CRUMP: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

CRUMP: IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE

Sunday 24th June 2012, 14:40

Australian star Jason Crump admits SGP series leader Greg Hancock could have taken better advantage of his nightmare evening in the FIM Gorzow SGP of Poland on Saturday.

Crump exited the meeting on five points after running two last places and suffering an exclusion in his heats. The Bristol-born man went into the meeting two points behind Hancock in the title race, but the Californian extended his advantage to nine after notching 12 and reaching the semi-finals.

But Herbie, who has 87 championship points from six rounds, was unable to make it to the last four after suffering ignition problems and retiring from his last-eight race.

This meant he was unable to stretch out an even bigger advantage over Crump, who remains second – level with fellow countryman Chris Holder on 78 points. And the 36-year-old admits he was somewhat fortunate to enter the second half of 2012 just nine adrift of top spot.

"To be honest, the way Greg was going, he should have probably ended up with two or three points in the semi and six, four or two in the final."

- Jason Crump

He said: “Greg had bad luck in the semi and had a bike problem, which probably hampered him from the start. To be honest, the way Greg was going, he should have probably ended up with two or three points in the semi and six, four or two in the final.

“I’m probably fortunate to be in the position I’m in and I’ve got some work to do in the break.”

Asked where he felt his night went wrong, Crump replied: “I think I went wrong. I just made a few bad decisions and I didn’t come back from them.”

Crump opened his account with a victory in heat three, but things started to go awry when he was thrown out of race eight by referee Krister Gardell.

This was after Swedish racer Antonio Lindback dived under him on turn one and, despite only minimal contact from the Rio Rocket’s dirt deflector, Crump had little room to turn and tumbled.

The Aussie international said: “He didn’t give me a lot of opportunity to get around the corner. Okay, he didn’t run into me. He didn’t hit me. But sometimes you don’t have to be hit to be put in a situation where it’s difficult to get around the corner.

“If I was in that position and there was a gap up the inside, I’d have taken it for sure. The referee has to exclude someone and last night he put me out.”

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