AFTER two rounds in the relative GP wilderness Tony Rickardsson bounced back to something like his best to regain the overall lead in this years series which, with seven of the nine rounds completed is excruciatingly tight at the top after the Czech Republic GP.

Rickardsson arrived in Prague finding himself a point in arrears to co-leaders Leigh Adams and Nicki Pedersen but his second place on Saturday night turned the tables to the extent that he will head for round eight in Poland back as overall leader by one point on Pedersen.

"It was like having to start the season all over again," admitted Rickardsson after having added 20 more points to his tally.

"I am pleased with the way things turned out tonight. I knew I needed to get a decent result to keep me in the reckonings for the final two GPs."

While it was a somewhat rare sight of seeing Rickard-sson take to a GP track before heat nine it was clear from his heat four performance that we were watching a man on a mission.

Such has been the quirk of fate that the GP series has had this season, Rickard-sson's opening ride opponents included that man Nicki Pedersen. It could so easily have been an early psychological advantage for race winner Pedersen as Rickardsson had kept him on his mettle throughout, while the Dane just seemed to know precisely where each attack was going to come from.

But Rickardsson is made of sterner stuff and has the ability to dig that little bit deeper than many of his opponents when the real questions are asked of him.

"I channelled a lot of effort in trying to find that inner strength that I knew I needed tonight. I hadn't really reali-sed just what effect that crash weeks ago actually had on me and because of the lack of real racing I had been doing I was giving too much to the others," said Rickard-sson.

"People just expect me to be able to take the crash and come straight back but I needed the chance to ride myself to fitness. This last week has been good as I have been busy racing but even tonight while I was racing as hard as I needed to, I still feel as though I just pulled through in the end so I am not quite there yet.

"I know that I must mantain a focus on my own job, not worry about the pressures the others are under and also I need to take one more step. I need to win more races as that brings more confidence."

Rickardsson, demonstrating a more positive body language than he had done so in Gothenburg in the previous two weeks, certainly won his second ride in confident style, recording the fastest time of the night - the only sub 64 seconds time of the 25 races - and that saw him straight into the main event at the expense of Bjarne Pedersen and Pirates latest signing Ales Dryml.

While Pedersen (Bjarne) stylishly survived a next ride eliminator Dryml was packing his bags by the end of heat 12. Pedersen went as far as heat 21 before being eliminated by which time Poole's remaining two riders, Rickardsson and Adams, were already semi-finalists.

For Adams it was the seventh time this year he had reached that distance, the only rider to have done so in each round.

But facing both Crump and Rickardsson and the impressive Holta and getting the tough outside gate draw, it was to be the end of the line and a halt to his week's reign as joint-series leader.

Adams even managed to remain upbeat about that disappointment, despite still suffering the ill-effects of a flu bug picked up in Sweden . "I'm not complaining at all.It remains very tight and as we saw today with Jason (Crump) one win can change it all around and give you a mighty boost," said Adams.

On an evening when the excitiment of the Prague round went someway to savour the palette after the sour taste of the Scandinavian GP, the organisers must have been delighted with the final outcome.

The night belonged to Jason Crump who followed Ryan Sullivan's acheivement of winning a GP round for the second time this year and his reward for his efforts was a boost up the leaderboard to third place just two points now behind Rickardsson.

For Crump it was an eventful night as he broke a clutch arm as he lined up for heat 19 which resulted in him being excluded for touching the tapes. That sent him to a tough pre-semi final heat alongside Nikki Pedersen and the most succesful rider of the Czech GP still competing, Tomasz Gollob.

Safely negotiating that heat Crump then appeared in the toughest of the two semi-finals, the one that included those no lesser talents of Rickardsson and Adams.

When the Belle Vue Ace ran out winner of that heat the odds on him adding a title to that he won in Copen-hagen in June shortened considerably, despite him having to meet both Rickardsson and Pedersen in the final.