Chris Holder came from a spectacular crash less than a week ago to win the European GP in Leszno. The Australian suffered the crash whilst driving for his Polish team in Torun in which we went head over heels and hurt his ribs. But he battled through the pain to beat Tomasz Gollob, Jaroslaw Hampel and Andreas Jonsson in the final. Gollob and Hampel battled throughout the first two laps before Holder came through to sneak it.
World Champion, Greg Hancock, made it to the semi-finals but his bike unfortunately packed-up and went out along with Nicky Pedersen, allowing Holder and Jonsson to go through. The other semi-final saw the two Polish riders beat Jason Crump and Kenneth Bjerre.
The meeting started with the New Zealand GP winner, Hancock, taking the chequered flag. Hampel won the second heat as Nicky Pedersen overtook Gollob on the final corner to steal second. The wildcard of the night was 20 year-old Przemyslaw Pawlicki and he stormed into the meeting with an initial victory in heat three. Bjerre would win the fourth heat with Crump in second and Holder in fourth.
Peter Ljung surprised the pack by winning heat five in a race where Britain's Chris Harris packed up. Holder was able to beat Hancock and Hampel in heat six to claim his first victory of the night before Pawlicki shone again to be the only rider to win his first two heats. Andreas Jonsson won the eighth heat with Gollob finishing miserably in fourth, picking up just one point in his first two rides.
Pawlicki failed to make it three out of three and ended up finishing third behind Hampel and Crump. Bjerre won his second heat of the night in heat ten with Hancock in second. Freddie Lindgren would be the first rider to fall in the meeting, he fell on the last lap as Gollob began to turn his night around with his first heat win. Unfortunately, lightning struck twice for Harris who suffered a second pack-up in two heats, leaving him to watch Jonsson win his second heat of the night.
Nicky Pedersen's only victory of the night came in heat 13 before Gollob finished ahead of Hancock to acquire his second consecutive heat victory. The only heat that was restarted was heat 18. The meeting official deemed the contact between Crump and Emil Sayfutdinov, despite neither rider falling off, was enough to warrant a restart. But Crump dusted himself down and took his second chequered flag of the meeting. Jonsson would then go onto win his third heat of the night to almost guarantee his place in the semi-finals.
Antonio Lindback has forced to retire in the 17th heat as he protective steel boot fell off. Again the heat continued and Gollob cruised to victory to also claim his third win. Freddie Lindgren recovered from his fall to claim heat 18. Bjarne Pedersen would fall on the second lap of heat 19, but again the race continued as the Dane managed to pick himself up and get out of the way. This allowed Hampel to win his second heat of the night but also became the only rider to win a heat from the outside gate. The final heat was won by Holder to squeeze himself into the semi-finals and the rest, as they say, is history. As far as the standings go, Hampel does now lead the way after two meetings.
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