DUZERS BREAKS SGP DUCK TO TAKE TITLE FIGHT TO THE WIRE

Oct 082017

Speedway GP rookie Patryk Dudek has had a pretty awesome debut season in the Speedway Grand Prix series but there was one thing missing from his burgeoning resumé – a victory.

He’s been second, third and even fourth but the top step had alluded him all season long, until he produced one of the best GP performances of the season to finally get his hands on the gold and in the process he shook up the world championship picture.

Dudek trailed leader Jason Doyle by 22 points heading into the penultimate round and the Australian only needed to match Patryk’s score to win the title, but ‘Duzers’ had other ideas and slashed Doyle’s lead to 14 points with one round to go.

It’s a pretty big ask to claw that back but he has at least piled the pressure on and as he soaked up the winning feeling in the aftermath of his big night, he told us that it was the best moment of his career to date.

“What can I say? I feel great, this is the best moment now of the season – no, the best moment of my career I think. When you win, always it’s a perfect feeling but when you win a world championship meeting it is even better.

“I have been close, it has been a hard season and we have made the top three but it feels so good to win one. There was pressure that I haven’t won yet so it’s nice to stop that and now I can focus on the next round. I think I will probably stay in second, Doyley has a good lead, but you never know and we’ll see what happens in Melbourne.

“This year my target was the top eight so to be in second place with one race to go is amazing, of course I want to win the championship but this is my first year and I hope I’ll have a lot of years left to try and do that.

“Now, it is the best feeling of my career but I will see how I feel in the morning after I have celebrated!”

Patryk’s fellow claw-bearer Tai Woffinden had spent the last two days in bed searching for natural remedies to a sickness bug but as soon as he put the race-suit on it was down to business and somehow, he dug deep enough to come away with second place.

It was a monumental effort by the former World Champ to jump into overall third and keep his medal hunt alive.

“If I can’t win the title my worst case scenario is a medal and we’re in that position now, I don’t know the points and if there’s a chance I can catch Patryk but if I can’t get second I’ll take third. I want to make sure I’m in the top three,” he said.

“It’s been a hard couple of days and I wasn’t going to practice yesterday as I didn’t want to make it worse, but I’ve been researching every natural remedy you can imagine trying to feel a bit better for tonight! It cleared up a bit today, but I’ve got three weeks off now so I can make sure I get myself right for the last round. Roll on Melbourne.”

The biggest cheer of the night was reserved for hometown hero Pawel Przedpelski, who put in the performance of his life in front of thousands of his local fans. He was so close to making his first SGP final but found himself squeezed out by compatriot Bartek Zmarzlik in the Semi, but he still received a hero’s reception and left with his reputation comfortably enhanced.

Doyle still holds a handy lead heading Down Under and should wrap up the title but with Dudek on the charge, and the pressure mounting, there’s still a lot to play for. One thing we do know - you don’t want to miss the climax of what has been an epic season so far.