Rd II: Leszno - 09-05-09

[admin]

-- -- 2009 FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP -- --

ROUND II: European Speedway Grand Prix

Location: Alfred Smoczyk Stadium, Leszno

Date: 09 May 2009

[6]..1..L Adams..(AUS)..2,1,3,0,0 = 6
[5]..2..H Andersen..(DEN)..1,0,2,1,2 = 6
[1]..3..N Pedersen..(DEN)..3,2,1,0,2..1 = 9
[9]..4..S Nicholls..(GBR)..0,0,0,0,1 = 1
[11]..5..C Harris..(GBR)..1,2,1,1,0 = 5
[16]..[W]..6..J Hampel..(POL)..3,1,0,3,1..1 = 9
[8]..7..R Holta..(POL)..2,1,1,1,3 = 8
[12]..8..K Bjerre..(POL)..0,2,2,0,1 = 4
[10]..9..F Lindgren..(SWE)..1,0,0,1,0 = 2
[15]..10..E Sajfutdinov..(RUS)..0,2,2,3,2..0 = 9
[3]..11..T Gollob..(POL)..3,0,2,3,3..2..4 = 17 - 2nd
[14]..12..S Ulamek..(POL)..2,3,0,3,0..0 = 8
[7]..13..A Jonsson..(SWE)..1,3,3,2,3..2..2 = 16 - 3rd
[4]..14..G Hancock..(USA)..3,3,3,2,2..3..0 = 16
[2]..15..J Crump..(AUS)..2,3,3,2,3..3..6 = 22 - 1st
[13]..16..G Walasek..(POL)..0,1,1,2,1 = 5

[17]..17..[R]..D Balinski..(POL) = DNR
[18]..18..[R]..J Kolodziej..(POL) = DNR

Ht 1..Pedersen, Adams, Andersen, Nicholls
Ht 2..Hampel, Holta, Harris, Bjerre
Ht 3..Gollob, Ulamek, Lindgren, Sajfutdinov
Ht 4..Hancock, Crump, Jonsson, Walasek
Ht 5..Jonsson, Harris, Adams, Lindgren
Ht 6..Hancock, Sajfutdinov, Hampel, Andersen
Ht 7..Crump, Pedersen, Holta, Gollob [E/F]
Ht 8..Ulamek, Bjerre, Walasek, Nicholls
Ht 9..Adams, Gollob, Walasek, Hampel
Ht 10..Crump, Andersen, Harris, Ulamek
Ht 11..Hancock, Bjerre, Pedersen, Lindgren
Ht 12..Jonsson, Sajfutdinov, Holta, Nicholls
Ht 13..Ulamek, Hancock, Holta, Adams
Ht 14..Gollob, Jonsson, Andersen, Bjerre
Ht 15..Sajfutdinov, Walasek, Harris, Pedersen [F/Ex]
Ht 16..Hampel, Crump, Lindgren, Nicholls
Ht 17..Crump, Sajfutdinov, Bjerre, Adams [Ex]
Ht 18..Holta, Andersen, Walasek, Lindgren
Ht 19..Jonsson, Pedersen, Hampel, Ulamek
Ht 20..Gollob, Hancock, Nicholls, Harris

Ht 21..Hancock, Gollob, Hampel, Ulamek
Ht 22..Crump, Jonsson, Pedersen, Sajfutdinov

Ht 23..Crump, Gollob, Jonsson, Hancock

Notes:

1..Ht 15 and we've a re-run without Pedersen who takes a tumble and is excluded.
2..Ht 17 and we've a re-run without Adams who gets into mischief and is excluded.
3..Ht 19 and we've a re-run with all 4 after an unsatisfactory start.
4..Ht 21 and it's Ulamek ( R ), Hancock ( B ), Gollob ( W ) and Hampel ( Y ).
5..Ht 22 and it's Sajfutdinov ( R ), Jonsson ( B ), Crump ( W ) and Pedersen ( Y ).
6..Ht 23 and it's Jonsson ( R ), Hancock ( B ), Crump ( W ) and Gollob ( Y ).
7..Ht 23 and Crump wins the Grand Prix of Europe.

And the thoughts of the legendary paulco:

Heat 1 - Electric gate from the Evil Dane and the race was over by the 2nd bend . Adams comfortably kept Andersen at bay for 2nd place , and Scott Nicholls was also in the race .
Heat 2 - Another race decided from the gate , although Harris did manage to get past Bjerre for 3rd .
Heat 3 - Classic Gollob move scares the shit out of the young Russian , who had made the gate .
Heat 4 - Hancock from the gate , good battle for 3rd place between Jonsson and Walasek .
Heat 5 - Good gate from Jonsson , poor from Adams who just manage to scrape 3rd place from the disappointing Lindgren
Heat 6 - Hampel tried to make the gate from the outside , but just failed to lead Grin . Eventually loses 2nd to the Russian . Andersen woeful .
Heat 7 - Crump from the gate . Decent race between Evil Dane and Gollob for 2nd before Gollob grinds to a halt . Johnno says the word " definitely " 37 times so far in commentary .
Heat 8 - Easy win for Ulamek , predictably from the gate . More nonsense from Nicholls , who had the inside gate in a poor race he should be looking to win .
Heat 9 - Strange race . Walasek from the gate , but after a lap or so he waves Gollob through . But just when you think Gollob is going to win , Adams bursts into life to catch him off the final bend .
Heat 10 - Crump from the gate , winning easily from Andersen and Harris . While chief gating tart , Ulamek , didn't gate and finished last .
Heat 11 - Good win for Grin who chased and passed Bjerre who gated . Poor race for Evil Dane , who messed up at the start and just got the better of the hapless Lindgren .
Heat 12 - Jonsson from the gate , but was chased hard by the wide riding Russian . Holta a comfortable 3rd , and erm Scott Nicholls was also in the race .
Heat 13 - Ulamek from the gate . Poor from Adams at the back . Gate 4 looks impossible .
Heat 14 - Gollob emerges in front after all 4 get in each other's road a bit . Jonsson gets past Andersen for 2nd place . Decent enough race though .
Heat 15 - Race will be rerun after Walasek gives Evil Dane a nudge , who in turn clatters into Sajfutdinov . Evil Dane excluded .
After seeing it again , Evil Dane did turn into Walasek which caused the nudge which caused the domino effect into the Russian .
In the rerun Walasek rides Harris wide and Sajfutdinov sails through the gap that has been left to win easy .
Heat 16 - Great race between Hampel and Crump . Lindgren disappointing again and erm ..............Scott Nicholls was in the race too .
Heat 17 - Rerun as Adams puts Bjerre into the fence and is excluded . In the first running Sajfutdinov executes a classic 2nd bend cut-back to go from last to first , but Crump quickly retakes him and the Russian quickly finds himself at the back again . Track is now badly rutted which was a contributing factor in Adam's exclusion .
And Miss Blue just blew me a kiss through the telly - lovely lassie .
Easy win in the rerun for Crump over the Russian with the Polish passport .
Heat 18 - Andersen emerges from a messy start in the lead , but Holta soon sails past him to go on and win easily .
Heat 19 - Rerun as Jonsson goes through the tapes . But incredibly Jonsson has been let back into the rerun .
Evil Dane gates , but Jonsson soon passes him . Hampel gets past Ulamek to get through to the semis
Heat 20 - Hancock gates , but cant contain a charging Gollob . At a respectable distance Nicholls grabs his first point by beating Harris .

Semi-final 1 - Easy win for Hancock . Ding-dong battle between Gollob and Hampel with Gollob just edging it .
Semi-final 2 - The only battle was for third as Crump and Jonsson were well clear .

Final - Crump from the gate , Gollob couldn't get close .
Thank you and goodnight .

[admin]

-- -- Roll of Honour -- --

2000..B Hamill..(USA)..Bydgoszcz
2002..N Pedersen..(DEN)..Chorzow
2003..T Rickardsson..(SWE)..Chorzow
2004..B Pedersen..(DEN)..Wroclaw
2005..T Rickardsson..(SWE)..Wroclaw
2006..J Crump..(AUS)..Wroclaw
2007..N Pedersen..(DEN)..Wroclaw
2008..L Adams..(AUS)..Leszno

-- -- Uninteresting Facts -- --

The stadium in Leszno is named in honour of Alfred Smoczyk
He rode for the Leszno club.
And he was the first Polish Champion, way back in 1949.
Smoczyk also won that first Polish title in Leszno.
But a year later he was dead, following a road accident in October 1950.
Smoc in Polish means "dragon".
The track at the Alfred Smoczyk Stadium is 330 metres long, has a surface composed of syenite and the track record is 58.40 seconds.
And that track record is held by Krzysztof Kasprzak of Unia Leszno.
His father Zenon Kasprzak has previously held the track record at the Alfred Smoczyk Stadium.
Leszno is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship and has a population of circa 60,000.
Leszno was once owned by the Leszczynski family, one of the great names in the Polish nobility.
The family, part of the Wieniawa clan, took their name Leszczynski from the family estate of Leszno.
And their coat of arms features a bull.
Unia Leszno are known as "the bulls".
The family sold Leszno when King Stanislaw Leszczynski abdicated for the second time in 1738.
As part of the "Second Partition of Poland" Leszno was annexed to Prussia in 1793 as part of the provence of Posen.
The town was known as Lissa while part of Prussia.
It was also known as Lissa after 1939 when it was annexed to Hitler's Third Reich.
That annexation saw the Polish population of the town expelled into the area of the General Government of Poland.
The Governor General of Poland was Hans Frank.
He was sentenced to death by the victorious Allies at the Nuremburg tribunal.
His final words were: "I am grateful for the kind treatment during my captivity and I ask God to accept me with mercy."
He showed scant mercy to the Poles during his time as Governor General of Poland.

[Deleted]

Only a couple of layers have come out to play so far, but the odds make very interesing reading.

Adams 7/2
Crump 5/1
Pedersen 6/1
Hampel 12/1
Gollob 12/1
Sajfutdinov 12/1
Hancock 16/1
Jonsson 16/1
Lindgren 16/1
Andersen 25/1
Bjerre 66/1
Holta 66/1
Walasek 66/1
Harris 125/1
Ulamek 125/1
Nicholls 200/1

This is a ground breaking meeting for the betting market and is proof that speedway is one of the fastest growing markets. They seem to be coming around to the fact that Nicholls chances of GP success is almost non-existant and that 2009 will NOT be Nicki Pedersen's year.

[schumi]

Or maybe they've finally done some research and seen Leszno is Leigh Adams' home track in Poland, and he won it last year.

[Deleted]

Two questions

1) What time is the draw today ?
2) Have any riders in tomorrows GP ever ridden for Leszno before Adams and Hampel ?

[Deleted]

May 8, 2009 5:43:09 GMT @schumi said:

Or maybe they've finally done some research and seen Leszno is Leigh Adams' home track in Poland, and he won it last year.

They always do their research.

[Deleted]

May 8, 2009 8:10:36 GMT @hatcham said:

Two questions

1) What time is the draw today ?
2) Have any riders in tomorrows GP ever ridden for Leszno before Adams and Hampel ?

Draw is

Adams
Andersen
Pedersen
Nicholls
Harris
Hampel
Holta
Bjerre
Lindgren
Sajfutdinov
Gollob
Ulamek
Jonsson
Hancock
Crump
Walasek

[admin]

And the thoughts of the global superstar's official crash helmet carrier:

Russian to the top
Crump could take advantage of Pedersen injury

The performance of Emil Sajfutdinov at the first Grand Prix of the season was truly remarkable.

In terms of the racing it wasn't the best Grand Prix because the track was so slick and to some degree that detracted from the meeting, but the young Russian's efforts on his series debut saved it.

I didn't expect him to be that good - and I certainly didn't expect him to win it - but his form for his Polish club coming into the meeting was very strong and I don't think anybody was surprised to see him going well. But none of us expected him to go that well!

I think he's going to be a star. He's only 19 so he's going to be a little bit up and down in his first season, but I think he'll hold his own in the GP series. I can't see any reason why he can't go well this weekend.

He's confident and he's very familiar with the Polish track. They are significantly different to anywhere else in Europe so he has a good understanding of that and he rides well at Leszno.

He'll be looking to put some more points on the board this weekend, that's for sure.

Matured

Freddie Lindgren leads the standings after the first GP and he's a rider I really like. He's matured from last season when it was all a bit too much for him in terms of his commitments to his club and to the Grand Prix.

This year the responsibility of leading his club has been taken by Peter Karlsson and that has enabled him to focus on himself.

He's a year wiser and he looks good. He's a quality rider and his form in the early part of the season has been outstanding. Freddie Lindgren is starting to look like a real contender to me.

It was a very disappointing night for the English riders in the Czech Republic, both missing the semi-finals quite comfortably.

Leszno is not a favourite track for them so they've got to try and start well and get some points on the board early to boost their confidence. That's their only realistic chance of making the top eight.

If Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris make the semi-finals on Saturday night it would represent a huge improvement. I know it's still early days, but if they don't do well at this Grand Prix they'll spend the whole season just chasing the top eight.

If they don't do well this week they could find themselves in a scrap all of the way. They'll know that so they need to dig deep and they need to perform.

Thumb

At the time of writing, I still haven't heard if Nicki Pedersen is going to be racing or not after breaking his thumb.

It will be extremely hard to race with that sort of injury for two reasons. Firstly you've got to hold on and that won't be easy, plus there's an awful lot of vibration coming through the handlebars so that will be even more uncomfortable with a broken bone.

He may have to take some painkillers, but he's a tough customer and if it's at all possible he will be there and he'll give himself every chance to ride and pick up as many points as he can.

There could be an opportunity for Crump to pounce on the misfortune of the world champion. Crump is in excellent form, scoring points for both of his clubs in Poland and Sweden, and he seems very keen and motivated.

Crump is going to be a real contender along with Greg Hancock who has been in really good form.

And I don't think you can look past Leigh Adams this weekend as he has ridden for Leszno since 1996 and having won the Grand Prix there last year he'll be a key figure in the meeting.

If you're looking for an outsider, I fancy the chances of the wildcard Jarek Hampel, who rides for Leszno and has been in really good form for Ipswich Witches.

He made the final as a wildcard last year and it wouldn't be any surprise to me if he does that again.

Taken from:

www.skysports.com

[admin]

Zenon Kasprzak, one time track record holder at the Alfred Smoczyk Stadium and father of Krzysztof Kasprzak, is looking forward to another good performance from Emil Sajfutdinov, but he's tipping Jason Crump to win in Leszno:

www.sportowefakty.pl/zuzel/2009/05/08/zenon-kasprzak-sajfutdinov-znowu-pokaze-klase/

[Deleted]

ignore me tonight ok

[Deleted]

im drunk sorry leeds just lost to millwall in the 1st leg of the play ofs.. pissed ;D

[Deleted]

ops

[Deleted]

Think the bookies have under-estimated Satsumanov a wee bit , so i've had a fiver each way with Bluesquare at 12/1 . And i've another fiver each way on Hampel at 9/1 - if memory serves me correctly did Hampel not have an outstanding meeting here in the SWC last year or the year before ?

[Deleted]

May 9, 2009 16:30:23 GMT @paulco said:

Think the bookies have under-estimated Satsumanov a wee bit , so i've had a fiver each way with Bluesquare at 12/1 . And i've another fiver each way on Hampel at 9/1 - if memory serves me correctly did Hampel not have an outstanding meeting here in the SWC last year or the year before ?

I've snapped up the 16/1 e/w on Grinning Greg, and lumped on Adams at 6/5 to win heat 1.
Heat betting is proving very profitable.

[schumi]

Coffee, Lis?