FINLAND/NORWAY GRAND PRIX
| Triple world champion NICK AMBROSE (CANVEY ISLAND CASTAWAYS) found his best GP form to get better as the meeting went on and blast his way to another round win, and move up to 2nd place in the series overall in the process. Behind him young Polish rider GABRYS IRZYK (BRATISLAVA BUZZARDS) continued his impressive European form to put himself very much in contention for a top 8 place overall. The big winner of the day however was defending champion LIAM REAY (MILTON KEYNES CATS) who took 3rd in the round but scored 18 points whilst most of his rivals struggled and he extended his lead at the top to 11 points overall. The other finalist in the round was STEEN ERIKSEN (CANVEY ISLAND CASTAWAYS) who is looking more at home with each GP meeting and he moved himself up a place in the overall rankings, to 7th, with a 12 point haul. |
| FILLIPPE CHONG (WANTAGE KINGS), HANS E BERGESTOL (TEESSIDE TRANSPORTERS) and OLLE BJORN THORESEN (TEESSIDE TRANSPORTERS) also reached the Semis and scored double point returns which mean the trio all sit in the top 5 on the overall leaderboard at the halfway stage of the series. The other Semi Finalist was PETR VERNER (WHITBY VAMPIRES) who is now 12th overall but saw the gap to 8th widen a little. |
| It wasn't a great day for British pair CHRIS ADAMS (WEDNESFIELD WANDERERS) and SCOTT BRIDGES (ABERAVON GEMS) who scored 5 and 4 respectively and they are now adrift of the rostrum places after starting the meeting in joint 3rd. MACIEJ TERCJAK (MILTON KEYNES CATS) also scored 6 points and along with DENIS GOMOZOV (ABERAVON GEMS), who added 5 to his total, the challenge now looks to be a scrap to get into the top 8 places over the remaining rounds. MARTIN SHAW (WEDNESFIELD WANDERERS) more than doubled his overall total but the 9 times rostrum finisher is looking almost certain to be facing another trip to the GP Challenge if he wants yet another season in the series. HAYDEN WOOD (LANARKSHIRE LIONS) also scored 5 and is now down in 13th overall and needs to recapture his GP form of 2 seasons ago if he wants to get into the permanent qualifying places for next year. BRAXTON MCCHESNEY (TEESSIDE TRANSPORTERS) scored 2 and is now in a similar position to Wood, one place behind in the standings. The wildcard for this round was Norwegian CARSTEN OSTENSTAD (OSLO OWLS) who found the going hard but took a few good scalps on his way to 4 points which definitely showed potential for the future to add to his qualification for the GP Challenge Semis and impressive European form. |
| Next week sees the Semi Finals of the World Under 21 championship and the week after that the World Pairs competition starts before the return of the GP series with the European GP round. |
| 1. Nick Ambrose.............. 1 2 3 3 3 3 3 18 |
| 2. Gabrys Irzyk.............. 3 2 0 3 1 2 2 13 |
| 3. Liam Reay................. 2 3 3 3 3 3 1 18 |
| 4. Steen Eriksen............. 3 2 3 0 2 2 0 12 |
| 5. Fillippe Chong............ 3 3 2 1 2 1 - 12 |
| 6. Hans E Bergestol.......... 1 2 2 1 3 1 - 10 |
| 7. Olle Bjorn Thoresen....... 3 1 2 2 3 0 - 11 |
| 8. Petr Verner............... 1 3 1 1 1 0 - 7 |
| 9. Chris Adams............... 0 1 1 3 1 - - 6 |
| 10. Maciej Tercjak............ 2 F 2 0 2 - - 6 |
| 11. Martin Shaw............... 2 0 3 0 0 - - 5 |
| 12. Denis Gomozov............. 0 3 F 0 2 - - 5 |
| 13. Hayden Wood............... 2 1 0 2 0 - - 5 |
| 14. Carsten Ostenstad......... 1 0 0 2 1 - - 4 |
| 15. Scott Bridges............. 0 1 1 2 0 - - 4 |
| 16. Braxton McChesney......... 0 0 1 1 0 - - 2 |
| 17. Jens Isaksen.............. Did not ride |
| 18. Yuri Jugovic.............. Did not ride |
| No. Results |
| 1: Gabrys Irzyk, Maciej Tercjak, Nick Ambrose, Braxton McChesney |
| 2: Fillippe Chong, Martin Shaw, Hans E Bergestol, Denis Gomozov |
| 3: Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Hayden Wood, Carsten Ostenstad, Scott Bridges |
| 4: Steen Eriksen, Liam Reay, Petr Verner, Chris Adams |
| 5: Fillippe Chong, Gabrys Irzyk, Chris Adams, Carsten Ostenstad |
| 6: Petr Verner, Hans E Bergestol, Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Braxton McChesney |
| 7: Denis Gomozov, Steen Eriksen, Scott Bridges, Maciej Tercjak (F) |
| 8: Liam Reay, Nick Ambrose, Hayden Wood, Martin Shaw |
| 9: Liam Reay, Hans E Bergestol, Scott Bridges, Gabrys Irzyk |
| 10: Steen Eriksen, Fillippe Chong, Braxton McChesney, Hayden Wood |
| 11: Martin Shaw, Maciej Tercjak, Petr Verner, Carsten Ostenstad |
| 12: Nick Ambrose, Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Chris Adams, Denis Gomozov (F) |
| 13: Gabrys Irzyk, Hayden Wood, Petr Verner, Denis Gomozov |
| 14: Chris Adams, Scott Bridges, Braxton McChesney, Martin Shaw |
| 15: Liam Reay, Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Fillippe Chong, Maciej Tercjak |
| 16: Nick Ambrose, Carsten Ostenstad, Hans E Bergestol, Steen Eriksen |
| 17: Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Steen Eriksen, Gabrys Irzyk, Martin Shaw |
| 18: Liam Reay, Denis Gomozov, Carsten Ostenstad, Braxton McChesney |
| 19: Hans E Bergestol, Maciej Tercjak, Chris Adams, Hayden Wood |
| 20: Nick Ambrose, Fillippe Chong, Petr Verner, Scott Bridges |
| SEMI FINAL 1: Liam Reay, Gabrys Irzyk, Hans E Bergestol, Olle Bjorn Thoresen |
| SEMI FINAL 2: Nick Ambrose, Steen Eriksen, Fillippe Chong, Petr Verner |
| GRAND FINAL: Nick Ambrose, Gabrys Irzyk, Liam Reay, Steen Eriksen |