Last night saw the second event of the 2011 Speedway World Cup take place in King's Lynn, Norfolk. Poland, Czech Republic, Russia and Great Britain were all battling for a place alongside Denmark in Saturday's final. Defending champions Poland were huge favourites but had omitted GP rider Rune Holta from the team. Other GP riders Thomasz Gollob, Jaroslaw Hampel and Janusz Kolodziej were joined by the highly rated Piotr Protasiewicz and Krzystof Kasprzak. Czech Pepublic have no GP riders but Matej Kus did ride as a wildcard in this year's Czech GP, he is joined by the Dryml brothers (Ales and Lukas), Tomas Topinka and Filip Sitera. Russia were tipped to battle hard for second until they turned up with only four riders, neither GP rider Emil Sayfutdinov nor Artem Laguta could get their required papers sorted leaving Roman Pavazhny, Segey Darkin, Ilya Bandarenko and Renat Gafurov riding for Russia. Great Britain were also tipped for second with GP rider Chris Harris joined by previous GP riders Scott Nicholls and Tai Woffinden, Edward Kennett and young Ben Barker completed the line-up.
It started beautifully for the hosts as Harris took the first heat and was then followed up by Darkin in heat two. After their slow start, Poland picked up the pace with Kolodziej, Protasiewicz and Kasprzak all picking up heat wins. Heat three saw the first incident on the the very tight first corner; Woffinden looked to have been taken down by Lukas Dryml but the referee decided that Woffinden was at fault and was excluded from the restart which Kolodziej won. After five heats Poland were on twelve points, Britain nine, Russia six and Czech Rep. on three.
Heat six saw Lukas Dryml seemingly false start but the referee didn't think so, but karma came back around as leader Dryml fell off and the third lap, causing his exclusion from the restart. Poland continued their dominance as Protasiewicz won the restart and was followed by Kasprzak's second win in heat seven. Nicholls played Britain's joker in heat eight but ended up hitting the deck, but he managed to get up to allow the race to continue. Britain earned nothing from their joker while Gollob took the heat. Heat nine saw Ales Drmyl felled by Woffinden and the Brit was excluded for his second consecutive heat, the restart saw Hampel take the chequered flag. With only having four riders, Russia couldn't field a rider for heat five but because they were more than six points behind Poland, they were allowed to field a sub in heat ten. Bandarenko only managed third but Kennett temporarily halted Poland's charge by winning the heat. After ten heats Poland were on twenty-six, Britain fifteen, Russia twelve and Czech Rep. seven.
Scott Nicholls and Tai Woffinden made it three heat wins on the spin for Britain although heat twelve saw Sitera fall but was able to continue. Kasprzak made it three from three before Harris made four wins in five for Britain. Heat fifteen saw Darkin and Lukas Dryml fall and Darkin was excluded. The restart saw Dryml and Harris get extremely close and Harris fell, causing Dryml's exclusion. The race between Hampel and Harris was eventually won by Hampel. After fifteen heats Poland were on thirty-eight, Britain twenty-eight, Russia fourteen and Czech Rep. nine.
Matej Kus became the latest to fall in heat sixteen but managed to continue, Kasprzak won his fourth heat from four rides. Gollob took heat seventeen before Woffinden and Kennett kept Britain cemented in second. Heat twenty saw Nicholls suffer a bad fall and his bike crashed into Pavazhny. Nicholls was excluded and Protasiewicz took the heat. After twenty heats Poland had fifty-one, Britain thirty-eight, Russia eighteen and Czech Rep. fourteen.
Pavazhny won Russia's second heat in the heat twenty-one to keep their third place alive. Ben Barker won heat twenty-two before carnage struck on the following heat; Protasiewicz and Sitera sandwiched Harris, causing all three to fall. But all four were allowed to continue and Harris went onto win the heat. Gafurov packed up on the penultimate heat which was won Kasprzak who won all five of his heats. This meant that Russia had a two point lead going into the final heat but weren't able to field a race. Luckily for them, Topinka could only manage third in the final heat which was won by Gollob. The final result saw Poland win on sixty-two, Britain second on forty-nine, Russia third on twenty-one and Czech Rep. last on twenty. Poland go through to join Denmark in Saturday's final, Britain and Russia join Sweden and Australia in Thursday's tough race-off.
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