Scott Nicholls diary: Sweden Speedway GP

We flew out to Sweden last Thursday in plenty of time for Saturday’s Grand Prix.

Unusually we managed to have a good stroll around Gothenburg – mostly it’s turn-up, race and fly out again. We even managed to have a leisurely lunch.

We practiced on the track on the Friday, which went pretty good. I was happy in practice. The track wasn’t so bad, a few little bumps here and there. I was pretty happy with everything really. The bikes seemed good and I felt good in myself too.

Saturday we managed to have a chilled day and managed to see a bit more of Gothenburg in the sunshine. And then it was onto the Swedish Speedway GP.

Again I was happy with everything, myself the motorbikes, but again it was a bit disappointing in the end. I was happy with my first three rides and I was looking to go forward to the semi finals. But then I was wrongly excluded in my fourth ride, which cost me a place in the semi’s.

I really didn’t expect to be excluded. It was a first corner incident. It’s been widely publicised that the track was pretty bumpy and unpredictable, which caused a lot of crashes.

I got sandwiched at the start and I made an early decision to cut back. Billy Forsberg was the reserve in at the time, and he hit a hole, and eased of and I just hit his back wheel which knocked me off. The bike wheelied up and threw me off.

I had no doubt in my mind that it would be a re-start with me back in it – but I wasn’t. That hit me hard as the race had already been re-started when I was in second place after Gollob crashed, so I would have had two points, and as there was only three in the re run I would have been guaranteed at least one point which would have put me in the semi final.

No disrespect to Forsberg but he was the reserve and I was riding good and I was confident of grabbing at least two points out of that race that would have put me in the semi’s and also a gate pick.

Looking back it is very disappointing and frustrating as everything was going well. The motorbikes were good and I was well on the pace. You have to take the positives out of it though.

After the sunshine of Sweden I was looking forward to the Bank Holiday and a day off in the sunshine – or not!

It was back to Sweden for a league meeting on the Tuesday. Unfortunately we lost, disappointing but it was the first time we’d lost all season, so it had to happen some time.

I came back to race for Eastbourne on Wednesday at Poole but that was rained off, so I had another night off to catch up on paperwork.

Tonight is the British Final at Swindon. When I lost the title to Chris (Harris) last year, it didn’t seem such a big disappointment, but I want to get it back now. I’m going there looking for the win. I won’t be happy with anything less. I feel that I am riding well and I’ve had good meeting at Swindon, so I have to feel confident.

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