For the first time in his career, young Sydney Speedway star, Chris Holder sits atop the FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Championship after finishing second at the Scandinavian Grand Prix in Sweden behind former World Champion Tomasz Gollob.
Holder – who entered the Grand Prix a point behind defending World Champion, Greg Hancock – is now eight points above Hancock with just two rounds left remaining, but remains with his feet on the ground about his chances.
“Being eight points in front now means absolutely nothing,” said a circumspect Holder post-event. “You can pull that back in one meeting – no problem – and put some points on top of that.
“I just want to keep making finals and, if you’re doing that, you’re in the points. That’s the plan, it’s going well and I’ll just keep doing that.”
Swede Antonio Lindback surged into the critical top eight with third placing as his good run of form continued on home soil, whilst Nicki Pedersen rounded out the finalists.
Australian triple World Champion, Jason Crump maintained fifth in the Championship despite scoring eight points as he continues to battle a collarbone injury.
The next round of the World Championship is at Vojens in Denmark in two weeks’ time.
FIM SCANDINAVIAN SGP SCORES:
1 Tomasz Gollob 21, 2 Chris Holder 17, 3 Antonio Lindback 18, 4 Nicki Pedersen 11, 5 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 6 Emil Sayfutdinov 11, 7 Greg Hancock 8, 8 Jason Crump 8, 9 Bjarne Pedersen 6, 10 Martin Vaculik 6, 11 Jaroslaw Hampel 6, 12 Tomas H Jonasson 5, 13 Peter Ljung 5, 14 Chris Harris 5, 15 Hans Andersen 5, 16 Andreas Jonsson 1, 17 Kim Nilsson 0, 18 Linus Sundstrom 0.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (Top 10):
1 Chris Holder 134, 2 Greg Hancock 126, 3 Nicki Pedersen 123, 4 Tomasz Gollob 114, 5 Jason Crump 111, 6 Emil Sayfutdinov 107, 7 Fredrik Lindgren 100, 8 Antonio Lindback 92, 9 Andreas Jonsson 77, 10 Hans Andersen 58.
