It seems like a long time ago now, but the British Grand Prix in Cardiff was a fantastic night of speedway.

We had a little bit of everything; Belinda Carlisle, a crazy Polish referee, a difficult track and thrills and spills galore.

Perhaps most significantly of all we also witnessed a return to form for Jason Crump (as I predicted in this column, proving that I'm not always wrong!) He was really keen to do well in Cardiff and I sense he's really found his hunger to win grands prix again.

Pedersen: luck to continue?

Since then he had a nasty little come-off in Vojens in the World Cup and broke a finger which forced him to miss a few meetings, but he rode last weekend and scored plenty of points so I think he'll be okay for the GP.

He's now 10 points behind Nicki Pedersen and having won three times previously in Marketa in Prague, he'll definitely be one of the pre-meeting favourites.

Gaggle

All of a sudden there's a whole gaggle of riders behind Pedersen in the table with the likes of Tomasz Gollob, Greg Hancock and Hans Andersen

However, Pedersen still leads the way and I don't think I've ever seen anybody get as much luck and good fortune at a meeting as he got in Cardiff.

He was extremely fortunate with three refereeing decisions and he could have been excluded three times, but they all went for him. Somehow he managed to finish third and when I think back on it, that's quite staggering because he never looked comfortable and never seemed to be in control of his bike.

I suppose it demonstrated one of the reasons why he's the world champion because he ground out a result even when he wasn't riding particularly well. The consistency is with him and it's easy to see why he leads the championship by 10 points.

Saying that, I think the championship race is really exciting. Last year Pedersen was dominating in such a fashion that you couldn't see him getting beaten, but this year he hasn't won a grand prix, even though he leads by 10 points.

I don't think he's quite as dominant as he was last time around. Crump is back in form and Gollob has won a few grands prix - and the upcoming tracks should suit him. So I'd say the championship race is wide open.

Classic

This weekend, the Marketa will provide us with a classic continental track. It's big and sweeping, but quite narrow on the entrances and the exits of the corners.

I've heard on the grapevine that they have got some new material for the track so it's difficult to know exactly what's going to happen. In the past the track has tended to rut up a bit, certainly on the entrances to turn three and turn one and that has caused riders to make mistakes.

It can be a bit unpredictable and at this time of year it gets very hot and steamy, so you sometimes get thunderstorms in the evenings. That would certainly spice things up a bit. Without question this track generally throws up an exciting night of speedway.

The home fans will be rooting for Lukas Dryml who looked like he might pull up a few trees after an impressive opening grand prix in Slovenia.

But since that time he has really struggled and to be perfectly honest he looks out of his depth. Unless he can do something quite miraculous in the second half of the GP season, I think he will slip out of the series.

He'll be looking for a really big performance on his home track - he has ridden well there in the past - but he's had a lot of injuries and that has definitely knocked him back at times.

In the past he seems to have ridden beyond his ability to produce those big results and when you're riding that way it can catch up with you. To a degree I think that has happened with him.

British hopes

From a British perspective, I'd like to think we'll see some good performances. Scott Nicholls got to the final in Cardiff and then broke the tapes, which was a disappointing end to a much-improved display. I'd like to think he will build on that and at least make the semi-finals.

Chris Harris has had a few knocks, but we saw him last Monday on Elite League Speedway and he looks fast enough. The key for those guys is making good starts in that company and if they can do that then they can do well; in particular Nicholls who has ridden well there in the Czech Republic in the past.

I'm sure they've spent the summer break reflecting on how they've been doing and they'll be hoping for a much improved second half of the season.

Kelvin's call

Pedersen to Nick it: If Crump hadn't had his injury problem I would have plumped for him again, but I'm going to go for Pedersen this time. Although he rode his luck dramatically at Cardiff, I think he's due a win. He rode very well for Denmark in the World Cup and I fancy him to pop up and win one on Saturday.

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