After spending the best part of four meetings out with
injury, Darcy Ward returned to action by claiming the crown in the Danish GP.
With 44-points from virtually three rounds, it’s a shame Ward has missed so
much action as he would be definitely be fighting to the championship based on
this form.
Ward was back to winning ways as early as his second heat
and, after two more heat wins, he claimed a place in the semi-finals before
seeing off the impressive Matej Zagar to win the event in Copenhagen. After
three poor events recently, Tomasz Gollob managed to get back in to a final and
finish third with World Champion Chris Holder, who closes the gap on Tai
Woffinden to just two points in the overall standings, fourth.
The first semi-final was a man light as Freddie Lindgren
couldn’t participate. Lindgren was one of two Swedish casualties on the night
and he looked to have broken his upper arm after crashing in heat-19. So it was
two from three and it would be the Aussie pairing, Ward ahead of Holder, who
edged out the ever present Greg Hancock.
From nowhere, Zagar took the second semi-final with Gollob
taking second place. It was a real turn up for the books as Emil Sayfutdinov,
now 13-points ahead in the overall standings, could only beat Woffinden in to
third.
The night began in relatively harmless fashion with Hancock
winning the opening heat ahead of Krzyzstof Kasprzak, Woffinden and the Danish
wildcard, Michael Jepsen Jensen. The Danish crowd were then treated to a
Niels-Kristian Iversen victory in heat two with Gollob fourth behind Lindgren
and Jaroslaw Hampel.
Heat three caused a huge delay and it had to be restarted
twice, firstly because of a false start from Zagar. All four were allowed back
and carnage ensued; Zagar got a good start again and took the lead. Sayfutdinov
was catching him down the back straight but there wasn’t enough room and the
Russian crashed in to the air fence. Andreas Jonsson was unfortunate as he rode
in to the arm of Sayfutdinov before falling heavily himself. Sayfutdinov, who
was already carrying an injury with a broken metatarsal, was extremely lucky
not to suffer any severe injury. But Jonsson looked have suffered a collarbone
injury and his night was over. The referee faced a tough call in who to disqualify
for the incident and he chose to disqualify Zagar, much to his anger. Track
reserve Peter Kildemand had to replace Jonsson for the second restart and he
managed to take second from Holder as Sayfutdinov recovered to take the
victory.
Nicki Pedersen managed to make his home crowd roar in heat
four with a victory that saw Ward begin his comeback with a second place. The
Aussie returned to compete in heat five and was victorious with Woffinden second,
the enraged Zagar third and Hampel fourth. Holder took heat six with Pedersen
only managing third behind Lindgren. Track reserve Kenni Larsen came on in heat
seven and would grab third behind Hancock and Gollob. Heat eight belonged to
Sayfutdinov, making it two out of two, whilst the Danish duo, Jepsen Jensen and
Iversen, could only manage third and fourth respectively behind Martin Vaculik.
Woffinden took his first heat of the night in the ninth
before Sayfutdinov made it three from three in the tenth. Antonio Lindback, who
continued his dreadful season, would score his first of only two points with a
third place in heat ten. Pedersen could only finish second with Iversen third
for Denmark in heat-11 as Zagar took the chequered flag with Hancock
languishing in fourth. Holder took his second consecutive heat in the 12th,
ahead of Ward in second, as Gollob returned to fourth place.
The veteran Pole must have then had a word with himself as
he came out in heat-13 and won it with Woffinden second, Sayfutdinov third and
Pedersen fourth. Ward claimed his second heat on night in the 14th
as Denmark continued to have a terrible of it with Larsen third and Iversen
fourth. Heat-15 had to be restarted as Hampel went down in the first corner.
All four came back and Hampel managed to win it, Vaculik packed up to allow
Holder second and Hancock third. Lindgren staked his claim for a place in the
semi-finals with victory in heat-16.
Woffinden would claim his place in the semi-finals with his
second victory in heat-17. Iversen suffered a big crash on the final lap but
the result stood, with Holder second and Lindback third, and fortunately
Iversen was okay. The rejuvenated Gollob won his second consecutive heat in the
18th which also booked his place in the semi-finals. Lindgren
suffered his broken arm in heat-19 after losing control of his bike going in to
the second corner. The restart saw Ward claim his third heat of the night with
Sayfutdinov second and Hancock third. The Danish crowd did finally manage to
end the heats with something to cheer about as Jepsen Jensen managed to win
heat-20 but Pedersen and Klindemand could only finish third and fourth behind
Hampel.
Overall standings after round seven:
11.
Emil Sayfutdinov 97
22.
Tai Woffinden 84
33.
Chris Holder 82
44.
Jaroslaw Hampel 72
55.
Nicki Pedersen 71
66.
Greg Hancock 66
77.
Niels-Kristian Iversen 64
88.
Tomasz Gollob 62
99.
Matej Zagar 61
112.
Darcy Ward 44
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