TOUGH NIGHT FOR TAI BUT HE STILL MOVES FURTHER AHEADAround halfway through the Danish Speedway Grand Prix Tai Woffinden gave a TV interview and said he was operating at “around 80%”. Well if this is 80% his rivals sure aren’t going to want to see him hit 100%.
The SGP series leader had a tough, testing night in Horsens, Denmark but still left Scandinavia with fourth place and managed to extend his overall lead to 13 points - that’s not bad for a guy working below his maximum.
The CASA Arena is a brand new circuit and it took a few races for the guys to figure out the best racing lines but once they did we saw some classic action, including some gnarly crashes that you wouldn’t want to watch twice. Three man pile-up on the back straight? No probem, all three guys dusted themselves down and raced in the re-run.
Tai only just squeaked into the Semi-Final’s but he produced a vintage Woffinden ride to win it, and with main title rival Nicki Pedersen having an off night it was a great chance for TW to build a bigger lead.
He didn’t let the chance slip and although he was disqualified from the Final after a crash with eventual winner Peter Kildemand, he left as a happy man.
“It was a good meeting, I extended my lead so what can I say? That’s what we aimed to do. When you look at your championship at the end of the year you look back at these kinda days when it’s really tough and that’s where you win the championship.
“The days when you rattle off 21 points are just good days and you know you can do that, but when you struggle like today and grab two late wins to extend your lead - that’s when you know you’re doing something right.”
He continued: “I really needed my trainer, Kirk, to come to my last GP to understand what I do and to plan around that, my engines are always fast and my team are working good. It’s going well for me and we’re over halfway through now so there’s heaps more racing to go but hey, I’m happy.”
Tai is the man to beat at the top but there were more positives for Chris Holder, who looks like he’s just one slice of luck away from climbing to the top step again. CH was fast and smooth, but in the Semi-Final he hit a huge hole and crashed out. In his own words, “You can’t avoid what you can’t see” and that’s the way it’s going for Chris right now. 10 more points to the tally for him and he’s close to his best again.
Greg Hancock’s search for top form continues, he got it together towards the end and finished on seven points but missed the Semi’s and will look for a big points haul next time out in the fast, wide open circuit of Gorzow, Poland.
