Iversen's Italian dream

Danish champion Niels-Kristian Iversen stormed to his first SGP win in the Italian FIM Speedway Grand Prix in Terenzano on Saturday and admitted "I almost passed out" as his dream victory became a reality. Iversen, who has established himself as one of the most consistent riders in world speedway in recent years, rounded British champion Tai Woffinden on the second corner in the final to win the gold medal. Woffy took silver to close the gap between him and World Championship leader Emil Sayfutdinov to five points as the Russian sensation defied a disastrous start to the meeting to finish third. But Iversen had the biggest cause for celebration. The victory lifted him from seventh to sixth in the World Championship and he admits it has given him the confidence to win more rounds after wondering whether his maiden triumph would ever come. He said: "I don't know if I really believed it when I crossed the line. I almost passed out when I came to the first corner. I was waiting to wake up or something like that because it always seemed so far away. "This win has been close, but it has still been far away. I've had a couple of finals and I had a podium in Cardiff, where I came second. I was still far away from winning it, though, but it happened. "It's just awesome that it finally went my way. You need a bit of luck to win it and I had a bit of luck. It was just awesome. "That has given me some more belief that these wins can actually happen. Before you sort of dream about it and hope for it, but you're not sure you can actually do it. "I know now that I've got what it takes to win a Grand Prix and that's an awesome feeling. There's no guarantee I'm going to win anymore, but at least I've won this one and I know I can do it. Why shouldn't I win more?" Iversen may go into the rest of 2013 as an SGP winner, but he refuses to get over-confident after the biggest victory of his career to date. He said: "I know that even though I won this one, it doesn't give me anymore points for the next one. If it goes badly next time, I won't remember this one. "It's just about focusing on every single meeting and every single race you're in. This one is sweet now. But at the next Grand Prix I can't use this win for anything." Iversen is still just nine points clear of Tomasz Gollob in ninth place, who is seeking to break into the top-eight automatic qualification positions and secure his place in the 2014 series. But the Esbjerg-born rider is a mere eight points behind Jaroslaw Hampel in third place. NKI would love to push for a medal, but he knows he will have to be on his toes to avoid dropping out of the qualification places. He said: "If things go wrong I could easily slip out of the top eight. There are also some people above me I can catch up and I'll just take every meeting as it comes. "If I can sneak a few more finals and maybe win another one or get on the podium, it would be awesome. I could still get a medal, but I'm not really thinking about the top three now. I'll take one meeting at a time and that's what I've done all year." Woffinden is second in the World Championship on 102 points and, despite missing out on his second victory of 2013, he can be pleased with cutting Sayfutdinov's pre-meeting advantage at the top from 13 points to five with four rounds remaining. He said: "I said before the start of the meeting that I need to score as many points as I can and try catch Emil up and apply some pressure. "I've done that and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season now. "I've been working very hard for the last week and a half and it's going to get even harder from now on. I feel like I've found a bit of form this week and hopefully I can take that into my league racing. Congratulations to Niels. This is his first Grand Prix win and I know how that feels – it's a pretty good feeling." Sayfutdinov sneaked into the semis on seven points from his five heat races, so he was delighted to leave Italy with 10 points and third place. But he is determined to enjoy better fortunes at the Rietumu Bank Latvian SGP in Daugavpils on August 17. He said: "The start was very bad for me, but I did everything to get 10 points. "I think that was very good for today. Tai was very fast and congratulations to Niels. "I want to go to Daugavpils now and I think everything will be better there for me. We will do everything we can there. More fans will come from Russia and it will be a good meeting for me. The track is very nice and we will see what happens." Wild card Nicolas Covatti crashed out of the Italian SGP and early reports are that he suffered a suspected broken wrist. WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Emil Sayfutdinov 107, 2 Tai Woffinden 102, 3 Jaroslaw Hampel 85, 4 Nicki Pedersen 83, 5 Chris Holder 82, 6 Niels-Kristian Iversen 77, 7 Matej Zagar 75, 8 Greg Hancock 71, 9 Tomasz Gollob 68, 10 Fredrik Lindgren 61, 11 Krzysztof Kasprzak 59, 12 Darcy Ward 55, 13 Martin Vaculik 44, 14 Andreas Jonsson 39, 15 Antonio Lindback 34, 16 Ales Dryml 11, 17 Leon Madsen 8, 18 Chris Harris 7, 19 Krzysztof Buczkowski 6, 20 Linus Sundstrom 6, 21 Bartosz Zmarzlik 6, 22 Michael Jepsen Jensen 6, 23 Josef Franc 2, 24 Peter Kildemand 2, 25 Kenni Larsen 2, 26 Nicolas Covatti 2, 27 Jason Bunyan 1, 28 Craig Cook 1, 29 Josh Auty 1. ITALIAN SGP SCORES: 1 Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, 2 Tai Woffinden 18, 3 Emil Sayfutdinov 10, 4 Matej Zagar 14, 5 Jaroslaw Hampel 13, 6 Nicki Pedersen 12, 7 Darcy Ward 11, 8 Leon Madsen 8, 9 Tomasz Gollob 6, 10 Antonio Lindback 6, 11 Fredrik Lindgren 6, 12 Greg Hancock 5, 13 Krzysztof Kasprzak 5, 14 Martin Vaculik 5, 15 Ales Dryml 4, 16 Nicolas Covatti 2, 17 Nicolas Vicentin 0, 18 Michele Paco Castagna DNR.

Source: http://www.fim-live.com/en/media/news/news-detail/article/1375602476-iversens-italian-dream/

Norick Abe Hubert Abold