Express & Star

Tai Woffinden in a good place as he hunts Freddie Lindgren

In-form Wolves asset Tai Woffinden is just a point off top spot in the World Championship and feeling good.

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Woffinden notched a big 16-point haul in Prague at the Anlas Czech Republic FIM Speedway Grand Prix to keep up his blistering start to the season.

His hopes of winning the meeting were ended in the final, however, after a hard move by eventual victor Freddie Lindgren, a former Monmore Green team-mate and fellow Elite League champion in 2016 (pictured inset).

Woffinden said: “I felt good on Saturday, the bike was working well for me and everything was going really well.

“I said in the build-up that Prague isn’t one of my favourite tracks but I feel comfortable riding it and everything was falling into place. The result is still good for me although I am disappointed by what happened in the final.

“I’m in a good position right now and we take a month off the Grand Prix series now for the Monster Energy FIM Speedway of Nations.”

Woffinden has some interesting views of the incident in the final which robbed him of the opportunity to finish on the top step of the podium.

He’s revealed the content of a conversation he had with referee Krister Gardell after clipping the fence and pulling up on the back straight.

Woffinden said: “It seems you have to jump off the bike when you’re given nowhere to go – then the other rider would have been excluded!

“I spoke to the ref after that race and his words were ‘you were in the wrong place at the wrong time!’

“Having said that, you just remember these things and move on and there’s a lot of racing to do between now and the end of the season.”