In 2013 the stadium named Anatolij Stiepanow in Togliatti was full of audience. This time fans also didn’t disappoint although there was some insufficiency connected with the fact not Emil Sajfutdinow but Nicki Pedersen won in Russia.
It is commonly known that journey to Russia means many hours of planning and just long of travelling. Putting it together as far as logistics is concerned takes a lot of time and that’s why bikes of the riders taking part in Speedway European Championships went on a long tour to Togliatti, which is almost one thousand kilometers already from Moscow, on the 16th of July. Similarly as a year before the equipment of the riders went from Toruń on a few trucks.
The tournament went very well for Martin Vaculik, who was defending the title, since the very beginning. Slovak lost only in his last heat of regular phase with Maksim Bogdanows. Unfortunately the final, to which he qualified from the first place, was very unlucky for Martin. At the first time the best start had Emil Sajfutdinow and it seemed that he was going to win in his home country. Then Vaculik and Pedersen started to fight for the podium. After one of the attacks Dane fell on the track and the referee had to exclude one of the riders.
It was Vaculik who was excluded and this decision made him really furious. The rider tried to talk with the referee on the phone but he didn’t convince him and we didn’t see the best rider of regular phase in the re – run. At the second time Nicki Pedersen had really great start and he won with no problems. At the end Emil Sajfutdinow was the second after the fight with Patryk Dudek.
After the two tournaments “Power” had one point of average over Emil Sajfutdinow. However Russian’s disposition was better and better. It should be remembered that last year he wasn’t able to fight for the title because of the injury.
The most essential point was supposed to be visit in Holsted, for the third round of SEC, where at Moldow Arena Nicki Pedersen wanted to improve his advantage. He had really great chance for it because the track in Holsted is a home one for him and it means that he knows every centimeter of it and all paths which lead to a victory.
