Pirates: Ward wins world championship wild card (From Bournemouth Echo)

Pirates: Ward wins world championship wild card

12:19pm Wednesday 17th October 2012 in Sport By Ian Wadley

PIRATES star Darcy Ward will compete against fellow Turbo Twin Chris Holder in next year’s Grand Prix series after being handed a wild card.

Speedway chiefs today confirmed that the Australian sensation was among the four nominated selections for the 2013 world championship.

Together with British ace Tai Woffinden, Jaroslaw Hampel and Martin Vaculik, Ward will go head to head with the sport’s leading names.

The two-times world under-21 king had been widely tipped for a wild card following a string of superb performance in domestic league racing around Europe.

BSI Speedway managing director Paul Bellamy told speedwaygp.com: “It is great to see three of the sport’s most promising young talents, Martin, Darcy and Tai, take their places in the line-up.

"They will be hungry to make an impact and upset the more established guys at the top.”

Speaking to the Daily Echo last week, former world champion and ex-Pirates captain Gary Havelock had backed Ward's wild card bid. He also predicted Ward could win the title in his first season.

Grand Prix Challenge winner Krzysztof Kasprzak completes a Pirates triumvirate alongside Ward and defending champion Holder.

Full 2013 GP line-up: Chris Holder (Australia), Nicki Pedersen (Denmark), Greg Hancock (USA), Tomasz Gollob (Poland), Emil Sayfutdinov (Russia), Antonio Lindback (Sweden), Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden), Andreas Jonsson (Sweden), Martin Vaculik (Slovakia), Jaroslaw Hampel (Poland), Krzysztof Kasprzak (Poland), Matej Zagar (Slovenia), Niels Kristian Iversen (Denmark), Tai Woffinden (Great Britain), Darcy Ward (Australia).