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Bjarne edges into top eight

From the Echo, first published Monday 28th Jun 2004.

PIRATES ace Bjarne Pedersen believes that "focus" is the key to maintaining his hard-earned top eight place in the World Championship Grand Prix series.

The Poole RIAS rider finished joint ninth in the Danish GP in Copenhagen to edge up from ninth to eighth in the overall standings with 51 points.

That's a mammoth 43 behind leader Jason Crump, who stormed to victory in front of a crowd of about 25,000 in the Parken Stadium on Saturday.

But Pedersen is just one point ahead of ninth-placed Lee Richardson (50) with Jarek Hampel (49) and another Pirates rider Ryan Sullivan (43) also chasing hard for a top eight finish at the end of the season that would guarantee a place in next year's GP series.

Pedersen, who bowed out with eight GP points after finishing third in heat 22, admitted he didn't want to fall below eighth.

He said: "These GPs are tough and it is going to be hard to stop those behind me, but I believe that I can do it if I can remain focussed and on form."

Pedersen, who had ridden brilliantly to blast from last to first and win heat 18, added: "That was a great race for me. But it was a shame we couldn't have done better in my next ride after what happened at the end of the race."

Leader Hans Andersen looked as though he had victory sewn up going into the last corner before his bike packed up only 30 metres from the chequered flag.

Second-placed Nicki Pedersen and third-placed Scott Nicholls roared past Andersen to progress into the semi-finals, leaving Bjarne deflated as he had been leading Nicholls before being overtaken on the second bend of the third circuit.

Sullivan slipped down from 10th to 11th overall after picking up only four GP points following his heat 12 elimination.

The Australian told the Daily Echo: "I prefer to make no comment about tonight just now. I don't want to talk about it, I'm just not making any headway."

The contemplative Sullivan was left mulling over what might have been had he not become entangled in first turn congestion in that crucial 12th heat.

He had shown sufficient tenacity in his opening ride to shrug off Mark Loram to avoid an even earlier date with an elimination heat, but then ran a last place next time out.

Crump is now 13 points ahead in the overall standings of second-placed Leigh Adams, who had been tied first with Crump going into the meeting, after securing his 10th GP round victory.

"It's cool to be in front on my own again," said Crump. "And the gap does look big, but the nature of the GPs is that one bad round can undo all of that in an instant."

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