Darcy Ward continued his winning ways by taking out one of the most prestigious individual speedway honours outside the World Championship – the Czech Golden Helmet at Pardubice.
The unique six-man racing format of the Golden Helmet has been kind to the Aussies over the years, with Leigh Adams holding a virtual mortgage on the event during the peak of his powers.
This time Ward was able to beat fellow Grand Prix star, Greg Hancock, Polish brothers Przemyslaw and Piotr Pawlicki, World Under 21 Champ Patryk Dudek and SGP regular, Matej Zagar.
Newcastle rider, Jason Doyle continued his excellent form of season 2013, narrowly missing the transfer from the consolation final.
Meanwhile Queenslander, Troy Batchelor has been drafted into the lineup for this weekend’s World Championship closer at Torun, Poland.
Batchelor will join Ward for the final Speedway Grand Prix of the year.
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Batchelor is the third permanent reserve and with two reserve spots being taken after the elimination through injury by Chris Holder and Emil Sayfutdinov, he will come in to replace Tomasz Gollob who has a fractured vertebrae.
Batchelor has been attempting for some time to gain a permanent spot in the Speedway Grand Prix Series:
“It’s going to be pretty cool. I’ve been begging to get in there for a while and now is my chance to show what I’m made of. I don’t want to play it out loud, but I’ve got my goals. I’m a confident gater and some of those tracks are quite slick. It might play into my hands a little bit.
“Torun is an awesome track and if I could have picked any of the tracks to ride on, it would have been that one. It couldn’t be on a better track and I’m just stoked to be in there. I’m going to give it my all.”
Ward sits inside the top eight drop zone to directly qualify for next year’s SGP Series and only a travesty would see him eliminated from that area – as Holder and Gollob (neither of whom are competing) are behind him and Fredrik Lindgren is some 12 points from Ward’s mark at the moment.
Australia is looking to have reason to celebrate at the completion of the Grand Prix season, with West Australian raised Brit, Tai Woffinden holding a 16 point advantage over Jaroslaw Hampel going into the final event. Woffinden had the opportunity to secure the World Championship at the previous round but wasn’t able to do so.
The Grand Prix of Torun will take place early Sunday morning Australian time.
Ward and Batchelor will be participating in the final leg semi-final of the British Elite League for the Poole Pirates and Swindon Robins respectively, due to play out tomorrow morning Australian time.
