Tai after GP tonic to ease his bugs

STRUGGLING: Woffinden TAI WOFFINDEN is battling to shrug off summer flu, food poisoning – and his bitter rival Nicki Pedersen!

The controversial Dane will be hoping to cash in on the Brit’s health problems in tonight’s Swedish Speedway Grand Prix.

Woffinden, bidding to recapture the world title he won in 2013, has a nine-point cushion at the top of the rankings after five of the 12 rounds.

He had a lucky break in last weekend’s Latvian round when the meeting was cut short, preventing in-form Pedersen making even further inroads into his lead.

Woffinden has been distinctly under the weather but is looking to build on his lead and said: “It’s the halfway stage of the championship, so I would love to come away with a good lead again.

“There’s still a lot of points to go for and my nine-point lead isn’t a lot when you look at the rest of the season.”

Woffinden, 24, is heading back to magical Malilla hoping for a repeat of last year.

He added: “It is a great track and I can’t wait.

“I won there last year and obviously more of the same would do very nicely, but that’s easier said than done.”

World champion Greg Hancock is pumped up for what is now virtually his home GP, having moved his family to Sweden.

He suffered two punctures but still scored double figures at the Daugavpils track in Latvia in last week’s rain-affected round, won by Pole Maciej Janowski.

Even so, Hancock has scrapped the tyre experiment that went badly wrong and robbed him of his first GP win of the season.

He said: “Obviously we had the puncture issues, and we’ll be going back to the standard tyre settings we use.

“We went a bit too far with it but we know now for the future so it’s a step forward.

“Some of our adjustments are coming together and it’s all clicking.”

The American, 45, third in the standings but 14 points behind Woffinden, added: “I’m feeling good, we’ve had some really good races this week. I feel like last season’s form is coming back and that’s where I want to be.”