Daniil Ivanov maintained his lead in the Motul FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators World Championship after an exciting two days in the Asian city of Blagoveshchensk on the Sino-Russian border. With the weather improving from -30C to a sunny -12C nearly 10,000 spectators attended the two day event which was held in the city’s Amur Stadium for the first time.
Dmitri Koltakov was the winner of the Final on the first day of racing beating fellow Russians Ivanov, Pavel Chaika and Sergei Makarov in a closely fought race. However, Ivanov retained a 3 point lead in the championship having scored 19 points, beaten only by Koltakov – once in heat 14 then again in the Final. Koltakov was left to regret his engine failure in Heat 6 which cost him the chance of drawing level with his great rival.
An early casualty was Austrian Harald Simon who rides for the local team in the Russian League. Firstly his specially prepared engine gave out in his first race then he suffered lacerations to his foot in his second ride when clashing with Germany’s Max Niedermaier. He was taken to hospital where stitches were necessary and he was unable to take his place in the field on Day 2. He will, however be well enough to return home to Austria on Wednesday and hopes to be fit to race in the next round in Assen.
On the second day of racing it was Ivanov who triuphed in an incident packed Final in which Kolkatov fell and local hero Chaika crossed the inner edge. Both were disqualified by referee Wojaczek leaving Ivanov to cruise home ahead of Igor Kononov in the restart.
With Simon unable to race, local reserve 19 year old Sergey Logachev took his place. After trailing last in his first race he delighted the home fans by qualifying for the semi finals where his meeting ended despite beating Sweden’s Stefan Svensson.
Sweden had reason to celebrate the performance of their two participants. Following on from their silver medal success in the Team Final last week, Svensson and Per-Anders Lindström both qualified for the semi finals on Day 1 although neither was able to make the Final.
Svensson was again the best of the non-Russians on Day 2 with another 9 points to add to his first day haul of 8. Gunter Bauer appears to be recovering some of his form with a fighting 12 points over the weekend with his compatriot Stefan Pletschacher scoring 11.
For Poland’s Grzegorz Knapp and Dutchman Rene Stellingwerf the meeting was a disappointment with both riders scoring only 9 points over the two days. Knapp, particularly is capable of better form and will hope to improve his position in the scond half of the series. Stellingwerf represents his nation at their home event in Assen and the Dutch fans will be looking for an improved performance form this popular rider.
The whole event can be considered a great success for the organisers who overcame all the logistical problems of transporting riders, mechanics and officials as well as 30 motorcycles some 8000 km by air from Moscow.
These were the last races of the championship to be held this year on natural ice as the next rounds take place in western Europe on artificial ice tracks in Assen and Inzell. The Draw for these events will take place in Geneva and will be announced in due course.
Provisional standings after Final 2 HERE
Photos Good-Shoot