Tuesday 2nd October 2012, 14:43

Slovak star Martin Vaculik is targeting gold in the FIM Torun SGP of Poland on Saturday as he bids to earn a wild card for the 2013 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series.

Vaculik scored eight points at the GP Challenge in Gorican on Saturday to fall short of qualification as Krzysztof Kasprzak, Matej Zagar and Niels-Kristian Iversen took the three places available.

The 22-year-old’s only hope of a ride in next year’s World Championship is to be granted one of four wild card spots by series organisers BSI Speedway and the FIM.

SGP first reserve Vaculik, who replaces the injured Kenneth Bjerre in Torun, would love a Grand Prix berth and will do all he can to impress the selectors.

He said: “If I win in Torun on Saturday, maybe I will get a wild card. But I’m not sure. If I don’t get in next season, I want to qualify via the Grand Prix Challenge in 2013.

“I will try all the time because I want to fight to be world champion. I’ll try my best and I think I will be in the GP one day.”

Vaculik finished last in his opening race at Gorican and failed to recover as he fell two points short of qualification. The Vetlanda and Tarnow man admits he struggled to find the setup needed for a super slick circuit in Croatia.

He added: “It was a very hard meeting. The track was hard to find a good setup on. Before every heat I changed something with the setup – I changed sprockets, jets, ignition, everything.

“The starts were most important and I didn’t have very good starts. The points I scored came after the starts. It’s very hard to pass someone in Gorican, but what can you do?”

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