Grand Prix Speedway Returns

The start of the 2011 Speedway season got under way last month and yesterday saw the return of Grand Prix Speedway. There were three new names to added to the fifteen man roster: Janusz Kolodziej from Poland, Antonio Lindback from Sweden and Artem Laguta from Russia. The first meeting of the season was held in Leszno, Poland and with four Polish representatives plus the wildcard, Damian Balinski, the crowd was in full volume.

The opening heat of the night saw reigning World Champion Thomasz Gollob get off to the best possible with a comfortable win. The second heat saw debutante Kolodziej prove his growing reputation with his first win also. The first bit of controversy came in heat three when Jaroslaw Hampel looked to have clipped Kenneth Bjerre's bike before falling off. Unluckily, Bjerre was excluded and the returning Emil Sayfutdinov, who was out for much of last season due to injury, won the restart. World number three Jason Crump won the fourth heat.

American veteran Greg Hancock rolled back the years with the win in heat five. Heat six saw major drama with Balinski guilty of a false start and, despite having already dropped to last, the race was restarted much to Gollob's disgust. The restart then Nicky Pedersen overtake Gollob but the Champion tried too hard to defend and ended up becoming un-seated and getting excluded from the second restart. In the end Sayfutdinov won the heat despite being nowhere near in the first two attempts. Fredrik Lindgren won heat seven in the battle between three Swedes and Bjerre won heat eight.

Nicky Pedersen won heat nine before Gollob won his second heat of the night. Hancock also won his second heat of night in heat eleven before Great Britain's Chris Harris won the twelfth heat.

Heat thirteen saw Balinski fall and despite getting back up, the referee excluded him and restarted the heat which Bjerre won for his second heat. Heat fourteen saw the top four of last season race; number two Hampel won it ahead of Gollob with number four Holta beating Crump to third. Young Kolodziej won his second heat in the fifteenth before Hancock made it three wins in heat sixteen.

The final heats saw Holta win the seventeenth. Gollob won his third race in the eighteenth. Lindgren won his second in the penultimate heat before Kolodziej suffered a bad crash in the final heat and was lucky to be able to walk away seemingly unscathed, Hampel eventually won the final heat.

The first semi-final saw Hampel and Sayfutdinov make it into the final with Hancock finishing third and Holta fourth. The second semi-final saw Gollob and Pedersen go through with Bjerre third and Lindgren, who initially crashed, in fourth. The final was won by Denmark's Pedersen with champ Gollob second, Sayfutdinov third and Hampel fourth.

Despite finishing second, Gollob leads the standing at this early stage with eighteen points. Pedersen is on seventeen in second behind Hancock and Sayfutdinov who are both on fourteen. Hampel is on twelve ahead of Lindgren on eleven, Bjerre on ten and Holta on nine. Unfortunately for debutante Laguta, he failed to score a single point in any of his heats.