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Speedway World Cup 2009: King rules for the young Brits, and a glorious return for Protasiewicz
HUNTINGDON man Danny King came of age on the international speedway stage on Monday night.
HUNTINGDON man Danny King came of age on the international speedway stage on Monday night.The 22 year-old former Panthers man, who spent the past two seasons racing in city colours, notched nine points for Great Britain.
Only skipper Chris Harris contributed more to the host nation's cause, but his 11-point haul featured a joker ride for double points.
King hopes his display will stop him being taken lightly as a rider. He said: "To go so well is beyond my wildest dreams, but I could have had more points.
"I lost one race to Tomasz Gollob when I made a mistake by not going wide enough on the last lap and I had a retirement at the tapes.
"But I have got to be pleased with how I rode and it was great to show everyone what I am capable of doing.
"I didn't put myself under any pressure at all and I didn't even look at who I was racing against in each heat.
"I just went to the tapes and concentrated on riding four good laps which I managed to do in most of my races."
King was one of only two British riders (along with Harris) to win a race. He is expected to keep his place in the GB team for the race-off in Leszno, Poland, on Thursday when they battle it out with Australia, Denmark and Sweden for two remaining places in the final.
More Speedway World Cup 2009 - Event Two:
Poles raise the roof in thriller at Alwalton.
Panthers' Frost delighted as World Cup proves a success.
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PIOTR Protasiewicz enjoyed a glorious return to his old Showground stomping ground last night.
'Pepe' Protasiewicz scored 10 points as the Poles grabbed victory to go straight into the final on Saturday. He then paid tribute to the local Polish community.
"It was nice to be back in England and nice to help Poland win the meeting," said Protasiewicz. "There are many Polish people living in Peterborough and this was a great place to have the meeting.
"The fans were fantastic and really helped us race well. They gave us great support and now we need to prepare for the final in Leszno."
AUSTRALIAN team manager Craig Boyce admitted his team, featuring Panthers greats Ryan Sullivan and Jason Crump, didn't deserve to win the meeting.
He said: "We had a couple of guys not going well and you can't take anything away from Poland who were absolutely outstanding.
"My boys have now got to race speedway again later in the week rather than have a holiday!"
PANTHERS legend Richard Greer dished out the plaudits in the wake of a splendid night of Showground speedway.
Greer reckons that some fine World Cup action even bettered Panthers' famous title triumph in the 2006 Elite League Grand Final.
Meeting co-ordinator Greer said: "I have never seen a better meeting here - and that includes the Grand Final.
"Top riders put on some cracking racing and it was so nice to see the place packed.
"All the track staff deserve a lot of credit for working so hard to help make the meeting such a success.
"We had practice in the morning and a 25-heat meeting at night which is a hell of a lot of speedway in one day, but I thought the track was excellent."
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Weather for Peterborough
Tuesday 22 May 2012
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