Antonio Lindback has raced in 52 GP events and now he has won his first of them in Terenzano, Italy. It was the eighth round of this year's series and Lindback took it after the final had to be restarted. Martin Vaculik continued his dream start to life in the GP by making it into the final, but would ultimately crash out at the start. It did look a bad crash as he landed on his head and the ambulance was called onto the track. But, luckily, Vaculik did get back to his feet and walk back to the paddock to watch the restart of the final.
The Swede made a brilliant start which ultimately gave him the win in the final ahead of Emil Sayfutdinov who gained the most points in the meeting. Greg Hancock finished third, meaning that he could open a lead at the top of the standings to ten points.
Sayfutdinov won his semi-final ahead of Lindback. Nicky Pedersen and Jason Crump, second and third in the standings, finished third and fourth in that semi-final, hence why Hancock managed to open a lead. Vaculik beat Hancock to win the second semi-final ahead of Chris Holder, fourth in the standings, and Andreas Jonsson.
The night began with Lindback taking the opening heat. That was followed by Sayfutdinov beating Hancock, Nicky Pedersen and Crump to victory in the second heat. Vaculik started his night with a fourth place in heat three with Holder taking the win. Thomasz Gollob began his night in third, ahead of wildcard Nicholas Covatti, but behind Chris Harris and Kenneth Bjerre who won the heat.
Jonsson took heat five ahead of Crump, Harris and Bjarne Pedersen. Sayfutdinov then made it two heats from two with Gollob only managing to finish fourth. Nicky Pedersen responded to his third place by winning heat seven ahead of Bjerre, Lindback and Holder. Vaculik then took heat eight ahead of Hancock.
Holder took his second heat of the night in the ninth, this meant Sayfutdinov had been beaten for the first time in second, Jonsson came third with Covatti fourth. Bjerre packed up at the start of heat ten, leaving him to watch Crump take the heat from Vaculik and Lindgren. Hancock also opened his account in heat-11 with victory over Gollob and Lindback. Heat-12 was surprisingly won Peter Ljung who finished ahead of Harris and Nicky Pedersen.
Vaculik then won his second heat in the the 13th ahead of Gollob, Nicky Pedersen and Jonsson. Harris looked to continue his rise with victory in heat-14 with Lindgren second, Holder third and Hancock fourth. Lindback then took his second heat of the night ahead of Crump with Hans Andersen picking up a heat win in the 16th ahead of Sayfutdinov.
Hancock also took his second heat of the night in the 17th, finishing ahead of Jonsson. That was quickly followed up by Nicky Pedersen taking his second heat of the night with Covatti taking second. Heat-19 saw Harris his a rut in the start, this caused him to lose his bike and was subsequently excluded from the restart, a result that saw him miss out on the semi-finals via count back. Vaculik won the restart, claiming his third heat of the night, with Sayfutdinov second and Lindback third. Crump would take his second heat in the final race ahead of Holder and Gollob.
After eight rounds, Hancock stands on 111 points. Nicky Pedersen is now ten points behind on 101 while Crump sits further behind on 97. Holder is currently fourth on 94 with a ten point gap between himself and Sayfutdinov. Gollob sits a point behind the Russian on 83 with Freddie Lindgren on 77 and Jonsson completing the top eight on 70.
The win for Lindback means his challenge to get into the top eight stands at eight points on 62. The rest are quite a way behind, Harris is tenth on 46, level with Jaroslaw Hampel who is still to return. Ljung is 12th on 44 with Andersen on 43. Vaculik's fantastic performances has put him on 42 which is a point more than what Bjerre and Bjarne Pedersen have accumulated throughout the whole series.
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