New year, new line-up but it was the Chris Holder of old as the Aussie shredder hit a podium finish in the first GP of the speedway season.
There’s no more scenic venue on the GP calendar than Krsko, Slovenia as a collection of giant mountains overlook the 387-metre circuit - and it was a night for Holder to savour.
It’s been a rough ride for the 2012 world champ in the last few years, a series of huge injuries were followed by a career-ending accident for best friend Darcy Ward last year, but he did some soul-searching this winter and it seems to have paid off.
Chris looked fast and threatening throughout the qualifying races and then when he won his semi-final it looked like he could be set to win his fifth career GP – but in the end he settled for third place and a haul of 14 big points.
A happy and relieved Chris told us after the race: “Everything seemed to work okay for us, I didn’t have many bad races so I just tried to chip away and get the points in the bag. I was hoping for a big start in the final but Kildemand made a better one and cut my run off a bit.
“I was chasing the guys ahead of me but I knew I had Tai (Woffinden) behind me too so I was trying to attack and defend at the same time.
“I’ve worked on a lot of things in the winter and I had a lot of issues I had to get over. To come here and race on a track that’s pretty tricky, to make the final and get some good points is awesome and I can’t ask for much more.
“I really wanted this and I’m glad it came off, I’m coming for the wins – not just hoping things work. It’s a good start so I’m wrapped.”
The race was won by Denmark’s Peter Kildemand, with Aussie Jason Doyle in second and reigning world champion Tai Woffinden finishing in fourth place.
It was a tough night for Tai but he still made the final and was smiling at the end of it;“It was a funny one really, it was so hard to find the perfect set-up because the track was always changing.
“All in all I’m happy, I always like to get the first one out the way. I’ll be on the bike more from now on and racing more so it sets me up nicely for the season now. It was a decent start so bring on the next round.”
Greg Hancock won this round last year with an incredible performance but he couldn’t quite replicate it this time, though he still managed to grab 10 valuable points overall.
In just two weeks’ time the tour heads to Warsaw, Poland where 50,000 people will pack out the National Stadium for one of the biggest events in the calendar.
