Speedway Grand Prix

AUSSIES EYE ROSTRUM

Australian skipper Davey Watt is determined to keep his Speedway World Cup medal hopes alive by leading his country through the Race-Off at Vojens tonight.

The Poole and Lejonen star captained the Aussies for the first time at King’s Lynn on Monday night as they finished a close second to Team Great Britain and narrowly missed out on a place in the SWC Final.

But the men from Down Under could still join the Lions and champions Poland in the last four with a top two finish in the Race-Off.

Despite their disappointment at losing out to Team GB by just three points on Monday, Watt says his young Aussie side will need little lifting for their clash with Denmark, Sweden and Russia this evening.

He said: “We’ve got a very upbeat and very excitable team. We can easily forget about King’s Lynn, move on to Vojens and be very positive about that.

“The Race-Off is a fantastic meeting and it’s always something that is heavily fought for. It’s a meeting we need to get through if we want to have a chance of getting on the box in the Final. We’ll go there with confidence and look to get through.”

Watt admits there were moments when Team GB riders struggled or were excluded from races and the Aussies failed to punish the Lions by picking up a victory on Monday.

But he said: “We were fighting all the way. We said at the start that we wanted to win and we were still fighting all the way to heat 25. Britain pipped us to the post and congratulations to them.

“I think we had a few moments where we didn’t quite take full advantage of the situations we had. We had a few moments we would like to change, but we also had a few moments which were fantastic.

“They’re the things we’ll want to remember out of this and take with us to Vojens.”

Watt enjoyed his first taste of life captaining his country, and admits it was anything but hard work.

He said: “It was fantastic. They’re an easy bunch of boys to motivate; they don’t need motivating.

“Everyone is motivated, everyone is excited, and they’re highly focused on the job in hand. What more can you ask for?”

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