PIRATES star Chris Holder came agonizingly close to his first Grand Prix win in three years as Niels-Kristian Iversen snatched glory at the Millennium Stadium.

Aussie charger Holder had topped the scorecharts in the qualifying heats with 13 points and tasted success once more in the semi-finals off a favourable gate one.

But he fell just short in the final showdown as Iversen ripped round the outside off turn two and held on for victory.

Nevertheless, Holder will have been hugely encouraged by his display, which so nearly gave him a third Grand Prix win in Cardiff following previous triumphs in 2010 and 2012 – the latter of which was his most recent win on the GP series.

An 18-point haul for the Sydneysider propelled him up to sixth in the standings and ignited the Poole ace's world championship campaign.

Triple world champion Nicki Pedersen, greeted by ferocious boos in the initial introductions, won the opener from the gate and Matej Zagar triumphed in heat two in comfortable style.

After a sluggish gate, Holder blitzed past team-mate Maciej Janowski and former Poole ace Greg Hancock for second in heat three, with wild card Craig Cook the shock winner.

Aussie Troy Batchelor led in ex-Swindon team-mate Peter Kildemand and, after the first track grading, Holder again looked impressive with a second place behind Tai Woffinden.

Jason Doyle was excluded following a coming-together with Kildemand, who went on to win the re-run, with Janowski getting off the mark in heat seven as he took the chequered flag from the gate.

A daring manoeuvre by Hancock saw the American sneak beyond British charger Chris Harris early on and register his first win, ultimately with relative ease.

Janowski’s semi-final hopes suffered a huge blow as he ran another last place after finding traffic at the first turn but Hancock’s night was going in the other direction, the US star holding his nerve under huge pressure from Michael Jepsen Jensen.

Holder made the most of a favourable gate to clock up his first victory in tremendous fashion and move level with the top-scorers, before Woffinden continued his resurgence with a second success.

Pedersen was excluded for a tough move on Kildemand – much to the delight of the majority of the Millennium Stadium – and in the re-run Hancock took another step towards the semi-finals with second behind Zagar.

Janowski’s meeting went from bad to worse as he finished last behind Woffinden, Doyle and Andreas Jonsson, with Krzysztof Kasprzak bursting into life in heat 15.

Troy Batchelor was then excluded following a high-speed fall and Holder, who had led at that point, reeled off another rapid gate and held off Iversen in the re-run.

Meeting reserves Jason Garrity and Robert Lambert were thrust into heat 17 but Pedersen reigned supreme, with Holder ensuring he topped the scorecharts in the qualifying heats with a gate-one win next time out.

Woffinden got the better of Hancock in a sensational battle and Jepsen Jensen snatched a semi-final place with a triumph in the final qualifying heat.

Off gate one for the third successive heat, Holder looked in control out of the second turn of the first semi as the battle raged behind him, Iversen nipping past Pedersen for second.

Woffinden made gate one work in the second semi and Kildemand also squeezed through.

But it was Iversen that prevailed in the final, with Holder second, Kildemand third and Woffinden fourth.