Nicholls Has It All To Do

With Jason Crump already confirmed as World Champion the focus this weekend shifts to the race for automatic places in next years series. The top eight will be earn a position on the lucrative circuit and there is a real possibility that there will not be a Briton amongst them.

Currently lying 11th despite his first ever rostrum appearance in Italy Scott Nicholls has a lot to do in the final two events if he is to avoid the prospect of having to go through the lottery of qualification. The Coventry skipper is 11 points adrift of Matej Zagar who occupies the final qualification place. With a 40 point margin to make up Lee Richardson has almost certainly missed out after another torrid season for the 27-year-old from Hastings.

In contrast Hans Andersen the winner in Czechoslovakia a fortnight ago and in Denmark on his first appearance of the season is flying and it would be no surprise if he repeated those successes at the Latvian Speedway Centre. Its been a remarkable few months for Andersen who was controversially left out at the beginning of the season only to be granted his place back when former World Champion Tony Rickardsson retired.

It will be interesting to see how the Latvian fans take to their first taste of the Grand Prix series. With a capacity of just 12,000 Daugavpils is one of the smaller venues on the circuit but despite the fact that the championship has already been won they are still expecting a sell out crowd. The title in the bag Crump could still become the first man to achieve 200 points in a Grand prix season while Greg Hancock, Nicki Pederson and Andreas Jonsson will all want to improve on disappointing performances in Prague.

Draw in Race Order:
B.Pedersen (Den): P.Protasiewicz (Pol): G.Hancock (USA): N.K.Iversen (Den): N.Pedersen (Den): J.Crump (Aus): M.Zagar (Slo): A.Jonsson (Swe): L.Adams (Aus): K.Poudzuks (Lat): S.Nicholls (GB): A.Lindback (Swe): L.Richardson (GB): J.Hampel (Pol): H.Andersen (Den): T.Gollob (Pol):