World Junior Speedway Championship
World Junior Speedway: Draw Made for 2008 U-21 Semi-Final at Rye House.
By Admin
Jun 4, 2008, 21:48

The draw has been made for the biggest meeting ever to be staged at Rye House: the FIM World Junior (U-21) Championship Semi-Final, which is being held on Sunday, June 15th.

16 riders head into the event aiming to make the cut for the World Final to be staged at Pardubice in the Czech Republic on September 7th. One of them is Silver Ski Rocket and British U-21 Champion Tai Woffinden, who potentially stands just five rides away from his first World final, and has has been drawn in the No.12 race jacket. He could be joined in the World Final by two other Brits, with Edinburgh’s William Lawson and 2007 Finalist Lewis Bridger of Eastbourne also named to the Hoddesdon round. A further Brit, Josh Auty, is waiting in the wings as one of the two meeting reserves.

One of Tai’s biggest challenges is certain to come from 2007 Silver medallist Chris Holder. The Elite League Poole Pirate is also the Australian senior national champion and a current and four-time U-21 titlist. Other names familiar to British supporters will include Swindon’s Troy Batchelor, Morten Risager  of Peterborough and Eastbourne’s Simon Gustafsson, Of those perhaps less familiar, former Isle of Wight Islander Robert Kasprzak is the younger brother of 2005 World U-21 Champion Krzysztof Kasprzak, and won the Norden round with 14 points to make his own title intentions clear, Swede Kim Nilsson is the son of former international star Tommy Nilsson and Tobias Busch and Ricky Wells are the current national champions of Germany and the USA, respectively.

The meeting starts at 2pm. (Gates open at 12 noon.)

Admission prices are: adults £15, seniors £12, children FREE. The souvenir programme will be £3.

The official practice session will be held between 1pm and 3pm on Saturday, June 14th. The public will be admitted to this event, at £5 for adults with children going FREE. The following day’s meeting programme will be available to buy, and spectators will also receive a £1 discount off the meeting admission. (Gates open at noon.)

Meeting draw:
1. Linus Eklof (Sweden), 2. Max Dilger, 3. Chris Holder (Australia), 4. Robert Kasprzak (Poland), 5. Kim Nilsson (Sweden), 6. William Lawson (Great Britain), 7. Lewis Bridger (Great Britain), 8. Tobias Busch (Germany), 9. Ricky Wells (USA), 10. Mateusz Szczepaniak (Poland), 11. Simon Gustafsson (Sweden), 12. Tai Woffinden (Great Britain), 13. Troy Batchelor (Australia), 14. Grzegorz Zengota (Poland), 15. Morten Risager (Denmark), 16. Ludvig Lindgren (Sweden).

Reserves: Josh Auty (Great Britain) and Leon Madsen (Denmark)