Wagstaff 'so proud' of Pedersen.

Oxford's Nicki Pedersen has had a triumphant weekend to reaffirm himself as Oxford's top rider. On Saturday evening he became only the second Oxford rider to win the British Speedway Grand Prix at the splendid Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Pedersen was forced to do it the hard way and fought his way through eight races to finally claim the number one spot in front of forty thousand fans. The win has moved Nicki up to second spot in the World Championship standings, just three points behind series leader, and current World Champion, Tony Rickardsson.

A clearly delighted Nicki Pedersen was keeping his feet firmly on the ground "Tony is still the No. 1 rider and tough to beat. It will be great for me to go to Copenhagen as the winner of the last GP but I have to treat it as just another meeting". Oxford promoter Nigel Wagstaff was the second happiest man in the stadium "I am so proud of what Nicki has achieved here and I cannot wait for Friday when I am sure he will receive a heroes welcome".

Less than twenty four hours later, Pedersen was back in Silver Machine colours and continued his triumphant form with a paid sixteen point haul. Although Oxford narrowly missed out they pushed the Bees closer than any other team at Brandon this year. They can also point to the state of the Coventry track which was a dustbowl after the very first heat and the strange refereeing decision of Jim McGregor.

He blocked the use of Nicki Pedersen as a tactical substitute in Heat 12 as Steve Masters still had one more compulsory race totake. Wagstaff said: "I was going to put Steve in Heat 14. The referee was very aggressive in making his point, that's all I can say."
Scorers:

Coventry
Billy Hamill 10, Billy Janniro 6, Lee Richardson 7, Stuart Robson 6, Andreas Jonsson 13, Jason Bunyan 2, Ryan Fisher 3

Oxford
Todd Wiltshire 10, Travis McGowan 1, Craig Boyce 6, Sebastian Ulamek 6, Nicki Pedersen 15, Steve Masters 2, Charlie Gjedde 3