MAGIC GP NIGHT FOR PIRATE FAVOURITE

Chris Holder has been joined as GP series leader by defending world champion Tai Woffinden after a tough, action-packed night in Horsens, Denmark.

The 2012 world champion finished runners up to former Poole captain Maciej Janowski who sensationally held on to win a re-run final after Nicki Pedersen and Tai Woffinden had tangled at the first time of asking.

The victory for the Polish youngster was his second GP title but the first time he had won a final as his previous success came last July in Latvia in a curtailed meeting.

Holder, who at one stage of the meeting looked destined to miss out on the semi-final cut, put together a solid recovery, finishing with 13 GP points, two less than Woffinden which has allowed the Brit to square things up at the top of the leaderboard.

Australian Holder scored 8 points from his heats of the third GP of the season to give himself some small breathing space as riders were queuing up on 7 points behind him for the final semi-final slot, which Swede Andreas Jonsson just managed to attain, at the expense of Jason Doyle, Bartosz Zmarzlik and Danish duo Peter Kildemand and Niels-Kristian Iversen.

In his first two outings Holder had tried a couple of spectacular first turn switch backs but couldn't hold position either time, his opening ride gaining a point for third place his second ending pointless. A good gate in heat 11 meant he had no need to switch lines as he moved on to four points for the night and after being out-paced by his good rivals Hancock and Woffinden in heat 16 he was in a position of knowing a second race win was a necessity in his final programmed ride. His gating gloves were pulled firmly on in heat 18 and semi-final safety was secured.

In that semi-final, the second of the two, he and Hancock were both sharp away but the race was called back when Nicki Pedersen and Antonio Lindback were battling for supremacy behind them, with Lindback ruled the cause of the stoppage. The 'Monster Energy' sponsored duo were repeating those exploits in the re-start and looking destined for the final until Hancock lost concentration and clipped into the air barrier allowing Pedersen to steal second place from him.

But Pedersen himself got into problems in the final and brought Woffinden down thus denying the Dane the chance of winning a GP on his home soil yet again. Holder was making good progress at the time of the stoppage but in the re-start found himself embroiled in a cat and mouse chase with Janowski whilst Woffinden realistically could only watch on in admiration.

The wide-open championship moves to Prague on June 25th, a GP that Woffinden has won three times in successive seasons.

Horsens Scorers M.Janowski 16 (2,3,1,3,1,3,3); C.Holder 13 (1,0,3,1,3,3,2); T.Woffinden 15 (1,3,3,2,3,2,1); N.Pedersen 10 (2,1,2,2,1,2,0); G.Hancock 14 (3,2,3,3,2,1); A.Lindback 10 (3,3,2,1,1,0); A.Jonsson 8 (0,2,2,3,0,1); M.Zagar 8 (3,3,0,0,2,0); J.Doyle 7 (3,1,1,0,2); P.Kildemand 7 (0,2,1,1,3); B.Zmarzlik 7 (2,1,3,1,0); N.Iversen 7 (2,1,0,3,1); P.Pawlicki 5 (0,0,0,2,3); A.Thomsen 5 (1,2,0,2,0); C.Harris 4 (0,0,2,0,2); F.Lindgren 2 (1,0,1,0,0)

Championship Standings: C.Holder (39); T.Woffinden (39); G.Hancock (38); M.Janowski (36); A.Lindback (30); P.Kildemand (28); M.Zagar (26); B.Zmarzlik (25); J.Doyle (25); N.Pedersen (24); A.Jonsson (22); F.Lindgren (21); N.Iversen (19); P.Pawlicki (17); C.Harris (10)