Dane gatecrashes Woffinden's party to win British speedway GP

Danish racer Niels-Kristian Iversen looked as surprised as anyone when he won the British speedway Grand Prix at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium tonight.

The 33-year-old qualified for the final in fourth position behind 2012 world champion Chris Holder and massive favourite Tai Woffinden, who succeeded Holder as world number one in 2013. 

With Holder and Woffinden having choice of starting gate, they seemed odds-on to be battling for the victory on a night where the riders on the inside two gates took the lion’s share of points in the qualifying heats.

Aussie Holder made the start, but admitted he was indecisive on the opening lap as he came under threat on the inside from Woffinden, who cut back to try and drive under Holder. As Holder wavered, Iversen ripped around the outside and cleared off to take victory.

Woffinden, trapped on the inside by Holder, dropped back to last place on a night where he’d seemed destined to win his home Grand Prix for the first time. Having run a last in his first qualifying heat, Woffinden battled back to win his next five races, including a monumental win over reigning world champion Greg Hancock.

But having built up a frenzied atmosphere among the 40,750 fans through the night, the 24-year-old from Scunthorpe came up one race short of giving them the victory they craved. But the speedway GP system means riders score world championship points through the whole night, so Woffinden emerged as second highest points scorer behind Holder.

Woffinden is now 12 points clear at the top of the world championship standings after his two closest rivals missed the final. Hancock and Dane Nicki Pedersen, who came to blows after a clash in a Swedish League meeting a fortnight ago, scored 12 and nine respectively.