Emil Sayfutdinov won the second 2013 Speedway GP meeting in his residential home of Bydgoszcz, Poland, where he also holds the track record. It was the turn of the European GP and it was the first time in three years that Bydgoszcz has hosted an event in the series. After today, everyone will be wondering why it got taken away as the event was a fantastic one to watch, with ten different winners in the opening ten heats.
In the final, all eyes were on Poland's hero, Tomasz Gollob, who was going off from the inside gate after winning five of his six earlier races. But he was slow to start and it allowed the surprising Matej Zagar to take the lead from the start. Sayfutdinov then hit the gas to go around the outside of Zagar and ultimately win the event with Gollob third and Britain's Tai Woffinden finishing fourth after another fantastic meeting.
Just like in the final, Gollob and Zagar lined up in gates one and two in the first semi-final and that's how they finished, beating Chris Holder and Niels-Kristian Iversen, who both scraped through in to the last eight. Sayfutdinov and Woffinden lined up in gates four and three like they did in the final and it was the Russian who beat the Brit in the second semi-final. Darcy Ward and Nicki Pedersen completed the line-up but after a good start from the inside, Pedersen found himself watching a fantastic battle between the other three. Ward was the unfortunate one to miss out as all three provided a great race.
The night began with Greg Hancock, fourth in New Zealand, winning the first heat ahead of Freddie Lindgren, Holder and Martin Vaculik. Krzysztof Buczkowski was the wildcard in the event and he began with a second place behind Gollob in heat two. Pedersen led that heat for the first three laps, only to be mugged by the Poles but he did managed to finish ahead of Krzysztof Kasprzak. After winning in New Zealand, Jaroslaw Hampel began his night with a win in heat three over Sayfutdinov, Ward and Andreas Jonsson, who shown his 2012 form in this event contrary to his semi-final place in New Zealand. Heat four was taken by Zagar with Woffinden beginning his night with a second place, Iversen finished third with Lindback continuing from his disappointing ride in New Zealand in fourth.
Hampel's night drastically changed after packing up in heat five. He had to watch on the grass to see Iversen take the chequered flag ahead of the impressive Buczkowski and Lindgren. Sayfutdinov's first win on the night came in heat six with Lindback getting second. After his great start, Gollob got caught napping on the line at the start of heat seven which saw him finish fourth with Ward picking up the win ahead of Hancock and Zagar. After finishing third in New Zealand, Pedersen won his first heat of the night in the seventh with Woffinden earning a second second place with Holder third and Jonsson again finishing fourth.
Woffinden managed to go that step further in heat nine with a win over Ward, Lindgren and Kasprzak, the Pole finishing fourth for the third time in three heats. Vaculik also put his name on the winners' board in heat ten with Zagar second, Buczkowski third and Jonsson fourth also for the third time. Pedersen became the first rider to win two heats, back to back at that, with Hampel and Hancock beating Lindback. Gollob followed that up with his second victory, from gate four, with Holder second, Sayfutdinov third and Iversen fourth.
Lindgren suffered an unfortunate bike failure at the start of heat-13 so he got to watch Gollob make it two in two and three wins on the night with Lindback third and Jonsson finally picking up his first point of the night. There had been a problem with the tapes in a couple of the heats but it didn't halt a heat until the 14th when the referee decided there was an unsatisfactory start. The tapes were seemingly getting stuck by the stadium side, meaning that gates one and two would be starting quicker than gates three and four.
After almost half an hour of trying to fix the problem, heat-14 could start again, only for Darcy Ward to become the victim of the domino effect and the young Australian hit the deck. Fortunately the fears of Ward aggravating a previous injury sustained earlier in the season were quashed when he managed to get back up and four riders were allowed to restart for a third time. But even that got delayed as Pedersen managed to break the tapes whilst trying to sort his wheel mark. Once the officials managed to sew the tapes together, heat-14 started for a third time and this time Ward made a great move to sweep to inside and overtake the other three to win his second heat of the night, Iversen finished second with Pedersen third and Vaculik third.
Woffinden managed to also make it two wins a row in heat-15 with Sayfutdinov beating Hancock and Buczkowski scoring his first last place of the night. Heat-16 was taken by the event's 11th different heat winner, Holder, who beat Hampel, Zagar and Kasprzak who was still yet to pick up a point.
Heat-17 was fortunate not to have been restarted when Lindgren took too much grass in the first corner and ended up flying in to the air. But the Swede somehow managed to stay on the bike, despite ultimately finishing fourth. The heat was taken by Zagar for his second victory with Pedersen second and Sayfutdinov third. Woffinden had to settle for a third second place of the night in heat-18 as Gollob made it four wins from five. Iversen managed to take his second heat in the 19th which was enough to see him make it in to the semi-finals. Jonsson finished his night with second with Hancock third and also failing to progress but Kasprzak finished fourth again to leave Bydgoszcz, in his home country, without a single point. Ward took the final heat to claim his third victory with Holder claiming second, which was just enough for him to squeeze through, Buczkowski ended with a third and Lindback fourth.
For the second meeting in this year's series, Gollob has failed to win it but leaves with the most points. This sees the Pole top the standings at this early stage, a sixth of the way in to the season, on 31-points. Ward continues to have a great start to his debut season, sitting in second with 25. Hampel and Woffinden sit on 23 with Pedersen fifth on 22. Sayfutdinov has 21-points with reigning champion Holder on 19 along with 2011 Champion, Hancock, and Zagar.
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