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American legend Greg Hancock is already setting his sights on a third World Championship in 2012 after a golden night at the FIM Enea Gorzow Speedway Grand Prix of Poland on Saturday.
Herbie sealed the SGP series crown with his fourth place at the FIM Nice Croatian Grand Prix in Gorican two weeks ago, but collected the trophy at a packed Edward Jancarz Stadium.
He was joined on the World Championship rostrum by Andreas Jonsson, who pipped third-placed Jaroslaw Hampel to the silver medal by two points.
But Hancock didn’t want to leave Poland with just one gold medal and won a rain-affected Gorzow SGP with 11 points, before the action was stopped after 16 races due to heavy rain.
Nicki Pedersen was second on the night with 10, while Emil Sayfutdinov beat local hero Tomasz Gollob to third place on countback after the pair tied on eight.
Hancock was the star of the show, though, and lifted the brand new World Championship trophy – 14 years after he claimed his first gold medal at Vojens in 1997.
The Californian admits he struggled to find the desire needed to defend his crown in 1998 and finished sixth. But after becoming the oldest world champion in the sport’s history, the Swedish-based racer is certain he has the experience and hunger needed to retain the No.1 race jacket this time.
He said: “I’ve learned a lot over the years and I will approach next year differently to how I did 1998 – that’s for sure. I’m going to enjoy this world title, but I’ll be back to give it another whirl next year. I want to take another one.
“I know what I did wrong last time I defended the title and I know what frame of mind I was in. With the first World Championship, I think I was so overwhelmed that I had done it after working so hard. It was like all the air went out of me and it was hard to inflate myself again. I wanted it, but I didn’t want it badly enough.
“I’m a little bit more mature than I was then. It’s still going to be hard, but I’m willing to work hard and give it another shot.
“It’s really overwhelming that I have pulled something off like this again. But it doesn’t matter. I’ve got good people around me helping to steer me and haul me in the right direction. That’s important.”
Hancock was unable to party hard after securing the title in Gorican as he had league commitments to fulfil across Europe in the days that followed the meeting.
But having clinched titles with Zielona Gora in Poland, Swedish team Piraterna, Danish outfit Slangerup and Czech club Mseno, Hancock cannot wait to celebrate his Gorzow triumph and the World Championship champagne moment that followed.
He said: “It was amazing – it’s still sinking in more and more now. I can actually enjoy this win and the mainstay of the season is all done now.
“I really just want to go and have a good time with my mechanics and sponsors right now. Those guys deserve so much credit. They’ve put in so much work and they get overshadowed a lot.
“It takes a whole crew to tango like this and these guys work hard. They work at least as hard, if not harder, than I do.”
Hancock’s title triumph comes with an automatic place in next year’s SGP series, which starts with the FIM New Zealand Grand Prix in Auckland on March 31, 2012.
Jonsson and Hampel join him in the field, along with Jason Crump, who finished fourth and outgoing champion Tomasz Gollob in fifth.
Sixth-placed Emil Sayfutdinov, Kenneth Bjerre in seventh and Chris Holder in eighth are also guaranteed spots for next season.
GP Challenge winner Antonio Lindback keeps his SGP status, despite finishing 12th overall, while Bjarne Pedersen and Piotr Protasiewicz also qualified from the meeting at Vetlanda in August and make their returns to the big time next season.
There are four permanent wild card places left for the 2012 World Championship and these will be nominated by series organisers BSI Speedway and the FIM soon.
FINAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Greg Hancock 165, 2 Andreas Jonsson 125, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 123, 4 Jason Crump 110, 5 Tomasz Gollob 106, 6 Emil Sayfutdinov 106, 7 Kenneth Bjerre 101, 8 Chris Holder 101, 9 Fredrik Lindgren 90, 10 Nicki Pedersen 81, 11 Chris Harris 74, 12 Antonio Lindback 72, 13 Rune Holta 53, 14 Janusz Kolodziej 50, 15 Artem Laguta 28, 16 Darcy Ward 22, 17 Magnus Zetterstrom 19, 18 Thomas H Jonasson 17, 19 Matej Zagar 14, 20 Scott Nicholls 5, 21 Damian Balinski 4, 22 Matej Kus 3, 23 Bjarne Pedersen 3, 24 Mikkel B Jensen 2, 25 Tai Woffinden 2, 26 Simon Gustafsson 1.
FIM ENEA GORZOW SGP OF POLAND SCORES: 1 Greg Hancock 11, 2 Nicki Pedersen 10, 3 Emil Sayfutdinov 8, 4 Tomasz Gollob 8, 5 Darcy Ward 7, 6 Chris Harris 7, 7 Andreas Jonsson 7, 8 Chris Holder 6, 9 Jaroslaw Hampel 6, 10 Jason Crump 6, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 5, 12 Janusz Kolodziej 5, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 14 Artem Laguta 3, 15 Antonio Lindback 3, 16 Rune Holta 0, 17 Bartosz Zmarzlik DNR, 18 Kamil Pulczynski DNR.
