Martin Vaculik won the first round of Speedway Euro Championship. Slovakian coped great in the tough conditions we had on this day in Guestrow.
On Saturday's afternoon, Poles: Krzysztof Kasprzak and Przemysław Pawlicki were doing good as well. They both met in the 14th heat, one of evening's best. In the first attempt, Pawlicki was excluded after his fall, but in the repeat, Kasprzak was running away from Nicki Pedersen and at the last lap, he overtook Vaclav Milik with a fabolous attack at the outside path.
Along with Vaculik, Kasprzak had the most points after the main series and got the direct advance to the final. Poles: Pawlicki and Janusz Kołodziek joined them for the night's last heat.
The final was cancelled though, because after consultations with the organizers, riders decided not to continue racing at the wet track, which was would have been too dangerous.
- Even before the final, I talked with other riders, who were telling me that they saw nothing after 2 laps even while riding at the high positions - said Krzysztof Kasprzak. - It's good that there was no final heat.
Kołodziej and Pawlicki can see it different way, because although they got the promotion to the final, did not stand at the podium. Results for the overall classification were counted after the main series and there, Kai Huckenbeck was third. With a huge applause from 6,5 thousands supporters, he took the lowest step of the podium.
Medalists of the previous editions were doing not so good. Emil Sayfutdinov, Nicki Pedersen and Antonio Lindbaeck won their first heats in the last series of starts.
Results:
1. Martin Vaculik (Slovakia) - 12 (3,2,3,2,2)
2. Krzysztof Kasprzak (Poland) - 11 (3,3,2,3,w)
3. Kai Huckenbeck (Germany) - 9 (1,0,3,3,2)
4. Janusz Kołodziej (Poland) - 9 (2,3,0,3,1)
5. Przemysław Pawlicki (Poland) - 9 (3,3,2,w,1)
6. Antonio Lindbaeck (Sweden) - 8 (2,2,1,0,3)
7. Andrzej Lebiediew (Latvia) - 8 (0,2,3,2,1)
8. Vaclav Milik (Czech Rep.) - 8 (2,1,3,2,0)
9. Emil Sajfutdinow (Russia) - 8 (1,w,2,2,3)
10. Leon Madsen (Denmark) - 7 (d,3,1,t,3)
11. Hans Andersen (Denmark) - 7 (0,w,2,3,2)
12. Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) - 7 (2,1,w,1,3)
13. Anders Thomsen (Denmark) - 6 (1,2,d,1,2)
14. Peter Ljung (Szwecja) - 5 (1,1,1,1,1)
15. Tobias Busch (Germany) - 4 (3,0,1,0,0)
16. Nicolas Covatti (Italy) - 1 (0,1,0,0,0)
17. Tobias Kroner (Germany) - 1 (1)
18. Grigorij Laguta (Russia)
Heat by heat:
1. Kasprzak, Lindbaeck, Ljung, Madsen (EF)
2. Vaculik, Pedersen, Huckenbeck, Andersen
3. Busch, Milik, Sajfutdinow, Covatti
4. Pawlicki, Kołodziej, Thomsen, Lebiediew
5. Pawlicki, Vaculik, Ljung, Sajfutdinow (Ex)
6. Kasprzak, Lebiediew, Covatti, Andersen (Ex)
7. Madsen, Thomsen, Milik, Huckenbeck
8. Kołodziej, Lindbaeck, Pedersen, Busch
9. Milik, Andersen, Ljung, Kołodziej
10. Vaculik, Kasprzak, Busch, Thomsen (EF)
11. Lebiediew, Sajfutdinow, Madsen, Pedersen (Ex)
12. Huckenbeck, Pawlicki, Lindbaeck, Covatti
13. Huckenbeck, Lebiediew, Ljung, Busch
14. Kasprzak, Milik, Pedersen, Pawlicki (Ex)
15. Kołodziej, Vaculik, Kroner, Covatti
16. Andersen, Sajfutdinow, Thomsen, Lindbaeck
17. Pedersen, Thomsen, Ljung, Covatti
18. Sajfutdinow, Huckenbeck, Kołodziej, Kasprzak (Ex)
19. Madsen, Andersen, Pawlicki, Busch
20. Lindbaeck, Vaculik, Lebiediew, Milik
Referee: Susanne Huttinger
