World champion Tai Woffinden admits he has never had to work harder to dig himself out of a “pretty deep” rut after his second straight Czech FIM Speedway Grand Prix win in Prague on Saturday night.
The Perth (Western Australia) raised Team Great Britain skipper made a sublime start in the final to leave double world champ Greg Hancock, Matej Zagar and triple champion Nicki Pedersen trailing.
This result puts him top of the World Championship on 46 points – level with Hancock.
The second SGP win of Woffy’s career holds extra significance as seven of the last 10 world champs have won in Prague in their championship year, just as he did in 2013.
But the Scunthorpe-born rider is keen to make his own luck and not rely on omens. After struggling for speed at the opening rounds in Auckland and Bydgoszcz, he admits getting back into top gear has taken some hard graft.
After a second place in Tampere on May 17 and now a victory in Prague, Woffy is delighted his efforts have been rewarded.
He said: “It was a great night for me. I made starts and I worked hard. The rut I was in at the start of the season was pretty deep. I’ve never worked so hard to get out of it.
“I’m out of it now, but I need to keep building and get faster and faster. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.
“I didn’t expect to be leading at this point. The points at the moment are so close. We’ve still got a long way to go, though. I can’t count my chickens before they’ve hatched. I’ll keep pushing hard, working hard and make things right.
“I won’t do anything stupid. It’s all the same stuff a million people have said before me. But I’m going to try and do it and I’ll see how I get on.”
Woffinden is happy to see his league scores with Wolverhampton in the UK, Vetlanda in Sweden and Wroclaw in Poland on the rise as he bids to build the form needed to secure back-to-back titles.
He said: “When you start collecting points in your league racing and then you get to the Grand Prix, I can’t explain how good it feels.
“When you do Poland on Sunday, Britain on Monday and Sweden on Tuesday, it can be hard to get pumped to race. But I take one meeting at a time. I’d love to win another championship this year, but it’s going to be hard.”
Woffinden had no shortage of fans in the Czech capital. And he was delighted to pick up tonight’s gold medal for one of his biggest – his late father and mentor Rob.
Tai said: “I stood on the podium, looked up, and said ‘I wish you were here, Dad’. I wish he could see what’s going on. I’m sure he’s watching from up there.”
After fourth-place finishes in Bydgoszcz and Tampere, Hancock was happy to leave Prague with a medal. He said: “I’ve had a couple of decent runs in the last two. I’ve had some ups and downs, and I’ve had some downs in some important finals.
“I got things going a little bit better tonight. My scoring wasn’t the best, but I got second, and I’m happy to have been on the rostrum.”
Zagar was delighted to build on his maiden SGP win in Tampere two weeks ago as he surged from 10th to fifth in the standings.
He said: “I’m pretty happy I got 16 points. After winning in Finland two weeks ago, all I want to do is bang in points. Points make prizes at the end. Winning prizes is my aim. Of course it would have been brilliant to get back-to-back wins, but congratulations to Tai and Greg for some great riding.”
Next on the calendar is Malilla’s return to the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series as venue for the Swedish SGP on June 14.
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1 Tai Woffinden 46, 2 Greg Hancock 46, 3 Darcy Ward 45, 4 Nicki Pedersen 44, 5 Matej Zagar 43, 6 Krzysztof Kasprzak 42, 7 Chris Holder 40, 8 Fredrik Lindgren 38, 9 Martin Smolinski 37, 10 Niels-Kristian Iversen 35, 11 Jaroslaw Hampel 31, 12 Andreas Jonsson 31, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 22, 14 Troy Batchelor 21, 15 Chris Harris 12, 16 Adrian Miedzinski 5, 17 Joonas Kylmakorpi 5, 18 Kauko Nieminen 4, 19 Jason Bunyan 2, 20 Vaclav Milik 2.
PRAGUE SCORES: 1 Tai Woffinden 18, 2 Greg Hancock 12, 3 Matej Zagar 16, 4 Nicki Pedersen 10, 5 Darcy Ward 16, 6 Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, 7 Chris Holder 8, 8 Fredrik Lindgren 8, 9 Krzysztof Kasprzak 7, 10 Andreas Jonsson 7, 11 Martin Smolinski 6, 12 Chris Harris 6, 13 Kenneth Bjerre 4, 14 Troy Batchelor 3, 15 Vaclav Milik 2, 16 Jaroslaw Hampel 2, 17 Zdenek Holub DNR, 18 Michal Skurla DNR.
