Wolves ready to take on the world

Young star Tai Woffinden tackles his first speedway Grand Prix - and revealed the sole aspect of the sport that causes him stress.

Wildcard Woffinden, 19, goes in with the big guns at Leszno, Poland tonight believing that he's now at his rightful level in the shale game.

And while the prospect of duking it out with 15 of the world's best in the European GP doesn't faze the Wolves skipper, travel logistics after the recent flights ban certainly do.

"You've got all the organising of getting all your equipment there," he said.

"That's the behind the scenes stuff that nobody sees before you even get to the track.

"What gets me stressed out is when you need to speak to somebody booking a flight and can't get hold of them, try again, can't get hold of them, try again...

"You try to organise something else and something else has happened and you can't do that. That's the only thing that really gets me stressed out in speedway, trying to get round that stuff."

Woffinden's longer-term cause has hardly been helped by being placed in the Sheffield semi-final of the British championship, which runs on Thursday, May 6 - the night before he has to sign in at Gothenburg ready to practise for the Swedish GP.

Britain's only other GP entrant, Coventry's Chris Harris, is in the King's Lynn semi the following Wednesday.

"I'm not going to say anything about it. I've said what I need to say to the people I need to say it to," said Woffinden, breaking his resolve some two seconds later to add: "It's just stupid.

"And the only reason is because they want a GP rider in each round, whereas if they send me and Bomber (Harris) to King's Lynn and put Simon Stead from King's Lynn into Sheffield it would have made a lot more sense.

"You would have had better racing from Simon Stead in there because he loves Sheffield. And then me and Chris Harris wouldn't have any problems with the travelling."

Travel apart, he has a simple plan for the series: "Top eight and that would secure a place for next year," he said.

"This year is more the learning curve. Do all the tracks, learn my way around all the airports, travelling, organisation and all that. And as well as that, putting 110 per cent into my racing."

Team-mate Fredrik Lindgren, in contrast, has had two full seasons on the GP circuit courtesy of the wildcard system and, at 24, is ready to kick on.

"Top five is my target this year," said the Swedish ace. "I think I have got it in me to be that far up and it's also a long-term plan that I've had for a couple of years.

"It's top five this year; next year I would like to fight for the medals and then after that start to fight for the world championship."

Flights and the Polish presidential tragedy have had an impact on his preparation after a change of horsepower from JRM to GM, but he feels positive.

"It would have been nice to have a few more laps overseas on the bikes I'm using for the Grand Prix, but things have happened," he said.

"There are a few guys over there who are in a worse condition than me. I think Andreas Jonsson, my countryman, has only done one meeting so far. So it's tough."

Physically ready, Lindgren now feels he's mentally attuned to the GP rhythm as well.

"It's the difference with being a weekend," he said. "You're not showing up there, doing your thing and then going.

"You have to be there on Friday, do the practice, be there the whole day on Saturday, building up to the Grand Prix and that can be a little bit of a difficult time, mentally.

"Maybe that is where I have gone wrong before a little bit."

So is riding the bikes the easy bit?

Woffinden interjected: "It's all hard!"