merican star Greg Hancock admits it was time to “stop looking for excuses” after storming into the World Championship’s top eight with victory in the FIM Valvoline Croatian SGP on Sunday.
The 40-year-old held off a furious last-bend charge from rejuvenated British champion Chris Harris to win the final ahead of third-placed world champion Jason Crump and Sweden's Freddie Lindgren.
Hancock endured a tough start to his SGP season, but has bounced back to form in style since the FIM Speedway World Cup last month.
While Tomasz Gollob remains top of the SGP standings, Hancock’s 22-point haul in Gorican has left him sixth in the World Championship and inside the top-eight automatic qualification places for 2011.
The Piraterna and Zielona Gora rider admits he has been distracted by other matters away from the track this season.
So the Californian was delighted to claim his first SGP win since he triumphed in Latvia last term.
He said: “It has been hard all year and I probably haven’t had the focus I needed. Then I started blaming the engines, blaming this and that, but deep down, it was all me.
“I’ve got it figured out now and I’ve still got my goals set as high as possible in the Grand Prix. The win was totally amazing and it makes me feel really, really good.
“I’ve got all kinds of things going on around the world and they can get distracting. I just lost the focus on No.1 and that’s speedway for me. I had to put my mind back into that and stop looking for excuses.”
While Hancock’s World Cup break helped him regain his focus mentally, he admits it also allowed him to make some changes to his machinery.
He added: “We have a good set-up working and I owe a great deal of thanks to the guys at Prodrive in England. They’ve been working really hard to help me make some adjustments to my bike.
“I take my hat off to them and to the engine tuners, who have been working hard too. Those guys at Prodrive have really helped me to turn something around.
“The World Cup break helped a lot because it gave us a chance to get back to square one. It gave me the chance to start doing some testing with the equipment the guys in England did for me.
“It feels like we are going in the right direction. There are three rounds to go and anything can happen. My goals are high.”
Hancock’s struggles in the opening half of the season even prompted questions as to whether this would be his final year in the World Championship. But the Swedish-based man was delighted to silence his doubters with his 11th SGP victory.
He said: “When you’re not going well, you can start putting words in everyone’s mouth.
“They try and ask you those questions you don’t care to hear. But I have no plans for going anywhere other than up, up, up.”
While the day belonged to Hancock, Gollob increased his lead over fellow countryman Jaroslaw Hampel at the top of the championship to seven points. But the pair are now under severe pressure from Australian hero Jason Crump, who is just 10 behind Gollob.
Meanwhile, Harris blasted into eighth place with a tremendous 21-point haul and has put himself in prime position to qualify for next season.
The Cornishman achieved his best result since he won the British SGP in Cardiff in 2007 and is now determined to cement his spot among the sport’s biggest names.
He said: “That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to get into that top eight and be in the Grand Prix for next year and many years to come.
"It would have been nice to have won it, but congratulations to Greg. I’ll keep fighting and I’ll make sure that I finish in the top eight by the end of the year.”
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (AFTER EIGHT ROUNDS):1 Tomasz Gollob 117, 2 Jaroslaw Hampel 110, 3 Jason Crump 107, 4 Rune Holta 82, 5 Kenneth Bjerre 81, 6 Greg Hancock 75, 7 Chris Holder 73, 8 Chris Harris 72, 9 Freddie Lindgren 65, 10 Hans Andersen 64, 11 Andreas Jonsson 61, 12 Nicki Pedersen 55, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 52, 14 Tai Woffinden 37, 15 Emil Sayfutdinov 33, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 12, 17 Davey Watt 12, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 8, 19 Adrian Miedzinski 6, 20 Antonio Lindback 6, 21 Piotr Protasiewicz 5, 22 Jurica Pavlic 5, 23 Scott Nicholls 4, 24 Matej Kus 3, 25 Leon Madsen 3, 26 Ludvig Lindgren 2, 27 Nicolai Klindt 1, 28 Linus Sundstrom 1.
FIM VALVOLINE CROATIAN SGP POINTS: 1 Greg Hancock 22, 2 Chris Harris 21, 3 Jason Crump 17, 4 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 5 Tomasz Gollob 10, 6 Jaroslaw Hampel 8, 7 Chris Holder 7, 8 Rune Holta 6, 9 Kenneth Bjerre 6, 10 Tai Woffinden 6, 11 Davey Watt 6, 12 Andreas Jonsson 6, 13 Magnus Zetterstrom 6, 14 Jurica Pavlic 5, 15 Nicki Pedersen 4, 16 Hans Andersen 3, 17 Matija Duh 0, 18 Joszef Tabaka 0.
