PIRATES sensation Darcy Ward revealed he was ready to get tough with Nicki Pedersen but insisted his focus was on winning races – rather than the Danish superstar.

In-form Australian hotshot Ward will renew rivalries with the Grand Prix ace in tonight’s World Cup Event One at Vojens.

The showdown comes just days after the pair locked horns in Elite League action on Monday evening.

Three-times world champion Pedersen brought Ward’s flying form to a halt when he slammed the door shut on his young counterpart as he tried to burst round the outside in heat six of Pirates’ defeat at Peterborough.

That caused Ward to clip Pedersen’s dirt deflector with his front wheel and the Poole man packed up before sarcastically applauding his opponent for the remainder of the race.

Ward will tonight line up for Australia when they face Denmark, Sweden and Germany.

But the world under-21 champion played down the prospect of coming up against Pedersen.

Ward told the Daily Echo: “I always got on with Nicki because he had never done anything to me but now he has it will be a bit more of a challenge to give him back some of his medicine, but that is not a goal of mine.

“I am out there to race and when I race against him I am not going to try to stuff him up, I am just going to go out to win my race.

“If he is coming round me, I am going to be a bit harder. But speedway is not about enemies, it is about winning the races and doing your job.”

Ward believes Australia’s own three-times world champion Jason Crump, the former Pirates ace, will be crucial to their World Cup dreams.

The duo will line up alongside Wimborne Road number one Chris Holder, Troy Batchelor and Rory Schlein.

Ward added: “It is good to see Crumpie back. We need him to go really big for us and he is going to be our main rider. Him and Chris, the Grand Prix boys, know what it is all about so we need them firing.

“For me, Rory Schlein and Batch, we need to get seconds and no lasts. We need to collect points and those two boys need to win every race.

“We don’t know but it might be Boycie’s (Craig Boyce, Australia team manager and Pirates legend) last year so we want to go out flying.

“Chris is third in the world at the moment and Crumpie is Jason Crump, so we have two very good riders.

“I am going really well at the moment, Rory Schlein is going very well and Batch got a maximum on Wednesday at Coventry, which is an away track and very hard to do.

“We have a very good chance.”