Jonasson to make second wild car appearance

Swedish international Thomas H Jonasson makes his second World Championship appearance of 2011 after being handed the wild card for the FIM Scandinavian Speedway Grand Prix in Malilla, Sweden, on August 13. Jonasson, who wears the famous No.16 race jacket, made his SGP bow at Malilla’s G&B Arena last year and scored an impressive eight points. This is often enough to take a rider into the semi-finals of a Grand Prix, but he missed out by a point in a very competitive round. Jonasson returned to the series for the FIM Meridian Lifts Swedish SGP in Gothenburg on May 14 and scored a very promising eight points from four races before rain forced the round to be curtailed after 16 heats. The 22-year-old also made his FIM PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna Speedway World Cup debut earlier this month and impressed with his hard-charging style and solid performances for his country.  Jonasson races for his hometown club Vetlanda in the Swedish Elitserien, which is just 50km from Malilla. He also competes for Gdansk in the Polish First Division. He will be joined in the meeting by track reserves Simon Gustafsson and Linus Sundstrom. Gustafsson, who dons the No.17 jacket, races for Eastbourne in the British Elite League as well as table-topping Indianerna in the Swedish Elitserien. He is also in this year’s World Under-21 Final line-up. Sundstrom, who wears No.18, races for Peterborough in the UK and Piraterna in Sweden. The referee for the FIM Scandinavian SGP will be Great Britain’s Craig Ackroyd, who took charge of the season-opening FIM Fogo European Grand Prix in Leszno.