FIM Gala Ceremony 2013 - Track Racing -

Track Racing Daniil Ivanov

FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators World Champion

Joonas Kylm채korpi

FIM Long Track World Champion

Patryk Dudek

FIM Speedway Under 21 World Champion

Tai Woffinden

FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Champion

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Š Good-Shoot

Daniil Ivanov

FIM Ice Speedway Gladiators World Champion Born on 23 September 1986, in Kamensk-Uralskiy, Russia

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IVANOV – NO LONGER THE “BRIDESMAID” Daniil Ivanov was introduced to the sport by his father and brother who are both racers and he is one of the few ice racers who also take part in speedway. However, the Ice Speedway Gladiators World Championship has always been his target and for the previous four years he had been stalking eight times winner Nikolai Krasnikov without ever being able to catch him. Krasnikov’s retirement presented him with the best opportunity to achieve his goal and in Uppsala, Sweden in March he finally secured the coveted gold medal having dropped only 11 points during the whole ten round series.

Ivanov had stamped his authority on the series early on with emphatic wins in Russia taking a five point lead from the Krasnogorsk and setting a new track record.

In Togliatti, his home track, he dropped only one point in 14 races but in Assen, the first of the artificial tracks, his close rival Dmitry Koltakov, coached by former champion Krasnikov, hit back and came to within three points of taking the lead.

A high speed clash with Austrian Frank Zorn in Inzell could have slowed his progress but Ivanov was determined and left Bavaria for the final rounds in Sweden with a 12 point advantage. When Ivanov beat Koltakov in the very first race in Uppsala the pattern was set and by the end of the day he had extended his lead to an almost unassailable 17 points. This was confirmed on the second day as he sailed to an immaculate 21 point maximum to take his first title with a total of 199 points, an emphatic 21 ahead of the rest of the field.

Once again the Russians, who dominated this competition, celebrate another successful year and only the Austrians, who took them to a race off for the team title, have had any real success against them. As the remaining competitors continue to search for the secret formula that might break their stranglehold we shall see how successful they have been in 2014 !

© Good-Shoot 51

© Lydia Robin

Joonas Kylmäkorpi

FIM Long Track World Champion Born on 14 February 1980 in Stockholm, Sweden Nationality Finnish

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FLYING FINN’S FOURTH For 2013 the FIM Long Track World Championship had been restructured so that 20 riders, including one Wild Card, competed throughout the series in a 5-rider, 20 Qualifying Heat format, followed by two Semi-finals and a Final. This produced greater spectator interest and a closer competition with the six meetings producing six different winners.

Once again the “Flying Finn” dominated the series with a season-long consistency that gathered him a record fourth successive title. His final points tally of 126 points was a massive 29 ahead of his nearest rival and his place as one of all-time greats of this discipline was assured long before the riders went into the rain-delayed Final round in Morizes in September. Here he secured his title in the 10th race and finished with 18 points despite falling in the Final.

Joonas’ early career was in speedway where he had been racing for some years, mainly in Sweden and Finland before taking up Long Track in 2000. His first medals, silver in 2006 and 2007, marked him as a future champion and he finally won gold in 2010. Since then he has added three more titles to his haul and looks to continue this success for some years to come. He still rides speedway regularly in the Polish, Swedish, British and Danish leagues but similar success on the short tracks has eluded him.

The battle for the Silver and Bronze medals had been close throughout the season and the consistency of Britain’s Richard Hall eventually proved crucial as he pushed Josef Franc into 4th place and came within one point of Dutchman Jannick De Jong despite racing with an injured shoulder.

© Lydia Robin 53

Š Marek Perek

Patryk Dudek

FIM Speedway Under 21 World Champion Born on 20 June 1992 in Bydgoszcz, Poland

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POLES APART 2013 saw a major overhaul of the Under-21 championship with the number of rounds reduced to three in order to avoid fixture clashes with other competitions and make it easier for riders to enter.

Patryk topped the Final Classification for this championship but left it to the very last minute. Despite a suspect engine he took the two points he needed in his last race in Terenzano, Italy to beat his fellow countryman Piotr Pawliki by a single point. He led the series going into the last event but had to fight off a strong challenge from Pawliki and Kacper Gomolski and ultimately it was the 14 point haul he had taken from the first round in Pila in June which assured his victory. This was the first time that one country had taken the top three places in this competition.

Dudek started riding in 2008 and this year has seen his first major successes at international level. Apart from the Under-21 title he played an important part in Poland’s Speedway World Cup success in Prague in July and also helped the Poles to a silver medal in the Team Under-21 Final.

He rides for the Zielona Gora club in the Polish Extraleague and there were hundreds of his fans who travelled to Italy to support him.

Š Marek Perek 55

Š BSI Speedway Ltd

Tai Woffinden

FIM Speedway Grand Prix World Champion Born on 10 August 1990 in Scunthorpe, Great Britain

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CHAMPION OF DEDICATION AND COURAGE When Tai Woffinden was handed a permanent Wild Card place by the FIM Grand Prix Bureau, there were few who would have predicted the outcome of the 2013 Speedway World Championship. Tai himself later admitted that his personal aim had been to secure a top eight place in the rankings and automatic qualification for next year’s series but that target was quickly revised as he demonstrated his ability to match the best of the field in speed, skill, courage and sportsmanship.

From the opening round in Auckland it was clear that we were seeing a far different rider to the 19 year old who disappointed during his debut GP season in 2010. Then, struggling to deal with the recent death of his father and mentor Rob, and ill-prepared technically or logistically for the demands of a long and competitive season, he failed to impress and did not qualify for the following year’s competition. Now, there was a young man who was clearly able to compete at the highest level, whose riding style looked comfortable and with a training and fitness regime which marked his determination to succeed.

His progress was rapid, marked by the “race of the season” when beating Emil Sayfutdinov in Bydgoszcz, and recovering from a terrifying first bend clash with Nicki Pedersen in Gothenburg until, by winning his first

Grand Prix in Prague, he rose to the top of the leader board. A disastrous Cardiff slowed his progress and it was not until the Italian Grand Prix in August that he established a clear lead in the series.

It was a season where the ambitions of a number of riders were curtailed by injuries; reigning champion Chris Holder saw his season end in a horrific crash at Coventry in July, Darcy Ward broke his shoulder in the Swedish Grand Prix and missed the next three rounds and Sayfutdinov’s accident in a Polish League match prompted his withdrawal from the championship in September. Woffinden broke his collar bone at Cardiff in June, had surgery and a metal plate inserted to enable him to ride again only two weeks later, then broke the same bone again in Stockholm twisting the plate in the process. Gritting his teeth to ride through the pain he returned to race in Torun and claim the first of what should be many World Championship titles.

Amazingly, and despite a racing schedule which would tax the fittest of men, he also found time before the British Grand Prix to take a 140-mile charity cycle ride from his British base in Wolverhampton to Cardiff in aid of Cancer Research which has raised over £30,000 as a tribute to his father.

The boy had become a man – on and off the track.

© BSI Speedway Ltd 57