PIRATES asset Krzysztof Kasprzak finally came of age in the white-hot cauldron of Leszno as Poland won the World Team Cup for the second time in three years.

While most of the plaudits went to seasoned campaigner Tomasz Gollob for beating Denmark's Hans Andersen in a last-heat decider in the final on Saturday, it was Special K who had sent up the Poles' last-gasp triumph with victory in heat 23.

Kasprzak, the 23-year-old who has been loaned out by Poole Castle Cover to Lakeside this season, kept cool in front of a partisan 25,000 crowd to sweep from third to first on the first lap to beat Jason Crump and Nicki Pedersen.

Going into that race, Poland were only one point ahead of the Danes after having lost their nerve on a slick track and seeing two commanding five-point leads frittered away.

Cup holders Denmark appear-ed to have the better temperament for the occasion, but that was until KK got in on the act.

He jetted out from the tapes in front but went a little bit too wide on the first corner, allowing Crump and Nicki Pedersen to cut inside him on the second bend.

But, seemingly from nowhere, Kasprzak kept the throttle on and bravely stormed outside the reigning world champion and current Grand Prix leader on the back straight to take the lead.

Kasprzak pulled away from his rivals to take the chequered flag and give his side a precious two-point advantage with only a couple of races to go. His victory did more than that, though. It also got the nail-biting home crowd back on song and gave the host riders that extra belief they could finish the job off.

Bjarne Pedersen produced a brilliant ride to win the penultimate race, but Jarek Hampel forced his way past Rory Schlein on the last lap to grab second and give Poland a vital one-point lead going into heat 25.

All the pressure was on Gollob - perhaps the finest contemporary rider never to have won the world individual title - to send the Polish crowd home happy.

He didn't fail to deliver.

Out-gating Andersen, Gollob rode tight to the kerb to peg the Dane back on the first bend and then majestically stormed on triumphantly to take an easy win, protected, inadvertently or not, by Britain's Scott Nicholls, who had dived under Andersen into second on the first lap.

Remember it was Nicholls who had claimed Andersen had helped' Sweden defeat Great Britain in a dramatic last-race decider in the final at Poole in 2004 when GB were pipped to the world crown by one point, a claim Andersen vehemently denied.

So Gollob, the elder statesman of Polish speedway, received the bumps out of the track from his grateful team-mates and managers, and the adoration of the crowd, who lit red and white firecrackers in wild celebration.

His 12 points had proved invaluable, along with Hampel's 13, a dozen from Norwegian-born Rune Holta and four from Damian Balinski, the reserve who came in for Grzegorz Walasek.

However, it was former World Under-21 champion Kasprzak who top-scored with 14 after he was only beaten once by Kenneth Bjerre in heat 15.

His classy win over Crump and Nicki Pedersen, albeit on his hometown Leszno track, at the business end of the meeting showed he surely has the ammunition to deliver at the top level, and that his dreamed for place in the World Championship GP might not be far away.

After all, prized scalps like Crump's and Nicki's are hard to attain on any track, especially from the back.

Kasprzak, helped in the pits by his father Zenon, the former Polish champion and international rider who does his engines, and his younger riding brother Robert, had missed his country's triumph in the final at Wroclaw in 2005.

That was the year he was controversially dropped from the team after the first round and replaced by Holta as the Poles romped to victory by 28 points.

It was a different story this time, and Kasprzak said: "Before the meeting I would have been happy with nine or 10 points and a Polish win, but I've got 14 against the best riders in the world."

"The engine I had was very fast and I was racing at my maximum against Nicki.

"He was in front of me but maybe he went to sleep and I got past him.

"I'm delighted for Polish speedway that we won and I want to be in the GP next year. That's what I'm aiming for now."

Denmark team manager Jan Staechmann and Andersen claimed the Poles should not have been allowed to bring Balinski in for Walasek, who sustained a foot injury, during the meeting.

But their cries went unheard by British referee Tony Steele as Poland returned to the top of the world