Adams wins in Poland

Victory moves Australian up to fourth in overall standings

By Steve Pass   Last updated: 24th May 2008

Speedway Leigh Adams Swindon Robins - CREDIT FOTOSPEEDWAY.PL

Adams: Winner in Leszno

European Grand Prix final
1 Leigh Adams
2 Greg Hancock
3 Nicki Pedersen
4 Jaroslaw Hampel

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Leigh Adams won the European Grand Prix in Poland on Saturday to the delight of his home league crowd at Leszno.

The Australian - whose victory was his first Grand Prix success in Poland - came out on top over Greg Hancock in the final, leading throughout the race despite the veteran American's best efforts to peg him back.

World champion Nicki Pedersen came third to go to the top of the Grand Prix series standings after two meetings, with wildcard Jaroslaw Hampel in fourth spot in the final.

Adams was delighted with his win, telling Sky Sports it was "awesome".

Huge

He added: "This is huge for me being my home town. I really wanted to give the supporters something and obviously all my mechanics and team is all from this place so it is just fantastic to give them something."

Adams had only five points from his first three heats but then won his next two, before being victorious in both his semi-final and the final.

Asked about having to turn it around half-way through the meeting, he said that he had to swap bikes as he had a "little bit of fluttering going on at the starts."

"(I) swapped bikes and just cracked four or three perfect starts, so just a testament to everybody in the team, they just didn't give up - just kept battling. It was a perfect."

The 20 points from his victory pushes him up to fourth in the overall standings after he only managed a disappointing five points in the opening Slovenian Grand Prix.

Battling away

"It is a lot better than five points, put it that way," said Adams, adding: "We will just keep battling away. It is a long old series."

But there was controversy in the second semi-final when Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen collided on the final lap, with the Dane hitting the deck and the Australian going on to finish second.

But Crump was excluded after the race, although replays showed he was perhaps a touch unlucky.

The two British riders - Chris Harris and Scott Nicholls - again did not reach the semis.

'Bomber' Harris did best on the night with six points but a wooden spoon in his last heat put paid to his chances, while Nicholls was disappointing with just two thirds from his five heats, earning two points.

Harris now sits 11th in the standings with 12 points, with Nicholls in 14th place with nine points.