Monday 10th September 2012, 14:59

Danish star Nicki Pedersen hit out at a “very, very bad decision” by referee Wojciech Grodzki to exclude him from heat five of the FIM Scandinavian SGP on Saturday.

The 35-year-old is no stranger to controversy and left the G&B Arena with boos ringing in his ears after taking local favourite Andreas Jonsson wide on the run to the finish line in race five.

AJ crashed hard as he approached the chequered flag and was forced to withdraw from the meeting.

Pedersen was thrown out of the race, but feels Jonsson could have avoided the spill.

He said: “You only had to look at the TV – it’s quite simple. I knew for a fact, first of all, that AJ could have stayed on the bike. He didn’t have to put it down.

“The second thing is the referee is the man to make a decision. I spoke to him and he says I moved lines, which I’m allowed to do. When you’re on a speedway track and you come out of the turn, you go up towards the fence.

“I wasn’t squeezing him into the fence. There were 1.5 metres left between me and the fence and I didn’t even see he was there. It was a very, very bad decision.

“I was in front. I could do whatever I wanted to do. That’s the way it is in speedway. He was still behind me. AJ put his bike down drastically. The crash was pretty heavy and he got injured, so maybe he shouldn’t have done that.

“He could have shut off and moved. He actually leant on me – I can see that in the replay. It was as if he wanted me to get excluded – simple as that. AJ got the benefit of one point, but then he got injured. I don’t know how that helped him.”

Pedersen still reached the final and left Malilla with 11 points, which leaves him 11 behind new World Championship leader Chris Holder and three short of Greg Hancock in second place.

“Holder is getting away,” Pedersen admitted. “I know there are two Grand Prix rounds left, though.

"I got closer to Greg – that’s for sure. I wanted more points in the final, but I knew gate four in that one would be tough.

“We gambled with the setup. We tried to take some teeth off the sprocket and did a few things, but it was way too much. The bike was dying into the first turn. I couldn’t catch them at all.

“Gate four is always terrible here, especially in the Grand Prix when you have good guys on the inside. You can get away with it in the league meetings – you can cut back and stuff. But it’s tough here, especially in the semi-finals and final.

“There are two Grand Prix rounds left and I’m still in the top three. I’m happy with that. I’ll do my very best and hopefully that’s good enough. But Holder seems to have found something that’s working for him.”

Tweet

Speedway Grand Prix Speedway Grand Prix