Defending champion Dmitri Koltakov holds a comfortable lead in the Astana Expo FIM Ice Speeedway Gladiators World Championship after two days of splendid racing in Krasnogorsk.
Saturday saw an enthusiastic crowd of around 9000 brave the winter cold and they were rewarded with some entertaining racing on a well prepared track. Wild Card Nicolay Krasnikov took first place but his success was not as emphatic as last year when he was unbeaten at this track.
Hero of the meeting was 19 year old Egor Myshkovets in his first World Championship meeting who had ridden unbeaten through the semi finals and looked to be favourite to take the last race. As the snow began to fall however and following a poor start the young Russian drove into the straw bales after clipping the rear wheel of Dmitri Kolkatov whilst challenging for the lead. He walked away with a bruised elbow and hip but was disqualified from the restart. At the second attempt Krasnikov came from behind to win the final where they were only two finishers when Khomisevitch fell after apparently losing a chain on the last lap.
Newcomers Ove Ledström and Manfred Seifter performed well on their debut meeting with the Swede reaching the semi final stage. Franz Zorn was the other semi finalist.
Three riders, Krasnikov, Koltakov and Myshkovets finished the day equal on 18 points with former champion Daniil Ivanov missing out on a final place after a slow start in his semi final.
Sunday afternoon’s racing attracted another healthy crowd to the Zorkiy Stadium and as expected the Russian riders were once again supreme. Koltakov and Kononov looked best in the qualification heats and Krasnikov was also dominant despite trailing a surprising last in Heat 17. Myshkovets collected wins in his first three races but all were against non Russian opposition and in the second half of the meeting he was clearly suffering the effects of his crash on the previous day and his scoring suffered accordingly. Former champion Daniil Ivanov has still to recapture his best form and failed to reach the final again.
So it was left to Dmitry Khomitsevich, who had been the lowest of the Russian scorers, to spring the surprise of the Final when he shot from the start and held off the persistant challenges of Krasnikov and Koltakov to win a memorable victory.
The only non-Russian semi finalists were the same as on Saturday, veteran Austrian Franz Zorn and newcomer Ove Ledström. The young Swede, mentored by ‘Posa’ Serenius, made a great impression on his first appearance in the World Championship and finished as the highest placed westerner. Fellow debutant Manfred Seifter also showed promise and his 13 points included a heat win. A fall whilst leading his last race cost him a place in the semi finals but he can look back on this meeting with some satisfaction.
Otherwise, it was a disappointing start to the campaign for the Germans Bauer and Pletschacher and the other young Swedes Henderson and Svensson all of whom will expect to improve their situation as the season progresses.
Leading Scorers after Final 1 (All Russia except where shown):
1 106 Dmitry Koltakov MFR RUS 37
2 16 Nikolay Krasnikov MFR RUS 33
3 305 Egor Myshkovets MFR RUS 31
4 919 Dmitry Khomitsevich MFR RUS 30
5 444 Igor Kononov MFR RUS 28
6 333 Daniil Ivanov MFR RUS 25
7 8 Ove Ledström SVEMO SWE 16
8 100 Franz Zorn OeAMTC AUS 16
9 92 Manfred Seifter OeAMTC AUS 13
10 9 Stefan Svensson SVEMO SWE 10
11 22 Günther Bauer DMSB GER 9
12 69 Jan Klatovsky ACCR CZ REP 7
13 10 Niklas Kallin Svensson SVEMO SWE 6
14 111 Daniel Henderson SVEMO SWE 6
15 99 Stefan Pletschacher DMSB GER 4
Individual action takes a break now as Almaty in Kazakhstan is the next venue for the Ice Race Gladiators on 20th and 21st February but, before then, the attention moves to Togliatti where the Team Final will take place next weekend.