik was elated
with his first SGP win since he triumphed at the
Gorzow SGP on his World Championship debut in
2012, and he paid tribute to his loyal army of fol-
lowers. He said: "I'm very happy. What can I say?
I'm very pleased with this result and I'd like to say
a big thank you to my tuner Ashley Holloway and
my team—the guys did a tremendous job in Krsko
and have done all season.
"I'm not surprised I won here; I just did my best
and everything worked well. I am very pleased
about it. My results are down to a lot of things—a
little bit of this and a little bit of that. Everything
came together.
"I think gating was very, very important and if
you made a good start, you had a big chance to
win the heats. That was the key to success."
John Hipkiss
1. Martin Vaculik
2. Fredrik Lindgren
3. Patryk Dudek
4. Jason Doyle
5. Emil Sayfutdinov
6. Greg Hancock
7. Matej Zagar
8. Niels-Kristian Iversen
9. Tai Woffinden
10 Piotr Pawlicki
Martin Vaculik
started the 2017
Speedway Grand
Prix season off
with a win in
Slovenia.
Greg Hancock finished out the night in sixth.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JOHN
HIPKISS
