 Welcome to Don Ciklavic in Croatia for the opening round of the 2023 Speedway Grand Prix. My goal is the same every season. After winning three world titles you can't then say this year I want to finish third. I want to be world champion. I'm not looking to be better than the other riders. I'm just trying to be the best version of myself that I can be in and race as good as I can. Then we'll see if that's good enough to be number one. When I go out there on the track I want to win every race and I think everybody's the same. That's why we're the best riders in the world. So there's 16 of the best riders in the world and that's why they're here. They're here to win Grand Prix and obviously try to be world champion. You know last year when I went two in a row it just happened so easy and to be honest I feel like I'm riding so much better than I was last year. I needed to give this Grand Prix series a big cracker this year and I know it's my last chance. You can't have too many wild cards and I've had two wild cards in the last two years so I know that it's down to me to make it work. I've changed tuners for this season and I feel a lot happier and we work a lot over the summer side in the heat in Australia to work on performance. Good to get back on a bike. I just had a great win. I rode as many bikes as I could. I raced a little bit in America some speedway and it's a black track and I don't know what I'm all across and just had a pretty fun win there. To be honest we've done a lot of work to the end of last season to try and you know progress a little bit more and you know I think we're pretty happy with where we are. Go racing but unfortunately it is raining at this stage so disappointing after the wonderful weather we've had all day. The good pre-season have a good speed in my bikes. We try to improve my start. It's been a little bit my issues over the last couple of years. I think they're going to be better and I need that for sure to win the World Championship. You have to remember I have had struggles with the COVID and post-COVID for almost the past three years. It's been really tough for me and you know that relief to be healthy has been such a boost for me and for everyone around me and also with my team now I have energy we can test things. We've been working a lot behind the scenes to try and progress. First EP you know you never fully know what to expect so it's cool just to get going again. It's important to start out well and don't have to chase from beginning of the season. It's never fun when you're a little bit behind all the time and you feel you have to chase all the time. It's a really tough race week leading up to Croatia. I was racing in both on the first day and the Friday and a lot of traveling so I really didn't have much time to think and might have been a good thing. And it was a tough track you know we had a lot of rain. It was a tough evening for a lot of riders and myself included. I went up to two rounds and my inside gates were gone so I really like to dig deep to get the points to get into the semi. That we had a good set up the bike was fast. My starts were pretty good as well so a lot of work has gone into the off season to get ready for this year and yeah we're still testing stuff we're still pushing forward there's still room for improvement so yeah it's positive. Number two. Incredible line up there with Smartek on the inside in red beauty alongside him who was undecided there. I'm surprised he gave Smartek the inside gate. Staking the semi final which cost me a place in the final. I knew where I wanted to be on the corner but as Bartek came up in front of me I was I was watching him which way he was going to go and I missed the point where I should turn to stay on the inside. So it is what it is Freddie capitalized on that. I felt really good you know I had good speed and just you know missed out a little bit in the semi final but you know for sure compared to like one year ago it was much better and you know now I feel like I belong in the GPs. The inside in red, Lambert off gate number two and Jason Dorff off the outside in yellow. I had the best gate, made a great start, closed the door too much on Bartek and hit a right and it took off and that was pretty much me done and dusted. Had all my eggs in one basket if I made that corner I would have been on the roster. We can see Bartos is still in good form riding very well. I raced with him in the league in Poland and he's on top form. He's very consistent, he rarely have an off meeting so you have to be at your best all the time. I'm just glad I got the points on the table, points on board and that's it. It's in history books now and we move forward. He's on the rider, he's world champion, I'm a world champion, Wolfie's a world champion, there's loads of world champions who can still go out there and win a Grand Prix and win the world title. Injuries play a big part of it as well so long series to go.