Aussie star Jack Holder insists things can change quickly at the Speedway GP World Championship summit as he prepares for this weekend’s ATPI FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Manchester.
Holder faces the best riders in the world at the National Speedway Stadium on Friday and Saturday, with a huge 44 championship points up for grabs – including four in Friday afternoon’s sprint race.
He is currently fifth in the standings on 21 points – level with Leon Madsen in fourth. Despite the Dane scoring just one point at round one in Landshut, he powered back into the running with victory and 20 championship points at the FIM Speedway GP of Czech Republic – Prague on May 23.
That result underlines how rapidly things can change in Speedway GP, as Holder sets his sights on leader Bartosz Zmarzlik, who has 32 points, with Kacper Woryna on 31 and Brady Kurtz on 26 also chasing him down.
“I wouldn’t even say it’s a big gap to the top,” he said. “Leon scored one point in Landshut and then won in Prague. Now we’re equal.
“We are only two rounds in. I’m sitting in a good position. We have two rounds in Manchester, which I like, and I am really looking forward to it. We’ll make a big push this weekend.”
Holder raced to a fifth and a fourth place in last year’s Manchester double-header, scoring 26 points over two days. He admits it could have been more.
He said: “Last year I made one final on night two, and I probably should have made the first. I was probably riding a bit too defensively with (Dan) Bewley just sending it around the outside in the LCQ.
“I am really looking forward to it this weekend. It’s going to be a big two days physically and mentally. Manchester is a big track with plenty of racing lines, so you need to be thinking all the time.
“Doing two SGPs back-to-back is pretty stressful. But I am ready for it. We’re two rounds in, but after this weekend, we are nearly halfway through the series. It’s a very important weekend. I feel pretty confident that my bikes are fast, so it’s just down to me really.”
Holder left Prague with 12 championship points, and he was gutted it wasn’t more after he missed out on automatic final qualification by the narrowest of margins. Despite tying on 11 race points – two wins, two seconds and a third – after five rides, Holder was pipped to a top-two finish by Madsen, who recorded the fastest race time.
He sighed: “I always seem to get the wrong end of the stick. I should have been straight into the final in Prague, but that’s the way it goes. I just don’t understand it. We had the same number of wins, seconds and thirds – then we raced each other, and I beat him. But all of a sudden, it went on race times. That’s pretty silly.
“But I can’t really do too much about it. I would have been in the final and I would have had second gate pick. Instead, I was in the LCQ. It was a little bit disappointing, but stuff happens, and you can’t dwell on it. I had a good night apart from that.”