Grand Prix Challenge - 5 qualify, with 2 Wild Card picks
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Last season's world champion recovered the disappointment of losing his title by winning the GP Challenge meeting and ensuring he
will be back in the series and challenging once again next term. The series will also see the return of Poland's Maciej Tercjak and Russia's
Boris Dvoynev will be competing for the first time as a full GP rider after the pair completed the rostrum in this meeting. The other rider to
qualify without too much fuss was Rudi Juritzen of Norway, who scored 10 points to finish 4th and return after a his GP debut season this year.
As always in this meeting the competition behind was fierce and as the dust settled on heat 20 it became apparent there were 4 riders tied on 9 points and just 1 place available in
next season's GP Series. Marek Czaja made the most of his wild card pick for this meeting by storming away to win the run-off, ahead of
Svensson, Niemi and Federenko, and qualify for his first GP series. Svensson in particular had been unlucky to be involved at all after
suffering an engine failure in his second ride and it was, unsurprisingly, confirmed afterwards that he was a unanimous pick by the GP Committee for one of the Wild Card spaces in
next season's competition. The other one was a close call between a few riders but it became apparent the votes were split between Niemi and
Federenko, who had both been involved in the final run-off of course. In the end Federenko's European Final win and maximum in the World Pairs
Final, whilst Niemi had already received a Wild Card pick earlier in the qualifiers, held sway and the Russian was confirmed as the 15th permanent member of the GPs for 2018.
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Of those that were further down the order the real shocker was the failure of 3 times World Champion Nick Ambrose to qualify for
next season's series, scoring just 6 points. The other riders who were in this year's series but won't be returning are David Bedford, Henrik
Hansen and Braxton McChesney.
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1. Luke Treadwell............ 2 2 3 3 3 13 (QUALIFIED)
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2. Maciej Tercjak............ 3 3 1 3 2 12 (QUALIFIED)
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3. Boris Dvoynev............. 2 3 3 3 0 11 (QUALIFIED)
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4. Rudi Juritzen............. 1 3 3 2 1 10 (QUALIFIED)
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5. Marek Czaja............... 3 2 0 1 3 9 (QUALIFIED)
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6. Sven Svensson............. 2 R 2 3 2 9 (QUALIFIED)
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7. Ila Niemi................. 2 2 3 2 0 9
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8. Nikita Federenko.......... 3 1 2 2 1 9 (QUALIFIED)
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9. David Bedford............. 3 3 0 0 1 7
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10. Nick Ambrose.............. 0 2 1 1 2 6
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11. Ricky Antunovich.......... 1 0 1 R 3 5
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12. Henrik Hansen............. 0 1 0 2 2 5
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13. Pierre Gonidis............ 1 1 2 0 1 5
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14. Braxton McChesney......... 0 0 0 1 3 4
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15. Jens Isaksen.............. 1 1 2 R 0 4
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16. Dwayne Houtby............. 0 0 1 1 0 2
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17. Billie-Ray Campo.......... Did not ride
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18. John Scotney.............. Did not ride
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No. Results
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1: Nikita Federenko, Luke Treadwell, Pierre Gonidis, Henrik Hansen
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2: Maciej Tercjak, Sven Svensson, Rudi Juritzen, Dwayne Houtby
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3: Marek Czaja, Boris Dvoynev, Ricky Antunovich, Braxton McChesney
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4: David Bedford, Ila Niemi, Jens Isaksen, Nick Ambrose
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5: Maciej Tercjak, Nick Ambrose, Henrik Hansen, Ricky Antunovich
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6: David Bedford, Marek Czaja, Pierre Gonidis, Dwayne Houtby
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7: Boris Dvoynev, Ila Niemi, Nikita Federenko, Sven Svensson (R)
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8: Rudi Juritzen, Luke Treadwell, Jens Isaksen, Braxton McChesney
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9: Boris Dvoynev, Jens Isaksen, Dwayne Houtby, Henrik Hansen
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10: Ila Niemi, Pierre Gonidis, Maciej Tercjak, Braxton McChesney
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11: Rudi Juritzen, Nikita Federenko, Ricky Antunovich, David Bedford
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12: Luke Treadwell, Sven Svensson, Nick Ambrose, Marek Czaja
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13: Sven Svensson, Henrik Hansen, Braxton McChesney, David Bedford
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14: Boris Dvoynev, Rudi Juritzen, Nick Ambrose, Pierre Gonidis
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15: Maciej Tercjak, Nikita Federenko, Marek Czaja, Jens Isaksen (R)
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16: Luke Treadwell, Ila Niemi, Dwayne Houtby, Ricky Antunovich (R)
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17: Marek Czaja, Henrik Hansen, Rudi Juritzen, Ila Niemi
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18: Ricky Antunovich, Sven Svensson, Pierre Gonidis, Jens Isaksen
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19: Braxton McChesney, Nick Ambrose, Nikita Federenko, Dwayne Houtby
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20: Luke Treadwell, Maciej Tercjak, David Bedford, Boris Dvoynev
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21: Marek Czaja, Sven Svensson, Ila Niemi, Nikita Federenko
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