TROY Batchelor is hopeful familiar surroundings will bring about a good result when he competes in the Czech Grand Prix today.

After making his first World Championship semi-final and picking up 10 points from his last outing in Finland a fortnight ago, the Robins’ skipper is in action in Prague in round four of his debut Grand Prix season.

The Australian called the Marketa Stadium home for two years while racing for Prague in the Czech League, often alongside Swindon teammate Peter Kildemand, and his hopeful his track knowledge will serve him well tonight. “Prague is a track I know because I’ve raced there in the Czech League for the last two years so I’ve done a few laps around the track,” he said.

“Hopefully that experience can help me to have a good one and I’ve done the World Cup around there too which always helped.

“A final maybe? You never know what can happen because you can run Finland again and get a completely different top four every time.

“In the GP you have to bring your A-game and if you do that then you never know what can happen.”

Batchelor was pleased with how he performed in Tampere in the last round but knows the competitive nature of the series means he can’t afford to get complacent despite securing a place in the top eight.

“It was good to make the semis at the last one and putting 10 points on my scoreboard in Finland was good because every point counts in the GP.

“I made a few mistakes but it was a tough track and a lot of people struggled on it, with some top riders not making the semi-finals.

“There have been some mixed results this year, like Zagar winning his first one and some odd results too, but that just goes to show how tough it is and how competitive it is.”