VOL. 50 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 20, 2013
Greg
Hancock
leads Darcy
Ward in
the final of
the Latvian
Speedway
Grand Prix.
ain to complete a hat-trick of Daugavpils
wins and add to his 2006 and 2009 victories at the Lokomotiv Stadium.
The 43-year-old picked up his first GP
win since he won last year's opening
round in Auckland on March 31, 2012. It
was also Hancock's maiden appearance
on the rostrom this season.
The Californian's bid for honors this
season suffered a major setback when
he crashed with Troy Batchelor in a Polish Ekstraliga meeting on April 28. That
accident left him knocked out cold for
the first time in his career and he was left
nursing whiplash-style injuries for some
weeks after the crash.
Hancock admits it was tough to overcome that crash, but he is delighted to
be back on top of the box as he climbed
from eighth to sixth place in the World
Championship and he is now just seven
points behind Jaroslaw Hampel in third.
Tai Woffinden (14) took over the
lead in the World Championship
from Emil Sayfutdinov (5) with his
third-place finish in the GP.
P99
"This means everything," Hancock
said. "It has been a hard year. I had a
good start in New Zealand. I came in
fourth there and just tried to hold the
form, but the crash I had at Bydgoszcz
knocked me back pretty big. It's hard to
come back from big hits and that was one
of my bigger ones over the years. Since
then, I've taken a slow pace back up to
winning ways. I feel great now and I have
no problems with anything. I'm just getting comfortable and feeling at one with
my bike. It has been getting better week
after week and I feel I'm back on track.
"There are still three very, very important rounds to go that can put me back in
the medal chase if all goes to plan. This
is another stepping-stone. We're going to
another new venue in Stockholm on September 21, which should be interesting
for everybody, so we'll see what happens
there. But I'm charged, I'm ready to go
