SPEEDWAY: Adams wins in Poland

4:44pm Sunday 11th May 2008

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NICE GUYS do sometimes come first. Swindon captain Leigh Adams put his World Championship bid back on track when winning the second round of the 11-event Grand Prix Speedway series at Leszno in Poland on Saturday night.

After the disappointment of Slovenia in the previous round, which left him in 14th place, Adams needed something special.

In front of the 24,000 Leszno crowd which have been his home fans for his 13 seasons in the Polish league, Adams won his last four races to pull off a magnificent victory.

He now holds fourth spot on 25 points, eight points behind world champion Nicki Pedersen, who was a controversial qualifier in the Leszno final.

The only other riders now ahead of Adams are Slovenia winner Tomasz Gollob (31) and America's Greg Hancock (28) , like Adams a veteran at 37.

Of his Slovenian setback Adams said: "We've got to park that, it's over. My Grand Prix season starts here."

And in front of his visiting Swindon manager Alun Rossiter, he showed his mastery of the Leszno lines, with only a minor hiccup on his third ride in Heat 11 when he came home pointless.

Switching to a second bike for the remainder of the evening, he was impregnable.

Taking an outside line and almost teasing his opponents who tried to close on his inner, Adams was a comfortable victor of Heat 16 and then booked his semi final place by inflicting Hancock's first defeat in Heat 18.

He comfortably repeated the feat on Hancock in the first semi, where Niels-Kristian Iversen and Andreas Jonsson were eliminated, but the second semi was much more eventful.

With wild card and Leszno home boy Jaroslaw Hampel clear in front, interest centred on the battle for second place, and when former world champ Jason Crump went for a daring run up Pederson's inner late on it looked as if the reigning champ would miss the final - and bolster Adams' title chances still further.

But the riders touched, Pedersen came down, referee Frank Ziegler adjudged it to be Crump's fault, rather harshly to many experienced observers, and the Dane was awarded a final place.

However, Hancock, Pedersen and Hampel never got a look in on the imperious Adams in the final, which he led from the tapes.

Adams concluded: "The Leszno club did a fantastic job, the track was great, the atmosphere was terrific and I am right back in the race."

Poland Grand Prix (Smoczyk Stadium). SCORERS: L.Adams (Australia) 20, G.Hancock (USA) 20, N.Pedersen (Denmark) 16, J.Hampel (Poland) 16, T.Gollob (Poland) 12, N.Kristian-Iversen (Denmark) 10, A.Jonsson (Sweden) 9, J.Crump (Australia) 8, F.Lindgren (Sweden) 7, H.Andersen (Denmark) 6, C.Harris (Great Britain) 6, R.Holta (Poland) 4, L.Tomicek (Czech Republic) 3, K.Kasprzak (Poland) 3, L.Dryml (Czech Republic) 2, S.Nicholls (Great Britain) 2.

2008 World Championship: N.Pedersen 33, T.Gollob 31, G.Hancock 28, L.Adams 25, A.Jonsson 21, H.Andersen 20, J.Crump 18, N.Kristian Iversen 18, J.Hampel 16, F.Lindgren 14, C.Harris 12, L.Dryml 11, R.Holta 9, S.Nicholls 9, K.Kaspzrak 9. M.Zagar 7, B.Pedersen 4, L.Tomicek 3.