Australian Speedway Grand Prix star, Darcy Ward will miss another Grand Prix having been ruled out of this weekend’s event in Gorzow, Poland.
He confirmed that despite making some strong progress on the broken shoulder sustained in the Swedish Grand Prix at the beginning of May, he is not ready to step back into Grand Prix competition just yet.
The Queenslander is hopeful that training will allow him to get back on the bike in the next week before hitting full fitness for the Danish Grand Prix on June 29.
Replacing Ward once again will be highly experienced first reserve, Ales Dryml who has raced in the last two SGP’s in place of the double World Under 21 Champion.
After a storming start to his first full Speedway Grand Prix season, Ward sits 20 points outside the eighth placed ‘bubble’ for direct qualification into 2014.
With the mix of results in 2013, returning in Copenhagen with six rounds remaining in the Title race will allow him still to be in touch with a direct qualification for the 2014 series. Nonetheless after his performances in the first two events of the season – making both semis – he may be in line to retain his Series Wildcard position regardless.
Australia’s defending World Champion, Chris Holder sits fourth on points currently, some 15 away from Championship leader, Emil Sayfutdinov – who has taken out three of the five events that have been run this year. He enters Gorzow being in some sparkling form, particularly on Polish soil.
Second placed man in the Championship, Tai Woffinden will leave it until the very last moment to decide whether to take part in this weekend’s event.
The Perth raised talent sustained a collarbone injury at the last round and has undergone surgery to repair the injury. He has a flight booked for Poland on Thursday and will leave it until then to declare if he is fit enough. He claimed at the weekend he was still suffering a lot of pain following the surgery and would give himself as much time as possible to try and keep his World Championship hopes alive.
No such worries for Nicki Pedersen, the Dane who sits third in the Championship continues to ride with a broken wrist. He is 13 points away from Sayfutdinov and with a further two weeks of treatment is expected to be even stronger.
The Speedway Grand Prix of Poland will take place early Sunday morning Australian time, Saturday evening in Europe.
