CHRIS Holder will take his place among speedway’s top table next year after cruising to second place in the Grand Prix Challenge at Coventry last night.

The Pirates star majestically reeled off four straight race wins at Brandon Stadium to sweep away the opposition and book his place in the 2010 GP series.

He followed fellow qualifier Magnus Zetterstrom home in his last outing, then the Swede beat him again in a run-off for first place to win last night’s meeting.

Holder began well, riding a tight, hard first corner to hold back eventual third qualifier Jarek Hampel and then working hard to keep the Pole behind him for three laps before pulling away on the final circuit to win by 20 metres.

Then the Aussie pulled something special out of the bag in heat five after it looked as though he would fall while battling for first place on the opening lap.

Outgated by Kenneth Bjerre, they both strove to find the same piece of dirt on the second corner, and Holder briefly lost control of his bike as he tried to dive under the Dane.

But the Poole star showed unbelievable agility to quickly regain control, pulling clear of Bjerre coming off the turn and storming into the front down the back straight at the same time.

It was a phenominal piece of riding, speedway at its best, and gave Holder the perfect start, six points out of six from the inside traps, which produced four of the first five race winners, to take an early lead.

In between races, Holder was looking particularly relaxed, doing stretching exercises while his mechanics worked on his bikes and listening to advice and prompts from Australia team manager Craig Boyce.

The Pirates man was also focusing clearly on the job in hand amid the hustle and bustle of the pits.

And he stayed cool to complete a comprehensive tapes-to-flag triumph in heat nine over Jonas Davidsson, Maksims Bogdanovs and Jurica Pavlic.

Davidsson tried to cut back and pass Holder on the inside of the second bend, but the Aussie had too much speed out by the fence and imposed his authority down the back straight.

It meant Holder was the only unbeaten rider at the interval with nine points, one ahead of Hampel and former Pirates captain and Wimborne Road cult hero Zetterstrom, whose carefree attitude going into the biggest meeting of his career was paying full dividends.

In fact, Zorro received an outrageous piece of good fortune in his third outing when, trailing last, leader Pepe Protasiewicz fell near the end of the second lap, bringing down Chris Harris and Fredrik Lindgren.

It gave Zorro an unexpected reprieve, which he grabbed with both hands as he calmly outgated the Brit to win the re-run and lift him to eight points.

Holder ensured he would be lining up in next year’s GP when he stormed outside Davey Watt and Protasiewicz on the first and second bend to go on and win heat 13 by a street.

The Aussie ace then had 12 points, and couldn’t be knocked off the podium, so now it was all down to whether he could clinch overall victory on the night in race 17.

Zorro survived unwelcome involvement in two bad crashes when Lukas Dryml and Kauko Nieminen brought him down without sustaining serious injury before winning the second re-run of heat 15, then Holder followed the Swede home in heat 17 as they both booked their places in next year’s GP.

Qualifying: Magnus Zetterstrom (3-2-3-3-3) 14, Chris Holder (3-3-3-3-2) 14, Jarek Hampel (2-3-3-2-3) 13, Fredrik Lindgren (3-2-1-3-3) 12, Piotr Protasiewicz (3-3-fell exc-2-2) 10, Chris Harris (0-2-2-3-3) 10, Davey Watt (1-1-3-1-ret) 6, Adrian Miedzinski (2-2-1-1-ret) 6, Kenneth Bjerre (ret-1-2-2-1) 6, Martin Smolinski (1-1-2-0-2) 6, Grzegorz Walasek (0-3-1-ns-ns) 4, Lukas Dryml (2-0-0-fell exc-2) 4, Maksims Bogdanovs (0-fell exc-1-2-0) 3, Jonas Davidsson (1-0-2-0-0) 3, Jurica Pavlic (2-0-0-0-1) 3, Kauko Nieminen (1-1-0-fell exc-1) 3. Reserves: Ales Dryml (1) 1, Morten Risager (1) 1.

Referee: Christian Froschauer (Germany).

Ht 1: Holder, Hampel, Nieminen, Harris, 59.6.

Ht 2: (re-run) Protasiewicz, L Dryml, Davidsson, Walasek, 60.1.

Ht 3: Zetterstrom, Pavlic, Smolinski, Bjerre (retired), 60.2.

Ht 4: Lindgren, Miedzinski, Watt, Bogdanovs, 60.0.

Ht 5: Holder, Lindgren, Bjerre, L Dryml, 58.8.

Ht 6: Hampel, Zetterstrom, Watt, Davidsson, 59.5.

Ht 7: Protasiewicz, Miedzinski, Nieminen, Pavlic, 60.3.

Ht 8: (2nd re-run) Walasek, Harris, Smolinski, Bogdanovs (fell excluded), 60.0.

Ht 9: Holder, Davidsson, Bogdanovs, Pavlic, 59.3.

Ht 10: Hampel, Smolinski, Miedzinski (fell, remounted), L Dryml (fell, remounted), 61.1.

Ht 11: (re-run) Watt, Bjerre, Walasek, Nieminen, 59.5.

Ht 12: (re-run) Zetterstrom, Harris, Lindgren, Protasiewicz (fell excluded), 59.3.

Ht 13: Holder, Protasiewicz, Watt, Smolinski, 59.5.

Ht 14: Lindgren, Hampel, A Dryml, Pavlic, 60.1.

Ht 15: (2nd re-run) Zetterstrom, Bogdanovs, Nieminen (fell excluded), L Dryml (fell excluded), 61.2.

Ht 16: Harris, Bjerre, Miedzinski, Davidsson, 60.5.

Ht 17: Zetterstrom, Holder, Risager, Miedzinski (retired), 60.1.

Ht 18: Hampel, Protasiewicz, Bjerre, Bogdanovs, 59.6.

Ht 19: Lindgren, Smolinski, Nieminen, Davidsson, 60.7.

Ht 20: Harris, L Dryml, Pavlic, Watt (retired), 60.5.

Run-off for first place: Zetterstrom, Holder, 59.9.

Current 2009 GP standings: (after nine of 11 rounds) 1 J Crump 146, 2 E Sayfutdinov 120, 3 T Gollob 110, 4 G Hancock 106, 5 A Jonsson 92, 6 K Bjerre 85, 7 F Lindgren 82, 8 N Pedersen 80, (top eight automatically re-qualify for 2010 series), 9 R Holta 77, 10 H Andersen, 11 L Adams 63, 12 S Ulamek 56, 13 G Walasek 50, 14 C Harris 48, 15 S Nicholls 35.