Sweden and Poland are through to the World Cup Final after proving their supremacy in Thursday's Race-Off at a damp Vojens.

And now the two nations will be hoping that their track experience will pay dividends in Saturday's Final against Denmark and Australia, who took the direct route by winning the opening events of the competition.

The gap between second and third was comfortable by the end of the meeting, but the eventual qualifiers did have to hold off an enthusiastic challenge from a rejuvenated Great Britain side in the first half of the event.

17-year-old Tai Woffinden well and truly announced himself on the World Cup scene by winning only his second ride in the competition, heading home such campaigners as Jonas Davidsson and Jarek Hampel.
Woffinden's race win was part of a run of three wins out of four for Great Britain, which gave them a share of the lead on the night after Heat 8.

But they fell away from that stage as Edward Kennett suffered a first-bend fall in Heat 9 and, just as on Monday, their usage of the joker turned out to be unsuccessful.

Captain Scott Nicholls was deployed for double points from a programmed ride in Heat 15, but he was unable to make anything from a troublesome inside gate and could only take third place.

With Great Britain fading, attention switched to the battle for the win on the night, with Sweden hauling in early leaders Poland with their Grand Prix regulars Fredrik Lindgren and Andreas Jonsson in majestic form.
The Poles, too, were consistent and they suffered their only last place with Rune Holta's retirement in Heat 22.

That was the prelude to a dramatic joker race in Heat 23 when Grzegorz Walasek - who rode well as a replacement for Krzysztof Kasprzak - took four points for second place but was upstaged by a fine effort from Grigory Laguta to give Russia six.

Sweden were in control thereafter even though Hampel got the better of Jonsson in an epic Heat 24, with Peter Ljung's Heat 25 win over Tomasz Gollob ensuring a final three-point margin.

Harris and Woffinden will have been the happiest British riders although the team as a whole fell some way short of making the Final - whilst Laguta showed plenty of ability for Russia, who would surely have come much closer had top man Emil Sajfutdinov been available to ride and will be well worth watching in the years to come.

So the starting eight have been whittled down to four: Denmark, Australia, Sweden and Poland on Saturday promises to be some contest for the Ove Fundin Trophy.
 
2008 FIM NORDICBET SPEEDWAY WORLD CUP Race-Off

SWEDEN 53:
Fredrik Lindgren 14, Andreas Jonsson 13, Jonas Davidsson 10, Peter Ljung 10, Daniel Nermark 6.

POLAND 50:
Grzegorz Walasek 12, Wieslaw Jagus 11, Tomasz Gollob 10, Rune Holta 9, Jarek Hampel 8.

GREAT BRITAIN 36:
Chris Harris 11, Scott Nicholls 9, Tai Woffinden 9, Lee Richardson 4, Edward Kennett 3.

RUSSIA 17:
Grigory Laguta 12, Denis Gizatullin 3, Renat Gafurov 1, Daniil Ivanov 1, Sergey Darkin dnr.