Before this season, Nicky Pedersen had never won a race in Gorican, Croatia. But he turned it round to win this year's Croatia GP, moving just six points behind standings leader Greg Hancock. The Dane beat Andreas Jonsson, Thomasz Gollob and wildcard Jurica Pavlic, who was racing on the track that his dad built, to take the victory.
Pedersen only finished second in the semi-finals as Pavlic beat him to the line. Chris Harris had a great night following a decent World Cup but could only finish third on the restart after Freddie Lindgren lost the bike in the initial race. After a slow start to the meeting, Gollob took the second semi-final ahead of Jonsson, they beat Hancock and Jason Crump to the places in the final.
The night began well for the Championship leader who won the opening heat. Crump took the second heat with Harris fourth and Pavlic in third behind Bjarne Pedersen. Jonsson won the third heat with Chris Holder starting his night with a point. With Jaroslaw Hampel still out of action, Slovakia's Martin Vaculik, who won the Gorzow GP, could only start his second GP with a fourth behind Gollob, Kenneth Bjerre and Nicky Pedersen taking his first heat of the night.
But Vaculik responded by winning the fifth heat ahead of Hancock. There was a false start in heat six but the restart saw Harris win his first race of the night ahead of Nicky Pedersen. Holder continued his Championship charge by taking heat seven ahead of Crump who could only manage third behind Bjerre. Jonsson made it two heats from two in heat eight ahead of Pavlic, Emil Sayfutdinov and Gollob.
Harris also secured two wins in two races in heat nine in a tough heat against Holder, Gollob and Hancock. But Jonsson wasn't to be outdone and he quickly made it three heats out of three in the tenth. Pavlic then set the stadium alight by taking heat-11 ahead of Nicky Pedersen. Crump would take his second heat of the night ahead of Vaculik in heat-12.
That was followed by Nicky Pedersen also taking his second heat of the night ahead of Crump, Jonsson and Hancock. Heat-14 initially saw Lindgren pack up but he would end up winning the restart after Holder had a nasty crash due to his chain breaking. After suffering a crash last week in the Elite League, this crash was enough to see Holder end his night without participating in his final heat. Gollob won heat-15 with Hans Andersen taking heat-16 ahead of Harris.
Hancock would then win his second heat of the night in heat-17 ahead of Bjerre, Pavlic and Peter Ljung who failed to score a single point in the meeting. Gollob also took his second win, making it two heats from two, with Crump only finishing fourth. Lindback took heat-19 with Harris securing a point that would ensure his place in the semi-finals. Substitute, Dino Kovacic, took Holder's place in heat-20 but only finished fourth while Sayfutdinov won it ahead of the two Pedersens.
The standings after seven rounds: 1.Hancock 97, 2.N.Pedersen 91, 3.Crump 87, 4.Holder 84, 5.Gollob 77, 6.Lindgren 72, 7.Sayfutdinov 65, 8.Jonsson 62, 9.Hampel 46, 10.Lindback 46, 11.Andersen 39, 12.Harris 38, 13.B.Pedersen 38, 14.Ljung 36, 15.Bjerre 35
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