MADSEN JOINS ELITE CLUB OF CARDIFF WINNERS

Leon Madsen added his name to the list of Cardiff GP winners who has had previous experience with the Poole Pirates, and closed to within nine points of series leader Bartosz Zmarzlik on Saturday night.
 

31-year old Madsen who made 46 appearances for Poole across the 2009 and 2010 seasons, picked off the two riders who currently stand ahead of him the Championship, Emil Sajftudinov and Zmarzlik to win a GP for the second time in his career, one that only commenced this season!

He became the 13th different rider to win one of the 19 Cardiff titles that have been staged at the prestigious venue and the 8th such rider to have ridden for the Pirates and gone on to become a British GP winner, joining Tony Rickardsson, Ryan Sullivan, Jason Crump, Chris Holder, Greg Hancock, Antonio Lindback and Maciej Janowski.

Madsen admitted "“I had a talk with my girlfriend at home before the meeting; I said ‘I might not be world champion this year, but wouldn’t it be nice to win the two biggest events on the calendar and finish off as No.1 in the Polish Ekstraliga rankings.
“At the moment, I am No.1 in the Polish rankings. I have won the two biggest events and I am very happy about that and proud as well.
“If I don’t win the championship, it’s kind of a plaster on the wound to win those two big events.”

His current third place standing is even more incredible when you realise he has been fighting against a disc problem in his back and an ankle injury, but he put those issues behind him as he accumulated 17 series points on his Cardiff debut, a similar return to that of former Cardiff winner Sajfutdinov, both of home crept two points closer to Zmarzlik who is now on 118 points.

Besides the battle for the medals closing up slightly, the contest for a top eight place also became significant now that just one round remains. Former world champion Jason Doyle, the fourth member of this year's Cardiff final, moved to within one point of securing his automatic place for the 2020 campaign as Russian Artem Laguta saw a remarkable change of fortunes having started the night with two wins before failing to add any more points in his final three rides. He now drops to 10th place in the standings, four behind Doyle. 

Madsen had to pick himself up off the Cardiff shale in his second ride when Martin Vaculik went under him around the first arc of heat six, a move that cost the Slovakian his part in the rerun. For the second time on the night Madsen became embroiled in passing moves without being able to influence the lead; earlier he was scrapping with Patryk Dudek in heat two whilst Janowski and Charles Wright banked the higher points. He then applied intense pressure on GB rider Robert Lambert in heat nine so found himself on just five points with more than half his programmed rides consumed. His eagerness showed in heat 16 when he picked up a start warning, but it affected him in no way as he made a swift, clean-break in the re-start to collect his first win of the night. He then snatched a win from Doyle in heat 19 before making the first semi-final his own with another display of sharp trapping and then putting the 'icing on the cake' with his that success over fellow medal hunters in the final.

Lambert was the most effective of the GB contingent, scoring six points, one more than both Tai Woffinden and the wild-card Charles Wright who was far from fazed from competing against the world's top riders.

The 2019 Championship concludes in Torun, Poland on Saturday 5th October.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Bartosz Zmarzlik 118, 2 Emil Sayfutdinov 111, 3 Leon Madsen 109, 4 Fredrik Lindgren 98, 5 Martin Vaculik 88, 6 Maciej Janowski 80, 7 Patryk Dudek 75, 8 Matej Zagar 74, 9 Jason Doyle 73, 10 Artem Laguta 69, 11 Niels-Kristian Iversen 66, 12 Antonio Lindback 56, 13 Tai Woffinden 51, 14 Janusz Kolodziej 51, 15 Robert Lambert 37, 16 Max Fricke 36, 17 Mikkel Michelsen 15, 18 Bartosz Smektala 10, 19 Oliver Berntzon 7, 20 Charles Wright 5, 21 Vaclav Milik 4, 22 Maksym Drabik 4, 23 Matic Ivacic 2, 24 Jacob Thorssell 2, 25 Martin Smolinski 1.

ADRIAN FLUX BRITISH SGP SCORES: 1 Leon Madsen 17, 2 Emil Sayfutdinov 17, 3 Bartosz Zmarzlik 15, 4 Jason Doyle 13, 5 Fredrik Lindgren 11, 6 Martin Vaculik 9, 7 Antonio Lindback 9, 8 Matej Zagar 9, 9 Maciej Janowski 7, 10 Artem Laguta 6, 11 Robert Lambert 6, 12 Charles Wright 5, 13 Tai Woffinden 5, 14 Niels-Kristian Iversen 5, 15 Patryk Dudek 3, 16 Janusz Kolodziej 1, 17 Daniel King DNR, 18 Chris Harris DNR.

Ht.1 A.Lindback,N.Iversen,M.Zagar,M.Vaculik
Ht.2 M.Janowski,C.Wright,L.Madsen,P.Dudek
Ht.3 E.Sajfutdinov,J.Doyle,B.Zmarzlik,J.Kolodziej
Ht.4 A.Laguta,F.Lindgren,R.Lambert,T.Woffinden (fell  exc)
Ht.5 B.Zmarzlik,M.Janowski,T.Woffinden,A.Lindback
Ht.6 F.Lindgren,L.Madsen,E.Sajfutdinov,M.Vaculik (exc)
Ht.7 A.Laguta,C.Wright,N.Iversen,J.Kolodziej
Ht.8 J.Doyle,M.Zagar,P.Dudek,R.Lambert
Ht.9 R.Lambert,L.Madsen,A.Lindback,J.Kolodziej
Ht.10 M.Vaculik,J.Doyle,M.Janowski,A.Laguta
Ht.11 B.Zmarzlik,F.Lindgren,P.Dudek,N.Iversen
Ht.12 E.Sajfutdinov,T.Woffinden,M.Zagar,C.Wright
Ht.13 A.Lindback,J.Doyle,F.Lindgren,C.Wright
Ht.14 M.Vaculik,T.Woffinden,J.Kolodziej,P.Dudek
Ht.15 E.Sajfutdinov,R.Lambert,N.Iversen,M.Janowski
Ht.16 L.Madsen,M.Zagar,B.Zmarzlik,A.Laguta
Ht.17 E.Sajfutdinov,A.Lindback,P.Dudek,A.Laguta
Ht.18 B.Zmarzlik,M.Vaculik,C.Wright,R.Lambert
Ht.19 L.Madsen,J.Doyle,N.Iversen,T.Woffinden
Ht.20 F.Lindgren,M.Zagar,M.Janowski,J.Kolodziej
Ht.21 L.Madsen,E.Sajfutdinov,M.Vaculik,A.Lindback
Ht.22 B.Zmarzlik,J.Doyle,M.Zagar,F.Lindgren
Ht.23 L.Madsen,E.Sajfutdinov,B.Zmarzlik,J.Doyle