Bjarne vows to keep on battling (From Bournemouth Echo)

Bjarne vows to keep on battling

7:00am Monday 16th June 2008 in

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BJARNE Pedersen admits he has a mountain to climb after missing out on a semi-final place in the Danish Grand Prix.

But the Pirates' star has pledged he is not about to give up the fight despite slipping 27 points behind an automatic re-qualification place for next year's World Championship.

The Dane, who will probably slip out of the series if he does not finish in the top eight, scored seven points in Copenhagen.

That tally fell one point short of a semi-final spot, though, and he was made to pay for a last place in a heat 13 re-run after the original race was stopped with him in second.

It leaves Pedersen - who sat out the last two GPs with a broken wrist - on 11 points overall in 15th place with seven rounds to go.

The majority of Danes in a 28,000 crowd in the Parken Stadium thought Tomasz Gollob - who went on to win the meeting on his 100th GP appearance - should have been excluded for ramming Pedersen in the back on the second turn in heat 13.

But Pedersen, probably reliev-ed after it looked as though he had lifted and swerved in front of Gollob, said: "It was a fair decision.

"To be honest, I haven't really seen the TV replay, but there was a lot of movement out there.

"(Kenneth) Bjerre was lifting, I was lifting, so I think all four back was right."

Pedersen, who can hardly wait for the next round at Cardiff on June 28, added: "It was good to be back racing in the GP again and I felt good out there on the track.

"But my fourth ride was a costly one with it being stopped because I felt I had got myself into a decent position and points in that one would have got me through to the semis.

"Unfortunately, the re-run and my fifth ride weren't so good and that was that. I've got a lot of ground to make up in the overall standings, but I'm still fighting. That's all I can do."

Pedersen, who will not be able to go through this year's GP qualifiers after missing the Danish Championship first round through injury, was impressed with the Copenhagen track after the debacle of a circuit in Stockholm.

He said: "For a one-day track, they had this one just about right. If they keep producing them like this there won't be any complaints from the riders.

"We can look forward now to Cardiff and let's hope I can do a bit better there than my seven points here."

Krzysztof Kasprzak, a temporary replacement for Pedersen in Poole's team last month, finished 14th with three points and continues to find it difficult adapting to the GP.

He said: "I was not good in my early rides and the only thing I changed was my thinking!

"I was fast out there as the meeting went on, as fast as (Jason) Crump, and he made the final but I only scored three points. It's tough."