MARTIN Vaculik strengthened his hold on a top three medal position with victory in the British Grand Prix in Cardiff on Saturday night.
The Slovakian raced to his second GP win of the season in the Principality Stadium as four of the top five in the standings at the start of the meeting contested the Grand Final. Vaculik led all the way from Jack Holder with series leader Bartosz Zmarzlik snatching third place on the line ahead of Freddie Lindgren, which increased his championship lead over the Swede from 22 to 24 points. Vaculik retains third place overall, eight points ahead of Holder who returned to the fray after a spell on the sidelines with a broken wrist. It was a frustrating night for the full-time British representatives as Robert Lambert, second highest scorer in the qualifying heats behind Holder, went out in the semi-finals, whilst Tai Woffinden crashed spectacularly as he led Heat 16 and didn’t appear again after sustaining a hand injury. Dan Bewley won two of his first four races but then squandered his chance of reaching the semi-final when he suffered a tapes exclusion in Heat 19. • Full coverage in Speedway Star this week.
Round eight scorers: Martin Vaculik 20, Jack Holder 18, Bartosz Zmarzlik 16, Freddie Lindgren 14, Robert Lambert 12, Kim Nilsson 11, Patryk Dudek 10, Max Fricke 9, Dan Bewley 8, Andrej Lebedev 7, Jason Doyle 6, Mikkel Michelsen 5, Tai Woffinden 4, Maciej Janowski 3, Leon Madsen 2, Steve Worrall 1. Championship standings: Bartosz Zmarzlik 138, Fredrik Lindgren 114, Martin Vaculik 105, Jack Holder 97, Jason Doyle 87, Dan Bewley 86, Robert Lambert 83, Leon Madsen 75, Max Fricke 65, Tai Woffinden 64, Patryk Dudek 58, Maciej Janowski 43, Mikkel Michelsen 42, Kim Nilsson 36, Anders Thomsen 36, Andrej Lebedev 21.
