UNFINISHED BUSINESS

Wednesday 24th August 2011, 13:00

Swedish hotshot Antonio Lindback says he is still focused on the fight for the World Championship’s top eight, even if he is already guaranteed a Grand Prix series spot for 2012.

The Rio Rocket scorched to victory in the GP Challenge at Vetlanda on Saturday night and will definitely return to the sport’s biggest stage, irrespective of where he finishes in this year’s SGP standings.

Lindback is currently 11th in the table with 48 points ahead of Saturday’s FIM Enea Torun SGP of Poland – putting him 18 adrift of Kenneth Bjerre in the eighth and final automatic qualification berth.

Even though the pressure is no longer on the Swedish international to close the gap, he is still determined to reach the World Championship’s top eight for the first time in his career.

"I’m still going to be focused on the rest of the season and I want to get there via the top eight."

- Antonio Lindback

He said: “It feels good to have that place ready for me next year. But I’m still going to be focused on the rest of the season and I want to get there via the top eight.

“Of course I can relax a little bit, but when you’re standing at the start in the GP, you don’t think about that. I want to do well, even if I have qualified for next year. This was a good meeting, but I can feel good about it next year. Now I need to keep focused on the rest of the meetings I have.”

Lindback finished joint top of the Vetlanda scorechart with Danish star Bjarne Pedersen on 12 points. But the Avesta-based man beat his former Poole team mate in a run-off to top the rostrum.

The Indianerna duo were joined in qualifying for 2012 by their team mate at Kumla, Piotr Protasiewicz, who was third on 11.

After winning his opening three races, Lindback’s hopes threatened to come crashing down in heat 13, when he ploughed into the starting tapes and was excluded. Fortunately for the 26-year-old, he bounced back with a win in heat 20 to seal his SGP return.

“It was stupid when I hit the tapes,” he said. “I don’t really know what happened. I was not nervous, but I dropped the clutch. Sometimes stuff like that happens and you can’t do anything. It was a big shame.

“But I was feeling really good and especially on a Vetlanda track I don’t really like. Going into the Grand Prix, I know I can go fast at different tracks. If I can go fast at Vetlanda, I can go fast everywhere.”

Lindback will hope to take that confidence to Torun on Saturday and knows he will have to score big to break into the World Championship’s upper echelons in the last four rounds.

He said: “Semi-finals and finals – I’ll need to be up there if I’m going to get into the top eight.

“We’ll take one meeting at a time, though. I’ll focus on the next Grand Prix and we’ll see what happens. These last Grand Prix rounds are at places I like, so it will be good.”

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