The best action on two wheels returns with the 15-best speedway racers once again travelling the world to find out which of them is truly king of the oval. After winning his first world title last year, Chris Holder returns to defend his crown against some old rivals and new faces and it all begins in New Zealand for the second consecutive season.
This time last year, Greg Hancock was beginning his defence of his second world title and won the inaugural race of 2012. This year, the veteran American has even more fire in his belly to start this season with as he has become a father for the third time.
The end of last season saw Holder almost come to blows with second placed Nicki Pedersen. The Dane is a big shout for this year's championship, which would be his fourth crown and his first since 2008. If, probably when, controversy hits this season, it'll be fair to say that Pedersen won't be far away from it as he does add a lot of drama to the circuit. He will begin the season with broken ribs but he believes that won't slow him down in the hunt for Holder.
The 2010 Champion, Tomasz Gollob, has been a bit off par and disappointing in the last couple of seasons, finishing well off the pace. The Pole finished fourth in a injury plagued season last year but even so, he will have improve a lot this season if he's to add to that 2010 crown. What will please Gollob is the reinstating of Bydgoszcz as the Polish GP. It's the first time since Gollob won the Championship that the ZKS Polonia Stadium has been used and Gollob has won seven of the 14 Grands Prix that it has hosted, making him the huge favourite to win the second round of this season.
If there's going to be another young champion this season, Emil Sayfutdinov will be a great bet. The young, two years Holder's junior at 23, Russian has continued impress since his debut season in 2009 where he came third and won three events. Although perhaps somewhat surprisingly, Sayfutdinov has finished fifth and sixth in the last two years without winning an event since 2009. But that should change this season.
Perhaps the performer of last season, Antonio Lindback really put himself in the forefront of Swedish speedway. This will the be eighth full GP season for the Brazilian born Swede and his eighth place last year was by far his best. Lindback won both the Italian GP and the final round in Torun last season and has quickly become one of the most entertaining riders on the roster. Maybe the Swede has an outside chance of taking the glory this year, but this could be the year he definitely takes the mantle of Sweden's best rider from Andreas Jonsson.
Fredrik Lindgren may have something to say to that after finishing just a place behind Lindback last year. The pair are the same age and will both be racing in their eighth GP series. The only thing separating the pair at the minute is that Lindback took two wins last year, whereas Lindgren managed one win and one less final appearance than his compatriot.
Ninth place was very disappointing the Jonsson after finishing second in 2011. With three GP wins in that season, the zero in that column in 2012 shows how underwhelming it was for AJ. Only in 2002 & 2003 (his first two seasons) and 2012 has Jonsson done worse and he'll be hoping for a vast improvement again this time. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely as the class of the riders is becoming higher and the battle for the sacred top eight places are going to the most fiercely contested this season.
The breakthrough rider of 2012 was definitely Martin Vaculik. The Slovakian greatly benefited from Jaroslaw Hampel's injury hit season and surprised the world by winning one of his six outings. The 22-year old will really be under the microscope this season and if he performs anywhere near like in his six Grands Prix, Vaculik could be a real dark horse for winning this Championship, or at least finish well in to the top eight.
Hampel will be hoping to put his unfortunate and injury hit 2012 well and truly behind him with a great 2013. The Pole could only manage eight events last seasons and even then Hampel looked to be struggling for a lot of it, despite making two finals. He has been a regular since 2004 and he would have loved to have continued on from his second place in 2010 and third in 2011. Maybe he can do it this year as a fit Hampel is an extremely entertaining one and as he's already proven, he's a potential Championship contender.
There are five newcomers this season who weren't part of the whole 2012 series. Poland's Krzysztof Kasprzak had two Grands Prix last year and made a final appearance in one of them. His only previous full season in the GP was in 2008 where he finished 14th although he did make it to the final in his only event appearance in 2007, showing that he does have what it takes to mix it in with the big boys and hopefully he can do so this season.
Slovenia's Matej Zagar also featured in two events last season but hasn't participated in a full calender since 2007 where he finished 14th. He did manage to finish seventh in 2006 where he made it in to two finals, he also made it to that stage in one of his two appearances in 2005. The bookies believe that he is the severe underdog this year but the Slovenian believes he has what it takes to compete.
Niels-Kristian Iversen returns to the series since 2008, his last appearance was in 2010. He finished 12th in 2008 which was one better than in 2006 but his only final appearance came in 2009 where he featured in three events. Iversen has what it takes to win heats but whether he'll be competing that much this season will definitely be something to watch out for.
The biggest unknown potentially this season his Britain's Tai Woffinden. In recent years, the Brits have been getting worse and worse with Chris Harris losing his place this season. the 22-year old's only previous series came in 2010 and his naivety shone through a lot on his way to finishing 14th. Woffinden was offered a place last season but he turned it down in order to improve himself further. He is definitely the future of British speedway and it will be interesting just to see how far he has come since 2010.
With the sad news that Jason Crump chose to retire at the end of last season, there's now a huge void in Australian speedway even though Holder is taking over the winning championships side of things. This season sees Darcy Ward try to fill the tyre tracks left by Crump and the 20-year old will be the youngest full rider this season. The youngster did appear in two GPs in 2011 and actually made it to a final which shows the class that this Australian has. Like Woffinden, he will definitely be an exciting watch but being the only debutante this season, he may be a rabbit caught in the headlights.
That doesn't really seem likely and the fact there isn't really anyone apart from maybe Zagar and Iversen that you could potentially say won't compete very much, makes this GP series the most competitive one yet so watch this space.
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