SWINDON Robins skipper Jason Doyle maintained his record of making every final in this year’s series of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix but is still looking for that elusive first win of the campaign.

Having made the last four in Slovenia and Poland in the opening two Grand Prix, the Australian lay in second place, behind Wolverhampton Wolves’ Freddie Lindgren, in the overall world standings heading to Latvia this evening.

A third final spot looked far from certain after Doyle’s first two races at the Lokomotiv Stadium, as he finished second to Majiec Janowski in heat two before winning a fine battle with Maksims Bogdanovs to clinch just a single point from heat five to leave him lying in 10th place.

In heat 10, Doyle got too close to the back wheel of leader Pawlicki into bend one and fell back to third before suffering a mechanical problem out of the final bend to leave him last and still on just three points.

Starting from gate four in heat 15, Doyle knew that he had a fight on his hand and lead for the first lap until Patryk Dudek charged up his inside into bend four.

The Swindon captain fought for the lead all the way, with it changing hands on several occasions but had to settle for second place to take his tally to five.

Knowing that nothing less than a win would give Doyle the chance of making the final in his final outing, the Aussie got a great start from gate one in heat 20 and lead from the front.

Doyle made semi-final two through count-back and was left with gate four to book his place in the final.

The Robins rider got a good start but went deep into bend one, only to battle back for second place with a fine move on the third lap to settle the fight with Emil Sayfutdinov.

In the final, mechanical problems struck again as they robbed Doyle of a podium finish, with the 31-year-old having charged through into second place off of the fourth bend of lap one, before pulling up in lap three.

However, Doyle’s 10 point haul was enough to put him level on 37 points with Lindgren, who struggled with a knee injury during the meeting, but kept him in second place, with Dudek, who claimed second place in Latvia taking the overall lead by one point.

FIM LATVIAN GRAND PRIX, Daugavpils
Piotr Pawlicki 18 (1st), Patryk Dudek 16 (2nd), Emil Sayfutdinov 13, Maciej Janowski 13 (3rd), Matej Zagar 10, Jason Doyle 10 (4th), Tai Woffinden 9, Maxsims Bogdanovs 8, Martin Vaculik 8, Niels-Kristian Iversen 7, Bartosz Zmarzlik 6, Greg Hancock 5, Fredrik Lindgren 5, Chris Holder 4, Antonio Lindback 4, Peter Kildemand 1.

STANDINGS after Round 3 of 12
Patryk Dudek 38, Jason Doyle 37, Fredrik Lindgren 37, Maciej Janowski 35, Martin Vaculik 34, Piotr Pawlicki 32, Emil Sayfutdinov 31, Tai Woffinden 30, Niels-Kristian Iversen 25, Bartosz Zmarzlik 24, Matej Zagar 21, Greg Hancock 20, Chris Holder 16, Antonio Lindback 12, Nicki Pedersen 8.