Bjarne Pedersen had to settle for fourth place in the Elite Riders’ Open Championship at Peterborough tonight.

The Dane agonisingly missed out on a podium place after he and Chris Harris collided on the first bend in the final and gifted Fredrik Lindgren victory.

Poole’s star and Harris both lost speed, allowing the Wolves rider to get away and complete a magnificent triumph at the Showground.

Coventry’s Harris recovered to grab second, with Peterborough’s Kenneth Bjerre taking third in front of luckless Pedersen.

Chris Holder, Castle Cover Pirates’ other representative in the event, finished third in the semi-final behind Pedersen and Bjerre to agonising miss out on the climax to the meeting.

Earlier, Pedersen began brightly, out-gating home favourite Niels-Kristian Iversen, Kauko Nieminen and Joonas Kylmakorpi to claim a convincing victory in heat two.

Holder then broke the early red helmet domination by swooping outside Tai Woffinden on the second turn to roar on and take the chequered flag in race three with Krzysztof Kasprzak third and Cameron Woodward fourth.

Pedersen was squeezed out going into the first turn in heat five and trailed home last behind Daniel King, Lindgren and Woodward, who replaced championship holder Leigh Adams after the Aussie pulled out of the meeting on Wednesday ahead of his farewell benefit at Swindon tomorrow.

Holder, like the Dane, really struggled to get out of gate three and finished a frustrating last behind Harris, Simon Stead and Kylmakorpi in race eight.

Holder and Pedersen blasted out in front when the two Pirates clashed in heat 10 and the Aussie went on to claim his second victory to propel him to six points.

But Hans Andersen dived hard under Pedersen on the fourth turn and the Poole rider had to settle for third with Bjerre trailing in last off the graveyard gate three which had hindered Holder and Pedersen in earlier races.

Iversen, on the inside, and Lindgren, on the outside, out-gated Holder in heat 13 and the Aussie, boxed in, was then passed by Karlsson on the second turn and found himself in last place.

Holder tore under Karlsson on the back straight of the second circuit to get back into third but he couldn’t catch Iversen, who claimed second behind Lindgren.

So Holder had seven points with one qualifying outing left as he continued his fight to try and secure a top-six place and reach the semi-final.

Pedersen, desperately in need of points, produced a stunning gate off the outside trap and equally as stunning second turn swoop outside Harris to take the lead in race 15.

Then the Dane rode brilliantly to stave off Harris’ full-hearted challenge to take the chequered flag and increase his tally to seven as well with Nicholls third and Woffinden fourth.

Holder produced another poor gate in race 19 and was third off the second turn.

He briefly got past Nicholls on the second turn, third lap before the Brit quickly got in front of the Aussie again.

Neither, however, could find a way past surprise leader Nieminen, who went on to take the chequered flag.

Holder dived under Nicholls on the final corner, but his bike lifted as he crossed the finish line, allowing the Brit to regain second by less than a tyre’s length with Holder third and King fourth.

The Aussie, who had lost his balance as he crossed the line, fell on the first turn after the race had finished. But he got up okay and appeared not to have sustained injury.

Holder’s third place was still enough to enable him to squeeze into the semi-final with eight points, courtesy of his two race wins, ahead of Iversen, Nieminen and Stead, who also all finished tied on eight.

Pedersen then won a thrice-started race 20 to finish third, with 10 points, in the qualifiers, his three race wins lifting him above Bjerre and Nicholls, who also got 10.

Poole’s rider claimed first choice of gate in the semi as he out-gated Stead, Karlsson and reserve Lewis Kerr, who came in for Kasprzak after he was excluded for a tapes offence by referee Chris Gay.

Pedersen came out on top of an incredible semi-final when he stole victory on the line from Bjerre, with Holder a close third and Nicholls last.

Holder, last out, had swept from fourth to first on the first and second turn of lap two, only for Pedersen to get back in front of him.

Bjerre also stole the lead in an amazing three-rider battle, which saw Pedersen’s fourth race win of the night rewarded with third choice of gate in the final as he was followed home by Bjerre, with Holder just missing out on a place in the final.

Elite Open Riders’ Championship at Peterborough Qualifiers: Chris Harris (2-3-3-2-3) 13, Fredrik Lindgren (3-2-0-3-3) 11, Bjarne Pedersen (3-0-1-3-3) 10, Kenneth Bjerre (3-2-0-3-2) 10, Scott Nicholls (2-3-2-1-2) 10, Chris Holder (3-0-3-1-1) 8, Niels-Kristian Iversen (2-1-3-2-ret) 8, Kauko Nieminen (1-2-2-0-3) 8, Simon Stead (1-2-1-2-2) 8, Hans Andersen (0-0-2-3-2) 7, Joonas Kylmakorpi (0-1-3-2-0) 6, Daniel King (1-3-2-0-0) 6, Peter Karlsson (0-3-1-ret-1) 5, Tai Woffinden (2-1-0-0-1) 4, Krzysztof Kasprzak (1-0-1-1-exc) 3,Cameron Woodward (0-1-0-1-1) 3. Reserves: Lewis Kerr (1) 1, Jake Knight dnr.

Referee: Chris Gay.

Ht 1: Lindgren, Nicholls, Stead, Andersen, 59.3.

Ht 2: Pedersen, Iversen, Nieminen, Kylmakorpi, 59.6.

Ht 3: Holder, Woffinden, Kasprzak, Woodward, 59.6.

Ht 4: Bjerre, Harris, King, Karlsson, 60.0.

Ht 5: King, Lindgren, Woodward, Pedersen, 60.3.

Ht 6: Karlsson, Nieminen, Woffinden, Andersen, 61.3 Ht 7: Nicholls, Bjerre, Iversen, Kasprzak, 60.3.

Ht 8: Harris, Stead, Kylmakorpi, Holder, 59.6.

Ht 9: Harris, Nieminen, Kasprzak, Lindgren, 60.8.

Ht 10: Holder, Andersen, Pedersen, Bjerre, 60.6.

Ht 11: Kylmakorpi, Nicholls, Karlsson, Woodward, 61.5.

Ht 12: Iversen, King, Stead, Woffinden, 61.5.

Ht 13: Lindgren, Iversen, Holder, Karlsson (retired), 60.6.

Ht 14: Andersen, Kylmakorpi, Kasprzak, King, 60.8.

Ht 15: Pedersen, Harris, Nicholls, Woffinden, 60.9.

Ht 16: Bjerre, Stead, Woodward, Nieminen, 61.4.

Ht 17: Lindgren, Bjerre, Woffinden, Kylmakorpi, 61.3.

Ht 18: Harris, Andersen, Woodward, Iversen (retired), 61.4.

Ht 19: Nieminen, Nicholls, Holder, King, 62.0.

Ht 20: (2nd re-run) Pedersen, Stead, Karlsson, Kerr, Kasprzak (excluded tapes offence after receiving earlier warning to remain still while under starters’ orders), 62.5.

Semi-final Ht 21: Pedersen, Bjerre, Holder, Nicholls, 62.2.

Final Ht 22: Lindgren, Harris, Bjerre, Pedersen, 61.4.