GP RESULT: FINLAND ROUND III

 SLOVENIAN Matej Zagar won his first ever GP title with victory in the first ever Finnish-staged GP event, the meeting marking the top flight return to racing for Poole's Darcy Ward.

Ward scored 8 points and was just shaded out of the semi-finals, which his two fellow compatriots - Chris Holder and Troy Batchelor - both acceded to. After the meeting Ward admitted "it's good to be back on a bike racing again. There can be no harder meeting to come back into than a GP race and I really felt it out there. The conditions were not too favourable to be honest but everything seems ok. It's just a bit uncomfortable when I'm riding but a bit more work on it and I'll be fine. Of course I would have liked to have won the meeting but realistically that was unlikely to happen. I sccored 8 points so I can't be too disappointed with that.

"I can now kick on with my racing again and I'm looking forward to that. There's more GP rounds to go and I can move on now from here."

Ward scored in each of his five rides of the meeting but those 8 points left him in 9th place on the night and overall 7th place in the championship. Chris Holder was in strong form in his heats winning his first two and then recording two second places before failing to score in his 5th outing. But he was eliminated in the semi-final when a beaten last at the expense of Greg Hancock, eventual winner Zagar and Martin Smolinski.

Hancock headed into the final on the back of four straight wins after opening with two pointless outings, but his night ended as it began. Ahead world champion Tai Woffinden - who earlier in heat 12 produced the first genuine pass of the night only for the race to be sensationally re-run due to an early chequered flag - made a basic error on the third lap to allow Zagar to pounce in for victory.

Watching on from the pits all meeting was Poland's Krzysztof Kasprzak who was forced to withdraw from the meeting after Friday's practice session had confirmed that his knee injury, sustained in last weekend's Best Pairs event, was too troublesome. But the Pole holds on to the championship lead by just one point over both Nicki Pedersen and Hancock.

T.Woffinden 16 (3,2,3,0,3,3,2)
M.Zagar 15 (3,1,2,3,1,2,3)
F.Lindgren 12 (2,2,0,3,2,2,1)
G.Hancock 12 (0,0,3,3,3,3,0)
C.Holder 10 (3,3,2,2,0,0,)
T.Batchelor 10 (3,1,1,1,3,1,)
N.Pedersen 10 (1,3,2,1,3,0,)
M.Smolinski 9 (1,3,0,2,2,1,)
D.Ward 8 (1,2,1,2,2)
A.Jonsson 7 (2,3,0,1,1)
J.Hampel 7 (1,1,3,1,1)
N.Iversen 6 (0,0,2,2,2)
J.Kylmakorpi 5 (2,0,0,3,0)
K.Nieminen 4 (0,2,1,0,1)
C.Harris 4 (2,1,1,0,0)
K.Bjerre 3 (0,0,3,0,0)

1.T.Batchelor,C.Harris,J.Hampel ,G.Hancock
2.M.Zagar,J.Kylmakorpi,N.Pedersen ,K.Nieminen
3.C.Holder,A.Jonsson,D.Ward ,N.Iversen
4.T.Woffinden,F.Lindgren,M.Smolinski ,K.Bjerre
5.C.Holder,T.Woffinden,M.Zagar ,G.Hancock
6.A.Jonsson,K.Nieminen,J.Hampel ,K.Bjerre
7.N.Pedersen,F.Lindgren,C.Harris ,N.Iversen
8.M.Smolinski,D.Ward,T.Batchelor ,J.Kylmakorpi
9.G.Hancock,N.Iversen,K.Nieminen ,M.Smolinski
10.J.Hampel,M.Zagar,D.Ward ,F.Lindgren
11.K.Bjerre,C.Holder,C.Harris ,J.Kylmakorpi
12.T.Woffinden,N.Pedersen,T.Batchelor ,A.Jonsson
13.G.Hancock,D.Ward,N.Pedersen ,K.Bjerre
14.J.Kylmakorpi,N.Iversen,J.Hampel ,T.Woffinden
15.M.Zagar,M.Smolinski,A.Jonsson ,C.Harris
16.F.Lindgren,C.Holder,T.Batchelor ,K.Nieminen
17.G.Hancock,F.Lindgren,A.Jonsson ,J.Kylmakorpi
18.N.Pedersen,M.Smolinski,J.Hampel ,C.Holder
19.T.Woffinden,D.Ward,K.Nieminen ,C.Harris
20.T.Batchelor,N.Iversen,M.Zagar ,K.Bjerre
SF1 T.Woffinden,F.Lindgren,T.Batchelor ,N.Pedersen
SF2 G.Hancock,M.Zagar,M.Smolinski ,C.Holder
Final M.Zagar,T.Woffinden,F.Lindgren ,G.Hancock

Championship Standings: K.Kasprzak (35) N.Pedersen (34); G.Hancock (34); C.Holder (32); M.Smolinski (31); F.Lindgren (30); D.Ward (29); J.Hampel (29); T.Woffinden (28); M.Zagar (27); A.Jonsson (25); N.Iversen (22); T.Batchelor (19); K.Bjerre (17); C.Harris (6); J.Kylmakorpi (5); K.Nieminen (4)