HANS Andersen returned to the Grand Prix circuit and stole the show in Copenhagen on Saturday night.The current Peterborough star and former Ipswich Witch held his nerve to see off Jason Crump in the final and with it heap upon himself a huge amount of personal glory and satisfaction.

By Mike Bacon

HANS Andersen returned to the Grand Prix circuit and stole the show in Copenhagen on Saturday night.

The current Peterborough star and former Ipswich Witch held his nerve to see off Jason Crump in the final and with it heap upon himself a huge amount of personal glory and satisfaction.

There are few people in speedway who can understand why Andersen never received a wild card entry to this season's GP series. Quite clearly one of the top 10, let alone top 16 riders in the world, the 25-year-old Dane has had to sit and watch from the sidelines this season after failing to get a nomination.

But he showed exactly what the world speedway public is being denied with a solid and determined effort in his native country on Saturday and with it gain his second GP win of his career.

“That was the best thing for me, to win in my home country,” Andersen said last night.

“Of course it was nice to win on my only GP appearance this season. I have been riding well in Sweden, Poland and England, but this was my first meeting of the season in Denmark.

“People said to me afterwards I will definitely get a wildcard entry next year. But I told them straight, I'm not relying on anyone anymore, not after the way I was treated this winter.”

You couldn't have blamed Andersen if he had stuck two fingers up at those who doubted him, but to his credit he never did - although ironically the one person who was just as happy as him was current GP leader and team-mate in Poland, Jason Crump. He came second and increased his lead to a staggering 41 points.

“It felt like a win tonight,” Crump said afterwards.

“Hans is just a wildcard this season, so can't win the series. It's going well right now.”

In an exciting meeting Crump moved ahead of his rivals as they all fell by the wayside as the night progressed, most notably Nicki Pedersen and six-times world champion Tony Rickardsson, who clearly is not going to make it a seventh in this his final season.

Ipswich-born Scott Nicholls reached another semi-final, but again failed to make the step-up to the final, while current Witch Piotr Protasiewicz was again not at the races, mustering just one point.

He was one of three Poles - Tomasz Gollob and Jarek Hampel the other two - who occupied the bottom three places on a night to forget for them.