Hampel’s Home Victory

Jaroslaw Hampel scraped through to the semi-finals of the 2013 Polish Grand Prix and ended up winning the meeting in front of his home crowd. World Champion Chris Holder began his charge to retain the title with second place but the kudos has to go to Britain’s Tai Woffinden who managed to finish third despite nursing a severely broken collarbone. The ever present Greg Hancock was once again in the final but only finish fourth.

Woffinden was the only rider to win from gate four and he managed to do it the crucial semi-final that saw standings leader, Emil Sayfutdinov, finish third and miss out on his fifth consecutive final. Hancock was the one who just about managed to keep the Russian at bay while Andreas Jonsson also fell at this hurdle.

Hampel managed to win the second semi-final after not really making a statement in the earlier heats. Holder managed to keep on to second despite the best efforts of Krzyzstof Kasprzak who left his home track extremely teary eyed after getting knocked out. Along with Sayfutdinov, Niels-Kristian Iversen made huge waves in the meeting but only finish fourth in the semi-final despite picking the inside gate.

The night began with Woffinden seriously looking uncomfortable with his injury and finishing fourth. Jonsson managed third with Antonio Lindback, winning two of his three points, in second. Hancock won the opening heat which meant he broke the 2000 point mark in his Grand Prix career. Martin Vaculik won heat two with Sayfutdinov second and Hampel beginning his night with a fourth place.

The referee in the meeting was a Danish débutante and fortunately he didn't have a lot to do. But he had a decision to make in heat three when Nicki Pedersen went down in the first corner. At first it looked like a typical first corner incident but replays showed that Pedersen actually just put the bike down and was extremely fortunate that the referee decided to have all four back for the restart. The Dane looked to take full advantage by storming ahead in the restart until Kasprzak managed to overtake him for the win, Tomasz Gollob began another miserable meeting with a third place and Holder could only manage fourth.

Ales Dryml was perhaps unfortunate not to see a restart in heat four after he put the bike down. He did so because the wildcard, Bartosz Zmarzlik, looked to be out of control but the plucky Pole managed to keep a hold of his bike and the heat continued with Iversen beating Freddie Lindgren to the chequered flag.

The 18-year old wildcard came back out in heat five to beat Matej Zagar, Gollob and Lindback. Iversen managed to make it back to back wins ahead of Hancock, Hampel and Kasprzak. Woffinden returned in heat seven and managed to get a great second place, behind Holder. Heat eight was taken by Sayfutdinov with Pedersen, still struggling with his broken hand, finishing way back in fourth behind Lindgren and Jonsson.

Hampel’s first victory of the night came in heat nine with Holder staying strong with a second place. Pedersen recovered from his fourth place by overtaking Hancock on the final lap to win the tenth heat. The 11^th heat turned out to be Sayfutdinov’s second heat win in a row with Iversen making it eight points from a possible nine, Gollob managed third with Woffinden struggling again in fourth. Kasprzak also managed to win his second heat of the night in heat-12.

Iversen and Sayfutdinov both managed to win their third heats in 13 and 14 respectively to guarantee their places in the semi-finals. Woffinden began his charge for the semi-finals by winning heat-15. Gollob’s miserable night continued by packing up in heat-16, this gave him the perfect view to watch Jonsson take the heat from Hampel and Dryml.

Sayfutdinov continued his dominance by winning his fourth heat from five in heat-17. Gollob ended his home GP with a third place as Hancock won his second heat in the 18^th. Woffinden managed to book his place in the semi-finals with his second victory in heat-19. Hampel managed to beat Pedersen in to second place which was just enough for Hampel to progress. The final heat of the night was won by Holder to also claim his second victory of the night.

At the halfway point in the series, Sayfutdinov now has an 11-point lead over Woffinden. Holder is now up to third place on 68-points, five behind Woffinden, with Hampel also moving up a place to fourth and just two points behind the defending champion. Pedersen has dropped to fourth on 64-points with Iversen keeping up on 60-points. History making Hancock has moved ahead of Gollob and in to seventh with 57-points with the Pole five behind the American.