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IN THE WIND P44 PAWLICKI WINS LATVIA SPEEDWAY GP P olish star Piotr Pawlicki admits a winter of hard work earned him room to relax as he stormed to his first-ever FIM Speedway Grand Prix win at the Rietumu Bank Latvian SGP in Daugavpils, May 28. The Leszno-born racer led a sensational Polish 1-2-3, as he was joined on the podium by runner-up and new world championship leader Patryk Dudek, with Maciej Janowski defying a horrifying crash to claim third. The night belonged to Pawlicki, who was unstoppable in his final five rides at Lokomo- tiv Stadium, as he piled up 18 points to move up to sixth in the standings. He was positively stunned by his first SGP win, but was pleased to see a winter of hard work by him and his team pay off in style. "It's an amazing day for me," Pawlicki said. "It's the first time I have won a GP. I was third last year in Malilla, but I won today and I can't believe what has happened. "I want to say thank you to my team. They are always working hard on my bikes. If you have a fast bike, you are more relaxed. If you have slow bikes, you must think 'what's happening? What must I do to be better?' So this was a very nice day for me. "Before the meeting I felt really, really very good. I was always smiling and the team was say- ing 'what's happening?!' Maybe I was a little more relaxed. Pawlicki was elated to stand between two more of Poland's speedway heroes as Dudek and Janowski also reached the rostrum. "It's an amazing day for Polish speedway," he said. "Three guys from Poland stood on the po- dium and with good points." Dudek now leads the SGP standings at 38 points, putting him just one ahead of Aussie icon Jason Doyle, who finished fourth after being slowed by a blocked air filter in the final. The Zielona Gora and Dackarna man was delighted to bounce back from two third places at the start of the night to go to the top of the world. "The first heats were very tough for me," Dudek said. "I changed bikes and it was very good. I won all the heats then and only lost to Piotr in the final. Congratulations to him—he was very fast today. But I am first now in the world championship, so that's perfect." Janowski enjoyed mixed fortunes as he limped away from Daugavpils with a leg injury after lifting spectacularly and crashing in heat 17, with Matej Zagar and Bartosz Zmarzlik unable to avoid him. Miraculously, all three men walked away from an ugly incident and Magic was pleased to end a painful night on the podium. American Greg Hancock was 12th on the night. John Hipkiss 1. Piotr Pawlicki 18 2. Patryk Dudek 16 3. Maciej Janowski 13 4. Jason Doyle 10 5. Emil Sayfutdinov 13 Piotr Pawlicki leads the way en route to his first career Speedway Grand Prix victory. PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN HIPKISS