VOL. 51 ISSUE 24 JUNE 17, 2014 P23
WOFFINDEN BACK ON TOP
W
orld Speed-
way Cham-
pion Tai Woffinden
is determined to
take his Speed-
way Grand Prix
winning streak
indoors in Copen-
hagen and Cardiff
after completing
back-to-back vic-
tories with Swed-
ish GP gold in Ma-
lilla on Saturday,
June 14.
Woffinden pow-
ered past World
C h a m p i o n s h i p
rival Greg Han-
cock in the final to
score the win for
the second time in
two weeks following his Czech
Republic GP triumph in Prague
on May 31. They were joined on
the podium by their Monster En-
ergy stable mate Chris Holder
and Polish racer Jaroslaw Ham-
pel, who was fourth.
Woffinden leads the point
standings by a point with 63 –
just one ahead of Hancock.
The Californian has won at both
the next two venues – Parken in
Copenhagen, home of the Dan-
ish GP on June 28, and Cardiff's
Millennium Stadium, the stage for
the British GP on July 12.
"I've had a bad track record
on the indoor ones, but hopeful-
ly I'm going to set that straight,"
Woffinden said. "I'm going to
work very hard until the end.
I'm going to train my backside
off to get ready and really push
on. Anyone can win it – it's one
of those seasons. It's going to
be interesting for everyone. I
struggled a little bit with setup at
the start of the night, but as each
race went on, I got faster and
faster. I'm pumped to get the win
and it was an all-Monster podium
– that's crazy. We'll have to see
how many more we can get."
Woffinden had to overcome a
restart in the final after jumping a
fraction too early from gate three
in the initial staging of the race.
Hancock was gutted not to
leave Malilla with his first Grand
Prix win on Swedish shale in 32
attempts. But he's delighted to
be firmly on Woffinden's tail.
"I haven't won a Grand Prix in
Sweden yet and that's the clos-
est I have come so far," Hancock
said. "On the second start, I saw
daylight right off the bat and I
thought 'it's my race.' I forgot Tai
was in the race too, though. It's
one of those things. You've got
to pick the right lines. I had a
great night still. I'm feeling good
and building momentum. It's a
long season and I'm ready to run
them all the way."
John Hipkiss
Tai Woffinden leads Greg Hancock
en route to victory in the Swedish
Grand Prix.
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
JOHN
HIPKISS