Sawmill sixth at Millennium

Author of the article: , published July 6, 2015.

Cardif in South Walles hosted the fourth meeting of the world’s best speedway riders this season. After a tense final, the victory went to Dane Niels Kristian Iversen, who broke through Šivanka's ear into the final run of the evening, where he swept the competition and pushed Australian Chris Holder to second place, and compatriot Peter Kildemand to the last step. The local and main favorite Tai Woffinden was left without a champagne shower. Our Matej Žagar drove excellently, and with a little more luck in the draw of extremely selective starting positions, he could have been even better. In the end, he scored ten points and thus sixth place in the race. The best result in five appearances, as many as he has listed here so far.

The race for the Grand Prix of Great Britain at the magnificent Millennium Stadium, in front of full stands, traditionally again gathered over 40.000 spectators, once again confirmed that this is the biggest spectacle in the world. Especially with the fact that this year's Polish Grand Prix, in front of an otherwise record 56 head crowd, was prematurely interrupted due to a poor track. Our representative Matej Žagar arrived on the Island as the fifth in the World Cup scoring and with a great desire to improve his earnings on this oval. For the past two years, he has always left Cardiff disappointed, having never scored more than 6 points.

This time he started excellently, as he scored the first three points in his first appearance with a more than convincing victory. He pulled from the start as the second, then on the plane to the entrance to the second turn he defeated the Dane Michael J. Jensen and only increased his advantage until the end of four laps. With that, he was the only winner in the first part of the race, after four runs, who did not start from a completely internal position. In the second run, he did not pull from the start as he would have liked, but then, with an exceptional fighting run in the third lap, he overtook the Australian Troy Batchelory and broke through to second place. But Kangaroo didn't give up, Mateja overtook him back, and our matador returned everything to him with a clever line in the last turn, thus gaining an important two points in the last meters.

The third appearance in the twelfth run could also be called the battle for Britain, as Žagar started against as many as three Britons. After a good start from an awkward, completely outside position, he left Craig Cook and Chris Harris behind from the first turn, and then chased the first favorite and leader of the championship, Tai Woffindn, all three laps. He came extremely close to him, but he stayed in a great second place. With that, after only three appearances, he registered a point more than in the last two seasons in this race.

The second victory of the evening fell in the thirteenth run, when Žagar had to start twice. For the first time, he pulled perfectly from the otherwise best starting position and was already leading with a nice advantage, when the Dane Nicki Pedersen knocked down his compatriot Peter Kildemand in front of him and after Pedersen's disqualification, the start was repeated. Žagar took the lead in the second, but his advantage was not so great, so the American Greg Hancock even overtook him in the exit from the second turn, but Žagar returned it, squeezed past him on the inside of the next turn and with a smart closing disabled the current world champion. He was constantly trying to find a way past our racer, but the victory, despite the American national holiday, went to Slovenia this time. And Žagar took the lead again in the race. With ten points, the performance before the end of the regular season was also included in the semi-final runs.

Unfortunately, after a bad start from another unfavorable position in the last performance, he did not manage to score points and before him was the first semi-final run. For the second time in five appearances at Millennium Stadium. After a poor start from the second position, to his disappointment, as well as some Slovenian fans we saw in the stands, he did not make it to the grand final of the biggest race of the season this year either. Initially, he drove in third place behind Holder and Pedersen, but in the third lap he was overtaken by Iversen, who then also beat his compatriot Pedersn and thus ranked among the top four. But that was not all, as he even became the winner of the race after the exciting outcome of the final. He left behind Holder, a compatriot of Kildemand and the main favorite, the local Tai Woffindn, who was pushed out of the podium.

"Before the semi-final run, we changed the engine, because the one that shone so bright at first was slower from ride to ride on the track, which was getting harder and harder. We now also know that we should change the gear ratio even more. Unfortunately we didn’t, so of course I’m not happy with my performance because the two zeros at the end of the race can’t fill me with joy. Nevertheless, I can somehow comfort myself with ten points that I have never won here, and of course with the fact that the Latvian race is ahead of us, which has still suited me so far, "Žagar summed up his impressions after the race.

In terms of points, this was the best race for Žagar this season so far, which gives even more hope for excellent racing in the future. The first opportunity for even better results will be in two weeks in Daugavpils, Latvia, where the oval suits Žagar very well in terms of performances so far.

Results: 1. Niels Kristian Iversen (Day) 14 points, 2. Chris Holder (Avs) 18, 3. Peter Kildemand (Day) 12, 4. Tai Woffinden (UK) 15, 5. Greg Hancock (USA) 12, 6 Matej Žagar (Slo) 10, 7. Nicki Pedersen 9, 8. Michael J. Jensen (both Dan) 8, 9. Craig Cook (UK), 10. Jason Doyle (Avs) both 7,…

Points in the WC after the fourth of twelve races: 1. Woffinden 55 points, 2. Pedersen 43, 3. Hancock 39, 4. Iversen 35, 5. Žagar 34, 6. Holder, 7. Hampel both 31, 8. Doyle 29, 9. Jepsen Jensen 27, 10. Jonsson 26,…

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