Jason Crump was crowned World Speedway Champion in the final Grand Prix of '09 at Bydgoszcz in Poland.
Crump landed his third World title in six years when he won Heat 13 ahead of outgoing champion Nicki Pedersen, Russian wonderkid Emil Sayfutdinov and Fredrik Lindgren.
The 34-year-old Aussie star went into the meeting requiring eight points on the night to take the crown, and that was trimmed to six when main challenger and local hero Tomasz Gollob finished third in Heat 12.
Crump, still nursing a painful arm injury that required a skin graft last month, had already gained five points from his first three rides, so only needed a point in Heat 13.
He completed the job in style by winning the race after a jet-propelled start from the outside gate left Pedersen trailing in his wake.
Crump, who won three of this year’s 11 GPs, said: “Five weeks ago I thought my season was over after my crash at Belle Vue, but a fantastic team of people have got me back on track and I have to thank them all. The first half of the season went like clockwork, but I messed up a little in the second half when I became a speedway rider rather than a speedway racer.
"The injury never helped but things came good at the end and it was pretty special to win Heat 13 when I only needed a point. It’s an awesome feeling to be World Champion again.”
Gollob finished runner-up in the series, with Sayfutdinov a remarkable third in his debut season, but Gollob’s hopes of winning on the night ended in a controversial second semi-final.
He had already gone down once in a tangle with Pedersen on the first turn, when in the re-run he felt he had been unfairly passed by the hard-charging Dane at the end of the first lap.
Gollob retired after getting out of shape and parked his bike on the start-finish line, forcing referee Tony Steele to stop the race and exclude the Pole.
Rune Holta and Pedersen kept Crump in third place to join Sebastian Ulamek and Leigh Adams in the final, with Adams, having announced his retirement from World Championship racing at Friday’s practice, bidding to end his GP career with a fairytale finish.
Adams pulled out all the stops in the final, but he had to be content with runners-up spot behind Pedersen, who ended a difficult and frustrating campaign as reigning World Champion with his first GP win of the year.
Ulamek, competing in his first GP final, was third and Holta fourth, but the latter had already done enough to win the battle to finish in the top eight and qualify automatically for the 2010 series.
Holta began the night in 10th place behind Andersen and Lindgren, but stormed to 11 point to reach the semi-finals as both his Scandinavian rivals missed the cut for the last eight.
Holta jumped to seventh place while Kenneth Bjerre, who had been vulnerable to the riders behind him, also stepped up to the plate to finish eighth overall.
However Holta admitted afterwards that he had still to make a final decision whether or not to ride in the 2010 GP series.
FIM Polish Grand Prix: Nicki Pedersen (Denmark) 18, Leigh Adams (Australia) 15, Sebastian Ulamek (Poland) 16, Rune Holta (Poland) 14, Andreas Jonsson (Sweden) 12, Tomasz Gollob (Poland) 11, Jason Crump (Australia) 9, Kenneth Bjerre (Denmark) 8, Greg Hancock (USA) 8, Emil Sayfutdinov (Russia) 8, Adrian Miedzinksi (Poland) 6, Fredrik Lindgren (Sweden) 6, Scott Nicholls (Great Britain) 4, Chris Harris (Great Britain) 3, Grzegorz Walasek (Poland) 3, Hans Andersen (Denmark) 3.
Final standings: Crump 159, Gollob 144, Sayfutdinov 139, Hancock 121, Jonsson 116, Pedersen 110, Holta 99, Bjerre 98, Lindgren 94, Andersen 91, Adams 81, Ulamek 75, Walasek 66, Harris 62, Nicholls 45, *Antonio Lindback (Sweden) 27, *Niels-Kristian Iversen (Denmark) 20, *Jarek Hampel (Poland) 9, *Matej Zagar (Slovenia) 7, Adrian Miedzinski (Poland) 6, Grigory Laguta (Russia) 6, *Edward Kennett (Great Britain) 4, *Guglielmo Franchetti (Italy) 2, *Matej Kus (Czech Republic) 1.
*denotes reserves and wild-cards
