Bjarne pays penalty for exclusion (From Bournemouth Echo)

Bjarne pays penalty for exclusion

9:26pm Saturday 2nd August 2008 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

BJARNE Pedersen suffered exclusion heartache as he missed out on a Czech Republic Grand Prix semi-final place by one point tonight.

Pirates' captain paid a heavy penalty for a heat two exclusion after he had led when Rune Holta beat Lukas Dryml from behind in race 20 to cruelly deny the Dane a sixth ride in Prague.

Pedersen had fallen on the third bend in his opening outing under a strong inside challenge from Tomasz Gollob.

advertisement But there didn't appear to be contact between the two riders, so the Poole Castle Cover man was excluded by referee Krister Gardell as the prime cause of the stoppage.

Pedersen picked himself up to bag two hard earned second places before a brilliant heat 18 triumph over Greg Hancock gave him late hope of making the semis with a final total of seven points.

That propelled the Pirate into the eighth and final semi spot, but Holta robbed Pedersen when he reeled early heat 20 leader Dryml in and overtook him on the second lap before going on to take the chequered flag.

It took Holta's tally to eight points, one ahead of Pedersen, who finished ninth and now has a total of 32 GP points.

Pedersen remains 13th in the overall standings and has five rounds left to bridge a 16-point gap between himself and Holta, who currently lies eighth with 48.

The top eight automatically re-qualify for next year's series.

With Pedersen not contesting the GP qualifiers this season, it means unless he produces a sensational last five rounds to jump into the top eight, he would be relying on a seeded card for the whole of the 2009 campaign.

That scenario seems unlikely to happen, unless Pedersen, who was forced to miss two GPs earlier this year because of injury, was to win at least one of the remaining rounds.

Reigning world champion Nicki Pedersen won the final in Prague to extend his lead at the top of the standings to 15 points over second-placed Jason Crump.

Hans Andersen was second with Crump third and Hancock fourth.

Czech Republic Grand Prix Qualifying: Nicki Pedersen (3-2-3-3-3) 14, Jason Crump (2-3-3-2-3) 13, Greg Hancock (3-1-3-1-2) 10, Leigh Adams (3-3-0-3-1) 10, Tomasz Gollob (2-2-3-3-2) 10, Hans Andersen (2-3-1-1-2) 9, Andreas Jonsson (1-3-2-2-0) 8, Rune Holta (1-2-fell exc-2-3) 8, Bjarne Pedersen (fell exc-2-2-0-3) 7, Chris Harris (2-0-1-3-1) 7, Niels-Kristian Iversen (3-0-1-2-1) 7, Scott Nicholls (0-1-2-1-2) 6, Lukas Dryml (0-1-2-0-1) 4, Fredrik Lindgren (1-1-1-1-0) 4, Krzysztof Kasprzak (1-0-0-0-0) 1, Lubos Tomicek (0-0-0-0-0).

Reserves: Adrian Rymel dnr, Filip Sitera dnr.

Referee: Krister Gardell.

Ht 1: Iversen, Harris, Kasprzak, Tomicek.

Ht 2: (re-run) Adams, Gollob, Holta, B Pedersen (fell excluded).

Ht 3: N Pedersen, Crump, Lindgren, Dryml.

Ht 4: Hancock, Andersen, Jonsson, Nicholls.

Ht 5: Andersen, Holta, Lindgren, Harris.

Ht 6: Adams, N Pedersen, Nicholls, Iversen.

Ht 7: Jonsson, B Pedersen, Dryml, Kasprzak.

Ht 8: (re-run) Crump, Gollob, Hancock, Tomicek.

Ht 9: Hancock, Dryml, Harris, Adams.

Ht 10: (re-run) Crump, Jonsson, Iversen, Holta (fell excluded).

Ht 11: Gollob, Nicholls, Lindgren, Kasprzak.

Ht 12: N Pedersen, B Pedersen, Andersen, Tomicek.

Ht 13: Harris, Crump, Nicholls, B Pedersen.

Ht 14: Gollob, Iversen, Andersen, Dryml.

Ht 15: N Pedersen, Holta, Hancock, Kasprzak.

Ht 16: Adams, Jonsson, Lindgren, Tomicek.

Ht 17: N Pedersen, Gollob, Harris, Jonsson.

Ht 18: B Pedersen, Hancock, Iversen, Lindgren.

Ht 19: (re-run) Crump, Andersen, Adams, Kasprzak.

Ht 20: Holta, Nicholls, Dryml, Tomicek.

Semi-finals Ht 21: Andersen, N Pedersen, Jonsson, Adams.

Ht 22: Hancock, Crump, Holta, Gollob.

Final: Ht 23: N Pedersen, Andersen, Crump, Hancock.

Standings: (after six of 11 rounds) 1 N Pedersen 102, 2 Crump 87, 3 Hancock 77, 4 Gollob 74, 5 Andersen 64, 6 Adams 59, 7 Jonsson 55, 8 Holta 48, 9 Lindgren 45, 10 Nicholls 41, 11 Iversen 39, 12 Harris 37, 13 B Pedersen 32, 14 Kasprzak 22, 15 Dryml 20.