GRAND PRIX CHALLENGE
 
After finishing 9th and 10th in this season's GP series TIBOR NEMECEK and JACK HAGEN made light work of ensuring they will be back next season as they finished 1st and 2nd, respectively, in the GP Challenge.  RAFAL ARANOWSKI had reached the Grand Final of a GP as a wild card this season and could afford a last place in his final ride here after he had already totalled 11 points to see him finish 3rd in the GP Challenge and take a permanent spot in the GPs.  As expected the competition was close and fierce and after heat 20 there were 3 riders tied on 9 points with just 2 qualifying places still available and so a run-off was required.  ENZO INNACONE has had a great season and stormed to victory to clinch a qualifying place for next year's series.  Behind him was a battle royale with HAYDEN WOOD, 3 times a world championship bronze medallist, just doing enough in the end to take the all important 5th placed position ahead of former World Champion Fillippe Chong.
 
After the meeting there was a nervous wait amongst the riders as the GP Committee decided who had done enough to earn the 2 Wild Card spots for next season's series.  After some time they emerged to hand the spots to FILLIPPE CHONG and LOUIS JOOSSENS.  Chong was World Champion in 2018 and followed that win with 2nd and 3rd place finished in the following two campaigns and would most likely have taken a top 5 spot in this meeting too but for a fall in heat 7.  It's certainly hard to argue that he deserves the pick and a chance to show that this poor year was just a one-off dip in form.  The selection committee admitted that the discussion for the final place centred on those who had finished from 7th to 10th place in the GP Challenge.  In the end the fact that Joossens performed well in this year's series, reaching 4 Semi Finals and 2 Grand Finals, and was just 10 points adrift of automatic qualification was enough to see him get the nod - at just 22 years of age time is still on his side to push on over the next few years.
 
It was tough look on Frankie Young, Vaclav Ruzucha and Andre Hayward but these things are left to small margins if you don't finish in the top 5 and with the oldest of those riders still just 23 years old they have time to make their mark at the very highest level over the coming years.  Eddie Mendoza, Gote Nordvall and Teodor Patocka were just outside the top 10 here and are another trio of young riders who will have learned much from this experience and will want to push on next year and go that one step further.  Steen Eriksen and Steve Edgar have both finished 2nd in the world previous, Edgar just last season, but the pair didn't seem happy with their machinery in this one off meeting and never looked likely challengers.  Leonid Izotov ended this one bottom of the pile and fails to return to the GP after what was a very tough debut season this year where he finished bottom of the 15 regular competitors.
 
  1. Tibor Nemecek............. 3  2  1  3  3  12   ---   QUALIFIED
  2. Jack Hagen................ 3  1  3  2  3  12   ---   QUALIFIED
  3. Rafal Aranowski........... 2  3  3  3  0  11   ---   QUALIFIED
  4. Enzo Innacone............. 1  3  1  1  3   9   ---   QUALIFIED
  5. Hayden Wood............... 2  2  3  0  2   9   ---   QUALIFIED
  6. Fillippe Chong............ 3  Fx 2  2  2   9   ---   WILD CARD
  7. Frankie Young............. 1  0  2  3  2   8
  8. Vaclav Ruzucha............ 0  3  2  1  2   8
  9. Andre Hayward............. 2  2  1  3  0   8
 10. Louis Joossens............ 0  3  0  1  3   7   ---   WILD CARD
 11. Eddie Mendoza............. 2  1  1  2  1   7
 12. Gote Nordvall............. 0  2  3  1  E   6
 13. Teodor Patocka............ 1  1  0  2  1   5
 14. Steen Eriksen............. 3  R  0  0  1   4
 15. Steve Edgar............... 0  0  2  R  1   3
 16. Leonid Izotov............. 1  1  0  0  0   2
 
 No. Results
  1: Jack Hagen, Andre Hayward, Enzo Innacone, Louis Joossens 
  2: Fillippe Chong, Hayden Wood, Frankie Young, Vaclav Ruzucha 
  3: Tibor Nemecek, Rafal Aranowski, Teodor Patocka, Gote Nordvall 
  4: Steen Eriksen, Eddie Mendoza, Leonid Izotov, Steve Edgar 
  5: Enzo Innacone, Tibor Nemecek, Eddie Mendoza, Frankie Young 
  6: Vaclav Ruzucha, Andre Hayward, Teodor Patocka, Steve Edgar 
  7: Louis Joossens, Gote Nordvall, Leonid Izotov, Fillippe Chong (Fx) 
  8: Rafal Aranowski, Hayden Wood, Jack Hagen, Steen Eriksen (R) 
  9: Gote Nordvall, Vaclav Ruzucha, Enzo Innacone, Steen Eriksen 
 10: Rafal Aranowski, Frankie Young, Andre Hayward, Leonid Izotov 
 11: Hayden Wood, Steve Edgar, Tibor Nemecek, Louis Joossens 
 12: Jack Hagen, Fillippe Chong, Eddie Mendoza, Teodor Patocka 
 13: Rafal Aranowski, Fillippe Chong, Enzo Innacone, Steve Edgar (R) 
 14: Andre Hayward, Eddie Mendoza, Gote Nordvall, Hayden Wood 
 15: Frankie Young, Teodor Patocka, Louis Joossens, Steen Eriksen 
 16: Tibor Nemecek, Jack Hagen, Vaclav Ruzucha, Leonid Izotov 
 17: Enzo Innacone, Hayden Wood, Teodor Patocka, Leonid Izotov 
 18: Tibor Nemecek, Fillippe Chong, Steen Eriksen, Andre Hayward 
 19: Louis Joossens, Vaclav Ruzucha, Eddie Mendoza, Rafal Aranowski 
 20: Jack Hagen, Frankie Young, Steve Edgar, Gote Nordvall (E) 
 run-off for 1st place: Tibor Nemecek, Jack Hagen (Fx) 
 run-off for 4th-6th: Enzo Innacone, Hayden Wood, Fillippe Chong