Jason Doyle admitted “I can’t really comprehend what I have achieved at the moment” after racking up his third straight FIM Speedway Grand Prix win in Stockholm to top the World Champions
The Newcastle-born racer was victorious at the Friends Arena on Saturday night, leading an Australian one-two with Chris Holder. Swedish star Fredrik Lindgren finished third, while Slovenia’s Matej Zagar was fourth.
Doyle went into the meeting trailing series leader Greg Hancock by five points, but the 30-year-old now has a five-point advantage of his own going into the final two rounds in Torun next Saturday and Melbourne on October 22.
“To win four SGPs this year is special. I can’t really comprehend what I have achieved at the moment,” said Doyle. “I still have a long way to go, but to win three GPs in a row is unbelievable.”
The victory is his fourth for the year and makes the first rider to win three on the bounce in the same year since his idol Jason Crump achieved the feat on the way to the 2006 world title.
“To win four SGPs this year is special. I can’t really comprehend what I have achieved at the moment. I still have a long way to go, but to win three GPs in a row is unbelievable.
“When I had gate one in the final, I knew I had to stick to the inside. I knew they were going to try and go around me and it would be a pretty desperate first corner. I stuck to my own plan and it worked again.”
Doyle has now achieved his pre-season target of qualification for the 2017 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series as he’s guaranteed at least a top eight finish in the final standings, along with Hancock.
Now JD can pursue more ambitious targets, but he accepts fending off the triple world champion and defending champion Tai Woffinden will be no easy task.
“We know what’s going to happen in the next two rounds. It’s going to be very difficult,” explained Doyle. “We came to this Grand Prix trying to bag the points and if we can go and make a final in the next couple, we’ll be up there in the end. Tonight sealed the deal that I’ll be in the GPs next year, which is a massive achievement that I set out to do at the start of the season. We can park that one and go for something in the future now.”
Doyle hopes to continue in his winning ways when the championship comes to Australia for the Melbourne GP – a night which could see him become the first Aussie to become world champion Down Under.
“We’re going to go to Melbourne, do what we need to do to up the sport, get as many people as possible in the stadium and put on a good show.
“I’ve been riding in Europe for over 10 years now. But to go to Melbourne and have 90 percent of the stadium shouting for me and Chris is awesome. It’s a really good feeling to get your name called in front of that many fans. You get the goosebumps and you get a bit emotional. After what happened in the final last year, hopefully I can do something special.”
Holder scored just a point in his opening two rides. So he was elated to produce a terrific turnaround and score second place.
He said: “It was a tough day – it was really tough in the beginning. But you have to grind these results out. If you’d told me after my second race that I was going to be second tonight, I’d have taken it there and then.
“It was a good turnaround and credit to my boys for helping. We stuck it out, managed to salvage a second and I had good speed at the end.”
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:
1 Jason Doyle 123,
2 Greg Hancock 118,
3 Tai Woffinden 107,
4 Bartosz Zmarzlik 100,
5 Chris Holder 98,
6 Piotr Pawlicki 81,
7 Maciej Janowski 80,
8 Antonio Lindback 74,
9 Fredrik Lindgren 73,
10 Niels-Kristian Iversen 64
STOCKHOLM SGP SCORES:
1 Jason Doyle 19,
2 Chris Holder 13,
3 Fredrik Lindgren 14,
4 Matej Zagar 15,
5 Bartosz Zmarzlik 12,
6 Tai Woffinden 11,
7 Piotr Pawlicki 10,
8 Greg Hancock 9,
9 Maciej Janowski 8,
10 Niels-Kristian Iversen 7,