Sunday 27th November 2011, 10:40

Tomasz Gollob’s manager Thomas Gaszynski admits the Pole hopes to get some meetings under his belt before launching his bid to regain the World Championship in Auckland on March 31.

The SGP season starts a month earlier than usual next term as the FIM New Zealand Grand Prix makes its debut on the calendar.

With many SGP stars just racing full-time in Sweden and Poland, most riders had not raced their first competitive meeting until the first week of April in previous years.

But it’s likely many will seek spots in challenge matches and open events across the world as they bid to get as much race time as possible before the Grand Prix at Western Springs. Gaszynski says Gollob would rather go into the contest with more than just a few practice laps behind him.

He said: “We’re looking into it and we’ll practice a lot earlier for sure. But it would also be a much more comfortable situation if he had a few meetings under his belt.

“At this stage, it’s still too early to say and obviously it’s all about the weather as well. Training is one thing at that time of year. But it’s March. It’s still winter time. So it’s hard to get those meetings.”

No country stages more meetings in March than the UK and events like the Ben Fund Bonanza at Birmingham's Perry Barr Stadium on March 11 could prove attractive to Gollob.

Gaszynski doesn’t rule out taking the Bydgoszcz-born legend on a rare tour of Britain to get him race-sharp for New Zealand.

He said: “Anything is a possibility, but it’s hard to say at this stage. We’re still a little far away from that right now. We’re at the preparation stage. So we’ll see how it goes.”

Despite leading the World Championship after the FIM Dansk Metal Danish SGP in Copenhagen last June, Gollob’s title defence collapsed like a house of cards in the second half of this year. He dropped down to fifth in the final standings as his form dipped alarmingly.

One of the sport’s mechanical geniuses simply couldn’t work his usual magic when it came to finding the right bike setups. And Gaszynski admits Team Gollob was given a harsh lesson in how hard it is to defend the World Championship.

He said: “We found that out first-hand and it’s much more difficult than anyone can expect. We’ve gone for a gold medal and won it. We’ve tried to defend it and we know what that feels like.

“Now we’re back in the position of trying to get a gold medal again and that, of course, is Tomasz’s aim for 2012, so fingers crossed.

“But there are 14 other riders who also want to be No.1. We’re going to give it a go.”

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