After an injury hit 2012, Jaroslaw Hampel has returned and kick started 2013 off with a win in New Zealand. The Pole emerged victorious after somehow winning the semi-final from the unenviable gate four and the stroked home in the final after Tomasz Gollob allowed him to have the inside gate. Despite winning two more heats than Hampel, Gollob could only manage second in the final but got the same amount of points as Hampel
Despite recovering from broken ribs, Nicki Pedersen returned from two fourth places in his opening two heats to win his remaining three and ultimately finishing third in the final and in the points standings. The 2011 Champion and last year's Auckland winner, Greg Hancock, started off with two wins and managed to get in to the final but the outside gate was impossible for the American and he finished fourth in the final. But Hancock didn't finish fourth in the overall points scoring as debutante Darcy Ward finished a point ahead of him after three heat wins.
The Australian had the opening gate in the first semi-final but he could only finish third behind Hampel, the second winner to come from gate four all night, and Pedersen. Britain's Tai Woffinden had a great comeback to the series but he could only finish fourth in that tough semi-final. Gollob won the second semi-final ahead of Hancock. The defending Champion, Chris Holder, just squeezed in to the semi-finals on the basis he beat Freddie Lindgren in their head to head, but he could only manage third from the outside gate with the back to form Andreas Jonsson finishing fourth from the inside gate.
15 of the 23 heats were won from gate one in New Zealand but with 12 of the 16 riders picking up a heat win, this could be the start of the most competitive GP series. The night kicked off with Gollob winning the opening heat of 2013 with Woffinden in close quarters having left Matej Zagar and Krzysztof Kasprzak in their wake.
The second heat had to restarted as both Hancock and Niels-Kristian Iversen were a bit eager at the start. All four returned and the American won it ahead of Holder with the wildcard, Jason Bunyan, finishing fourth. Any thoughts of whether Ward would be caught in the headlights were quashed in the third heat as he comfortably won it ahead of Martin Vaculik, Hampel and Pedersen. Heat four saw Jonsson win it from gate four in the battle of the Swedes, Lindgren finished second with Antonio Lindback third and Emil Sayfutdinov miles behind the Swedish trio.
Hancock made it two out of two with Jonsson continuing to look back to his best in second, Gollob came third with Pedersen still yet to pick up a point in possibly, on paper, the best heat of the night. Sayfutdinov recovered to take heat six with Woffinden again taking second. Ward would also make it two out of two ahead of fellow Australian Holder who finished ahead of Lindgren, the result that got him in to the semi-finals. Kasprzak took full advantage of the inside gate to win heat eight ahead of Iversen, Hampel and Lindback.
Gollob took his second heat of the night in the ninth with Lindback managing second, Ward third and Bunyan finishing fourth for the second time. Hampel took the tenth heat ahead of Lindgren, Hancock and Woffinden. Pedersen managed his first points with the win in the 11th heat, although it ended up being by half a wheel ahead of Iversen who had been hunting him down, Sayfutdinov picked up another fourth behind Zagar. Jonsson took his second heat of the night with Holder finishing fourth from gate four.
Holder returned in the 13th heat to win from the inside gate and even Gollob couldn't make gate four work, finishing last behind Hampel and Sayfutdinov. Heat 14 had to be restarted as Iversen put the bike down in anticipation of an out of control Ward causing an accident. But the youngster held on to the bike and Iversen had to be excluded for causing the race to be stopped. Woffinden won the restart ahead of Jonsson and Ward. After a poor night, Lindback won heat 15 with Hancock only finishing third behind Vaculik but ahead of Zagar. Bunyan would go down in heat 16 under contact from Kasprzak, but the referee deemed the contact not enough for the Pole to get excluded so the Kiwi had to sit out. Pedersen won the restart to make it two in two with Lindgren taking second.
Gollob won his third heat of the night in the 17th with Lindgren almost stealing second from Iversen. Pedersen made it three out of three with Woffinden second, Holder third and Lindback completing a disappointing night in fourth. Zagar surprised the odds despite being off gate one to win heat 19 ahead of Hampel and Jonsson. The final heat was taken by Ward, his third of the night, with Sayfutdinov ending an inconsistent meeting with a second, Hancock third and Kasprzak fourth. Standings after one event:
1. Tomasz Gollob (pol) 15 2. Jaroslaw Hampel (pol) 15 3. Nicki Pedersen (den) 12 4. Darcy Ward (aus) 12 5. Greg Hancock (usa) 11 6. Andreas Jonsson (swe) 11 7. Chris Holder (aus) 9 8. Tai Woffinden (gbr) 9 9. Fredrik Lindgren (swe) 8 10. Niels-Kristian Iversen (den) 7 11. Emil Sayfutdinov (rus) 6 12. Antonio Lindback (swe) 12 13. Krzysztof Kasprzak (pol) 6 14. Martin Vaculik (svk) 5 15. Matej Zagar (slv) 5 16. Jason Bunyan (nzl) 1
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