NORTH AMERICAN GP - RESULT

 

Well the GP series is underway with its usual share of great racing, shocks, surprises and hard-luck stories!  The meeting was amazingly won by Power League Wildcard BORIS DVOYNEV (WEDNESFIELD WANDERERS) who set himself up well with a pair of race wins before reaching the Grand Final where he caused one of the sport's biggest surprises by racing home for the win.  Not the first rider to win a round as a Wildcard Dvoynev is definitely the first man to do so whilst riding in the second tier of UK speedway!  The selectors said afterwards that the result didn't change the idea of the Wildcard being used to give a different rider an opportunity in each GP but the Russian has certainly announced his arrival on the world stage and could well be given another chance in a later round if his GP Qualifying campaign progresses well.
Behind Dvoynev the wily MARTIN SHAW (KING'S LYNN LIGHTNING) reminded everybody he is still a top class performer as he overcame a fall in heat 17 to progress to the latter stages where he added 5 points.  LIAM REAY (WORKINGTON LOGHEADS) took 3rd place overall but can be happy with a well earned 15 point total as he looks to go one place better than last year's 2nd.  The final was competed by DENIS GOMOZOV (ABERAVON GEMS) who will hope that this good start is the precursor to a much better GP series after his struggles of the past 2 seasons.
Although failing to reach the Grand Final HANS E BERGESTOL (TEESSIDE TRANSPORTERS) wore a huge grin afterwards as he went through the main meeting unbeaten before adding another point, meaning his 16 was enough to put him top of the GP leaderboard after this opener.  BRAXTON MCCHESNEY (WHITBY VAMPIRES) has been on the edge of the world's elite for a while now but has made a good start to the league season and made a good impression in his first GP as a permanent member with a run to the Semi-finals and 9 points overall.  The other riders in the Semis were two of the top 3 from last year's series, World Champion NICK AMBROSE (TWEEDSIDE TIGERS) and bronze medallist HAYDEN WOOD (LANARKSHIRE LIONS).  Both picked up 10 points with Ambrose showing why he is a 3 time champion by scoring good points despite an off-day by his standards whilst Wood recovered from a slow start and could have gone further but was left cursing bad luck when his bike failed him in the second Semi-final.
JONUS SANDIN (WANTAGE KINGS) ran a pair of last places before the interval which cost him a place in the final stages but his 7 points was a solid return.  Hayden Wood wasn't the only rider who left feeling Lady Luck owes him a favour in future rounds as MACIEJ TERCJAK (STOCKPORT SHALEBLASTERS) and SCOTT BRIDGES (ABERAVON GEMS) both suffered engine failures without which they may well have been able to extend their participation in the meeting.  In the end Tercjak had to settle for 7 points with Bridges just 1 behind.  ERIK DAVIDSSON (KING'S LYNN LIGHTNING) improved as the meeting went on whilst OLEG YELESNEV (WOLSTON WARRIORS) went the opposite way with neither able to take a heat win on their way to 6 and 5 points respectively.  CHRIS ADAMS (WOLSTON WARRIORS) returned to the world stage and took some time to find his feet, starting with a blank and suffering a heat 11 exclusion, but he ended by splitting the flying Bergestol and Dvoynev and will hope he can hit the ground running in the next round.  HENRIK HANSEN (TUNSTALL TERRIORS) is a rider wanting to show he belongs on the world stage but he found it tough going here after a fall in his first ride and the big question now is can he learn from the experience before his 'home' GP in the next round?  Hansen's fall gifted the only point of the meeting to the 2012 World Champion RYAN IRWIN (OSLO OWLS) who will be hoping this display was just a bad day at the office and not a sign that being away from racing in the UK is affecting his form.

So a Wildcard from the Power League wins the meeting, a rider who has never finished higher than 5th in the world is the early series leader and Nick Ambrose only just scrapes into the Semi-finals as he looks to continue his dominance at the highest level of the sport.  That can all mean only one thing - the GPs are back with a bang and if the rest of the series provides as many talking points and as much excitement as this one did then we are in for a cracker!


  1. Boris Dvoynev............. 3  3  0  2  1  2  3  14
  2. Martin Shaw............... 3  2  2  1  Fx 3  2  13
  3. Liam Reay................. 2  2  2  3  3  2  1  15
  4. Denis Gomozov............. 2  3  3  1  1  3  0  13

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  5. Hans E Bergestol.......... 3  3  3  3  3  1  -  16

  6. Braxton McChesney......... 1  1  3  2  1  1  -   9
  7. Hayden Wood............... 0  2  2  3  3  R  -  10
  8. Nick Ambrose.............. 1  3  1  2  3  0  -  10

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  9. Jonus Sandin.............. 2  0  0  3  2  -  -   7
 10. Maciej Tercjak............ 3  R  2  0  2  -  -   7
 11. Scott Bridges............. 1  2  3  R  0  -  -   6
 12. Erik Davidsson............ 0  1  1  2  2  -  -   6
 13. Oleg Yelesnev............. 2  1  1  1  0  -  -   5
 14. Chris Adams............... 0  1  X  1  2  -  -   4
 15. Henrik Hansen............. F  0  1  0  1  -  -   2
 16. Ryan Irwin................ 1  0  0  0  0  -  -   1
 17. Mark Black................ Did not ride
 18. Jesper Risager............ Did not ride
 No. Results
  1: Hans E Bergestol, Denis Gomozov, Nick Ambrose, Erik Davidsson 
  2: Martin Shaw, Liam Reay, Scott Bridges, Hayden Wood 
  3: Maciej Tercjak, Jonus Sandin, Braxton McChesney, Chris Adams 
  4: Boris Dvoynev, Oleg Yelesnev, Ryan Irwin, Henrik Hansen (F) 
  5: Nick Ambrose, Hayden Wood, Chris Adams, Ryan Irwin 
  6: Hans E Bergestol, Liam Reay, Oleg Yelesnev, Maciej Tercjak (R) 
  7: Denis Gomozov, Scott Bridges, Braxton McChesney, Henrik Hansen 
  8: Boris Dvoynev, Martin Shaw, Erik Davidsson, Jonus Sandin 
  9: Braxton McChesney, Liam Reay, Nick Ambrose, Boris Dvoynev 
 10: Hans E Bergestol, Hayden Wood, Henrik Hansen, Jonus Sandin 
 11: Denis Gomozov, Martin Shaw, Oleg Yelesnev, Chris Adams (X) 
 12: Scott Bridges, Maciej Tercjak, Erik Davidsson, Ryan Irwin 
 13: Jonus Sandin, Nick Ambrose, Oleg Yelesnev, Scott Bridges (R) 
 14: Hans E Bergestol, Braxton McChesney, Martin Shaw, Ryan Irwin 
 15: Hayden Wood, Boris Dvoynev, Denis Gomozov, Maciej Tercjak 
 16: Liam Reay, Erik Davidsson, Chris Adams, Henrik Hansen 
 17: Nick Ambrose, Maciej Tercjak, Henrik Hansen, Martin Shaw (Fx) 
 18: Hans E Bergestol, Chris Adams, Boris Dvoynev, Scott Bridges 
 19: Liam Reay, Jonus Sandin, Denis Gomozov, Ryan Irwin 
 20: Hayden Wood, Erik Davidsson, Braxton McChesney, Oleg Yelesnev 
 SEMI-FINAL 1: Martin Shaw, Boris Dvoynev, Hans E Bergestol, Nick Ambrose 
 SEMI-FINAL 2: Denis Gomozov, Liam Reay, Braxton McChesney, Hayden Wood (R) 
 GRAND FINAL: Boris Dvoynev, Martin Shaw, Liam Reay, Denis Gomozov