SPEEDWAY’S world championship got off to an exciting start in Krsko, Slovenia on Saturday with particularly good news for two Swindon assets.

Peter Kildemand won the final edging out 2016 skipper Jason Doyle ahead of back-to-form 2012 champion Chris Holder with reigning champion Tai Woffinden in fourth.

Holder, his former Poole colleague Maciej Janowski and Swede Antonio Lindback headed the qualifiers with very low scores of 10 while Doyle recovered from one point from his first two outings to claim a further eight points in the qualifying heats including a vital win over Woffinden, Kildemand and 2104 champion Greg Hancock in race 14.

The Australian briefly led his semi final before Kildemand came past him on lap two and in the final he overtook Holder.

Kildemand, nursing a painful rib injury, said "I’m really happy right now. This is my first full season as an SGP rider. I won the first round and now I am leading the world championship."

Aussie ace Jason Doyle was delighted to end his night with second spot after some sluggish starts early in the meeting.

He said: “In my first two heats, I didn’t think I was even going to make the semis. I was struggling. I just tried to get some points. I thought I was going to go back to the van and have a good cry! But that’s speedway. One minute you’re down, the next minute you’re in the final.

“Speedway switches like that. You get on another bike and think you can beat the world. We just started building the points up, made the semi and I got second. I’m happy.”

The series moves on to Warsaw for the second grand prix on May 14 at a track just built for the day – something that Kildemand seems to favour.

FIM SLOVENIAN SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX, KRSKO SCORES: 1, Peter Kildemand 15pts; 2, Jason Doyle 13; 3, Chris Holder 14; 4, Tai Woffinden 10; Maciej Janowski 10; Antonio Lindback 10; Greg Hancock 10; Nicki Pedersen 10; Bartosz Zmarzlik 8; Piotr Pawlicki 8; Niels-Kristian Iversen 8; Fredrik Lindgren 7; Andreas Jonsson 6; Matej Zagar 4; Chris Harris 3; Denis Stojs 1; Nick Skorja (res) 1; Matic Ivacic (res) 0.