Australia's Chris Holder has emerged victorious to be crowned Speedway's 2012 World Champion. Holder began the night two points ahead of Nicky Pedersen and, after an altercation in a controversial semi-final, finished eight points ahead of the Dane. The former World Champion, Greg Hancock, finished 2012 in third place. But the night wasn't all about the happiness of crowning a new World Champion, the Grand Prix world had to say an emotional farewell to three time World Champion, Jason Crump, who has announced his retirement just before permanently passing the mantle to his protege.
With all the hype of Holder claiming the Championship in the semi-final, the final in Torun was almost forgotten about. The Australian had made it into the final and would have taken the chequered flag if it wasn't for his bike packing up. This allowed seventh placed Antonio Lindback to win his second Grand Prix this season. He managed to beat fourth placed Tomasz Gollob, who scored the most points on the night, and Hancock.
At the semi-final stage, Holder had a six point lead over Pedersen and they were due to meet in the second event. The preamble saw a false start before Gollob beat Hancock to claim the first two final places. Martin Vaculik continued his fantastic deputising year by finishing third with World U-21 Champion, Maciej Janowski, taking his wildcard entry by finishing fourth in the semi-final.
Then it was the showdown, Holder versus Pedersen (as well as Lindback and fifth placed Emil Sayfutdinov). To make it more dramatic, Holder lined up in gate one with Pedersen in gate two. The both roared from the tapes and the Dane looked to try and push Holder off of the track as they hit the first corner. Holder had to push back and hit a wet patch which jet propelled him around and straight into Pedersen. Pedersen then collected Lindback on his way down. The referee had a huge decision on his hands and decided, somewhat controversially, to have all four riders back for the restart. Unsurprisingly, Pedersen was less than thrilled with the result and decided to walk over to Holder to give his two pennies worth. It can't have been the nicest of words and it caused some members of Holder's entourage to start pushing Pedersen.
After the pair had been pulled apart, Crump pulled Holder to one side to give him words of encouragement. It looked to have done the job as he roared out to win the semi-final. Pedersen was pushed out by Lindback to only finish third and concede the Championship.
Before any of that, the rain in Poland caused a delay into the proceedings which just added to the tension. Once the meeting had finally got under way, Vaculik won the opening heat before Gollob began his night with a victory, Hancock came second and Pedersen could only manage third. Sayfutdinov took the third heat before Holder took full advantage by winning the fourth and extending his lead to four points, Crump began his final Grand Prix night with a second place.
Lindgren took heat five with Gollob finishing second. Holder continued doing what he had to do by making it two heats from two with Hancock kissing his chances of stealing the Championship away by only finishing fourth. Lindback took heat seven whilst Pedersen finished third, opening the gap to six points, with Crump fourth. Janowski showed more of what the next generation has to offer by becoming the latest Wildcard to win a heat.
Lindback then beat Hancock in heat nine to claim his second heat in a row. Jaroslaw Hampel continued his miserable year by packing up in heat ten with Gollob also taking his second heat of the night, Crump came third. Vaculik became the next to win two heats with Holder only managing third. This allowed Pedersen a sniff and he took by winning heat-12 to close the gap back to four points.
Heat-13 was the first showdown between Holder and Pedersen and the Australian beat the Dane to the chequered flag, to make the gap five points with Holder making it three heats out of four. Lindback followed suite with his third victory in heat-14. Emil Sayfutdinov false started in the next heat but all four were allowed to continue, Gollob would win the restart to also claim his third victory of the night. Hancock won the 16th heat with Crump claiming second.
Then it was the poignant moment of the night, heat-17 was Crump's final Grand Prix heat ever and unfortunately Sayfutdinov and Hans Andersen stood in his way to winning it, it was the Russian's second victory of the night. Chris Harris will be unlikely to receive a place in next season's series and if that is the case then he tuned out with a heat victory. Pedersen finished third and it was just enough to squeeze into the semi-finals. The final heat of the night was won by Gollob, claiming his fourth win in five.
So, after another dramatic and fantastic Grand Prix. Congratulations go out Chris Holder and our wishes go to Jason Crump for a happy retirement from the GP series. Here's the final Championship standings:
1.Chris Holder (Aus) 160
2.Nicky Pedersen (Den) 152
3.Greg Hancock (USA) 148
4.Tomasz Gollob (Pol) 142
5.Emil Sayfutdinov (Rus) 133
6.Jason Crump (Aus) 126
7.Antonio Lindback (Swe) 122
8.Freddie Lindgren (Swe) 119
9. Andreas Jonsson (Swe) 88 (Guaranteed place in next series due to Crump's retirement)
10.Hans Andersen (Den) 69
11.Martin Vaculik (Svk) 69
12.Chris Harris (Gbr) 67
13.Bjarne Pedersen (Den) 59
14.Jaroslaw Hampel (Pol) 58
15.Peter Ljung (Swe) 57
16.Kenneth Bjerre (Den) 41
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