Sunday July 11, 2010 at 11:33pm
Australian champion Chris Holder won his first ever World Championship round after scrapping his way through a fiery FIM British Speedway Grand Prix in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
The 22-year-old defeated world champion Jason Crump, new series leader Jaroslaw Hampel and Danish hotshot Hans Andersen after powering away from the tapes in the final.
The Poole, Torun and Lejonen star admits he was taken aback by a raucous, record-breaking 44,150 crowd, but showed no sign of nerves on his first appearance in the Welsh capital.
While Holder surged up to fifth in the World Championship with 60 points, Hampel took charge at the top on 92 – two ahead of his fellow countryman Tomasz Gollob. The 39-year-old has been notorious for struggling in the Millennium Stadium over the past decade, but produced a blinding display to top the heat scorechart with 12 points from a possible 15.
Disaster struck in his semi-final, though, when he thundered away from the tapes, only for him to suffer an ignition failure on turn two.
Meanwhile, it was a tough night for the Brits as Chris Harris and Tai Woffinden both missed out on the top eight with six points. Wild card Scott Nicholls bagged four on his return to the World Championship.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Jaroslaw Hampel 92, 2 Tomasz Gollob 90, 3 Jason Crump 75, 4 Kenneth Bjerre 66, 5 Chris Holder 60, 6 Rune Holta 56, 7 Hans Andersen 56, 8 Nicki Pedersen 51, 9 Andreas Jonsson 48, 10 Freddie Lindgren 43, 11 Magnus Zetterstrom 43, 12 Chris Harris 42, 13 Greg Hancock 41, 14 Tai Woffinden 28, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 27, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 17 Davey Watt 6, 18 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 19 Antonio Lindback 6, 20 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 21 Scott Nicholls 4, 22 Matej Kus 3, 23 Leon Madsen 3, 24 Nicolai Klindt 1.