Nicki 2nd in Grand Prix Challenge.

King's Lynn's Danish starlet Nicki Pedersen produced another brilliant performance in Saturday afternoon's Grand Prix Challenge meeting held in Krsko, Slovenia.

He finished as the runner up in the meeting behind Coventry's American star, and former World Champion, Greg Hancock to book his place in next year's Grand Prix series. 24 riders went into the Challenge meeting knowing that only a top six placing would guarantee them qualification.

As he finished 11th in this year's main series (only the top 10 overall scorers from the series were guaranteed places next year), at least Nicki was seeded through to the "Main Event" and did not have to contest the early qualification heats. And he didn't have the best of starts when he did enter the fray finishing third in heat 11 behind Britain's Andy Smith and Sweden's Andreas Jonsson with former Knight Bo Brhel fourth.

That result put Nicki into an elimination heat in race 15 where the first two finishers progressed further in the meeting and the third and fourth men home were eliminated. Nicki calmed the nerves of the considerable number of Knights' fans who had made the long trip out to Slovenia to support him by winning with race with another ex-Knight, Piotr Protasiewicz second.

Another victory in heat 19 put him within touching distance of a qualifying place by putting him through to the semi-final stages. And in his semi final he made sure of his place in next year's Grand Prix series by finishing second behind Ipswich's rising British star Scott Nicholls.

He got his revenge in the final though pegging the Ipswich man back to third but early reports suggest that the two clashed after the race had finished. Those early reports, although somewhat sketchy, suggest that after the race the two clashed with Nicki going into the safety fence and that, apparently, it took 6 track staff to hold Nicki down so he could not get at Nicholls! That should certainly add some spice to next Wednesday's (October 17) Craven Shield clash between King's Lynn and Ipswich at the Norfolk Arena!

Joining Nicki and Nicholls s qualifiers for next year's GP series are meeting winner Hancock, Oxford's young Czech Republic star Lukas Dryml (only drafted into the meeting earlier in the week because of an injury to World
Under 21 Champion David Kujawa of Poland) and two further Brits - Workington's Carl Stonehewer and Belle Vue's Andy Smith.

Disappointment then for ex-Lynn riders Peter Karlsson, Piotr Protasiewicz and Bo Brhel, all of whom failed to finish in the top six and thus failed to qualify for the 2002 series.

Grand Prix details Krsko, Slovenia - Saturday October 13:

1. Greg Hancock, USA2. Nicki Pedersen, DEN3. Scott Nicholls, GB4. Lukas Dryml, CHZ5. Carl Stonehewer, GB6. Andy Smith, GBAll the above qualify for the 2002 Grand prix series:7. Peter Karlsson, SWE8. Piotr Protasiewicz, POL9. Chris Louis, GB10. Andreas Jonsson, SWE11. Sebastian Ulamek, POL12. Sam Ermolenko, USA13. Brian Andersen, DEN14. Matej Ferjan, SLO15. Bohumil Brhel, CHZ16. Stefan Andersson, SWE17. Jason Lyons, AUS18. Damian Balinski, POL19. Kaj Laukkanen, FIN20. Gary Havelock, GB21. Wieslaw Jagus, POL22. Lars Gunnestad, NOR23. Sean Wilson, GB24. Antonin Kasper, CHZ