Scandinavian GP - Andersen springs shock.

Denmark's Hans Andersen captured his first podium finish winning the FIM Meridian Lifts Speedway Grand Prix at Ullevi Stadium, Gothenburg last night. The 23 year old came of age, leading the Final in fine style from start to finish, ahead of current leader of the Championship Jason Crump and Sweden's five times world champion, Tony Rickardsson, third.

It was a fairytale ending for Andersen, who courted controversy at the World Cup earlier in the month and suffered the pain and anguish of missing out on a guaranteed place in the 2005 Series when his ignition failed whilst in second place at last weekend's Grand Final. Fittingly, Andersen commented after the meeting in Vojens that 'there was still 100 points to play for in the Grand Prix' and this proved to be his motivation tonight.

Commenting on his first Grand Prix win, Andersen grinned: "It's been an amazing day, the best ever. I felt relatively good going into the final. My first bike seized after my first ride and I had to jump on my number two bike, but when small things went wrong I ignored them and focussed on going forward and it paid off tonight."

Andersen is now just 11 points off a top eight berth and a place in the 2005 line-up but he is under no illusion what he must now do: "I'm now in 11th place and proved that I can get into the final and will look to improve on that."

Jason Crump's second place now puts him 23 points clear of his nearest rivals - Leigh Adams and Greg Hancock - for the world title. Adam's night finished in the semi-finals and Hancock came fourth in the Final - not enough to stop the Australian extending his lead:

"I was 14 points ahead going into tonight's meeting,' explained a relaxed Crump, "I just need to keep getting points over the guys near me. It's the final where you have to get the points. I came here with one thing in mind - to get into the Final. And if it takes ten minutes of sheer concentration to do that then that's what I have to do."

Following the postponement of practice there were some question marks over the track before tonight's meeting, but Crump echoed the sentiments of all the riders by thanking Ole Olsen and his team for the tremendous effort they put in over the week to get the track in tip-top condition for tonight's Grand Prix:

"Ole and his team did a great job and I take my hat off to them. They are getting better and better at building these tracks and they are becoming an enjoyment to ride on. We saw some spectacular racing tonight - although I would have liked to have got past Hans in the Final!"

Tony Rickardsson gave the 16,251 Swedish fans something to shout about all night, but third in the Final means he is 27 points behind Crump, and faces a mountain to climb if he is to equal Ivan Mauger's record of six world titles: "I was really happy with my team tonight, they did a great job. I pushed all the way but it was unfortunate I couldn't do it. Things just didn't go my way." commented a slightly disappointed Rickardssson.

Current World Champion Nicki Pedersen missed out on a Final place with third in the semi-final and is lying fifth in the overall championship standings.

Great Britain's Scott Nicholls also missed out by coming third in the other semi-final. It was also disappointment for his compatriots Lee Richardson and Mark Loram who both suffered mechanical gremlins, with former World Champion Loram blowing one engine at practice and the other during the meeting.

Scandinavia Grand Prix, Gothenburg:
Result
Hans Andersen
Jason Crump
Tony Rickardsson
Greg Hancock

Scorers from Gothenburg
Hans Andersen 25
Jason Crump 20
Tony Rickardsson 18
Greg Hancock 16
Nicki Pedersen 13
Scott Nicholls 13
Leigh Adams 11
Tomasz Gollob 11
Andreas Jonsson 8
Bjarne Pedersen 8
Lee Richardson 7
Peter Karlsson 7
Kaj Laukkanen 6
Jaroslaw Hampel 6
Piotr Protasiewicz 5
Mikael Max 5
Ryan Sullivan 4
Jesper B Jensen 4
Lukas Dryml 3
Bohumil Brhel 3
Mark Loram 2
Antonio Linback 2
Rune Holta 1
Ales Dryml 1

Overall standings after Gothenburg
Jason Crump 114
Leigh Adams 91
Greg Hancock 91
Tony Rickardsson 87
Nicki Pedersen 76
Tomasz Gollob 64
Andreas Jonsson 60
Bjarne Pedersen 59
Lee Richardson 57
Jarolslaw Hampel 55
Hans Andersen 48
Ryan Sullivan 47
Scott Nicholls 44
Piotr Protasiewicz 36
Mikael Max 30
Mark Loram 29
Jesper B Jensen 29
Bohumil Brhel 28
Rune Holta 25
Lukas Dryml 17
Kaj Laukkanen 13
Grzegorz Walasek 13
Niels-Kristian Iversen 13
Kenneth Bjerre 13
Ales Dryml 12
David Norris 8
Peter Karlsson 7
Rafal Dobrucki 5
Fredrik Lindgren SWE 4
Wieslaw Jagus 4
Chris Louis 4
Peter Ljung 2
Robert Barth 2
Antonin Svab 2
Antonio Lindback 2
Simon Stead 1