JASON Crump extended his lead at the head of the World Championship leaderboard to 14 points with a majestic victory in the FIM Dansk Metal Danish Speedway Grand Prix at Copenhagen.
Crump produced a spectacular start to the final to clinch his second win in four rounds this season, and in doing so equalled Tony Rickardsson's record of 20 GP victories. He also doubled his prize money with the PARKEN meeting the second of this year's three Super Prix rounds.
Victory for Crump meant he fully capitalised on two of his main rivals, Emil Sayfutdinov and defending champion Nicki Pedersen, failing to finish their respective semi-finals.
The Russian teenager, who had outscored Crump 14 points to 13 in the qualifying, didn't even start his, a momentary lapse in concentration seeing him drop the clutch too soon and earn an exclusion for touching the tapes.
Pedersen, who had three stitches in his nether regions after an early crash with Sayfutdinov, was in the same semi-final as Crump and was challenging the Aussie entering the back straight for the first time when he had a puncture and pulled up.
It left Crump, who had started the meeting with a six-point lead over Sayfutdinov, lined up against Greg Hancock, Tomasz Gollob and wild-card Niels-Kristian Iversen in the final, and he swept imperiously to the front off the outside gate to claim the six points, and 22 in total.
Gollob was in second place but drifted wide and Hancock, who was struggling to make the semi-finals when he had only six points from four rides, stole in for runner-up on the rostrum. Gollob was third and Iversen fourth.
Sayfutdinov and Pedersen, who has clashed controversially in the final of the last Grand Prix in Gothenburg, had another of their dramatic coming-togethers in Heat 7. Both had won their opening rides, and Pedersen looked to have got the drop on the Russian out of the start. But he lifted uncontrollably exiting the second bend and collected Sayfutdinov on his outside.
The teenager was far from happy at being wiped out, but there was no malice involved, and Pedersen came off far worse, injuring his rear end when he slammed hard into the bottom of the air-fence and getting himself excluded.
In the re-run, Sayfutdinov didn't make the start, but sliced through Iversen and Chris Harris to pull away for a second win.
Pedersen was in obvious discomfort in his third ride, where he nicked third place off Hans Andersen when his fellow Dave got out of shape on lap one, but was never a threat to Crump at the front.
Sayfutdinov won his third ride by a distance, but dropped his first point to Crump in his next outing in Heat 15. The Aussie, who had started with a couple of second places behind Grzegorz Walasek and Sebastian Ulamek, powered to the front off gate four, and then repelled all Sayfutdinov's efforts to pass him.
Some jet-propelled starting saw Pedersen win Heats 16 and 17 to ensure his place in the semi-finals on 10 points alongside Sayfutdinov (14) and Crump (13), and they were joined by Iversen (9), Hancock (8), Gollob (8), Ulamek (7) and Kenneth Bjerre (7).
Ulamek qualified by virtue of two race wins while Bjerre nudged Walasek out of the last eight on countback on second places.
But the first semi-final saw the tension get to Sayfutdinov, who had first choice of gate position and went for the inside. He clearly touched the tapes as they rose, leaving Swedish referee Krister Gardell with no option but to exclude him.
In the re-run Gollob and Iversen eliminated Ulamek, and in the second semi Crump was outmuscling Pedersen when the Dane's bike had a puncture down the back straight. Hancock took advantage by slipping into second, and that meant an exit for Bjerre.
Leigh Adams, who admitted before the meeting that this was make-or-break for his title aspirations, missed out on the last eight on six points, and Fredrik Lindgren, who led the GP standings after the opening round in Prague, continued his up-and-down campaign with just three points.
At the foot of the standings, Harris celebrated his first ever race win at PARKEN and Scott Nicholls had his best GP of the season so far.
Nicholls ran two lasts to kick off with, but won a battling point off Iversen in Heat 9, another off Hancock in Heat 15, and then finished with a flourish by carving through traffic to win Heat 18 and finish on five points, the same as Harris.
FIM Dansk Metal Danish Speedway Grand Prix scorers: Jason Crump (Australia) 22, Greg Hancock (USA) 14, Tomasz Gollob (Poland) 13, Niels-Kristian Iversen (Denmark) 11, Emil Sayfutdinov (Russia) 14, Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) 10, Sebastian Ulamek (Poland) 8, Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark) 8, Grzegorz Walasek (Poland) 7, Andreas Jonsson (Sweden) 7, Hans Andersen (Denmark) 6, Leigh Adams (Australia) 6, Scott Nicholls (Great Britain) 5, Chris Harris (Great Britain) 5, Rune Holta (Poland) 5, Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden) 3.
World Championship standings: Crump 74, Sayfutdinov 60, Jonsson 46, Hancock 45, Pedersen 44, Gollob 44, Lindgren 33, Bjerre 31, Adams 28, Holta 27, Ulamek 27, Walasek 24, Andersen 23, Harris 21, *Lindback 17, Nicholls 11, *Iversen 11, *Jarek Hampel (Poland) 9, *Matej Kus (Czech Republic) 1.
*denotes wild-cards.
Tickets for the 2010 FIM Danish SGP go on sale tomorrow morning (Sunday, June 14). The date of next year's event at PARKEN is June 5. Ticket information will be on the website speedwaygp.com
