1998 Speedway Grand Prix

4th season of the Speedway Grand Prix 1998 May 15 - September 18 6 6 6 21 3 144 SWE Tony Rickardsson SWE Jimmy Nilsen POL Tomasz Gollob The 1998 Speedway Grand Prix was the 53rd edition of the official World Championship.https://www.speedwaygb.co.uk/worldfinalindex WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX British Speedway 10 July 2021http://www.speedway.org/history/ HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK Speedway.org 10 July 2021 It was the fourth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion.https://wwosbackup.proboards.com/thread/6933/world-champions Speedway riders, history and results wwosbackup 10 July 2021 Tony Rickardsson won the World title, which included three wins from the six Grand Prix events. The Swede's win was his second World title success and he secured the gold medal comfortably ahead of nearest rivals Jimmy Nilsen and Tomasz Gollob. Hoare, T. (1998) 'Hamill crashes out in Poland', The Times 21 September 1998 https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/IF0501266861/GDCS?u=oxfshlib&sid=bookmark-GDCS&xid=be865b93 Gale Primary Sources 11 July 2021 Event format The system used was a new one for the 4th SGP season with 24 riders, divided into two classes. The eight best would be directly qualified for the "Main Event", while the sixteen others would be knocked out if they finished out of the top two in 4-man heats on two occasions - while they would go through if they finished inside the top two on two occasions. This resulted in 10 heats, where eight proceeded to the Main Event, where exactly the same system was applied to give eight riders to a semi-final. The semi-finals were then two heats of four, where the top two qualified for a final and the last two going towards the consolation final. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with 5th to 8th scoring 15, 14, 12 and 10 point, and after that 8, 8, 7, 7, etc. Places after 8th place were awarded according to the time a rider was knocked out and, secondly, according to position in the last heat he rode in. Qualification for Grand Prix 1998 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification The 1998 season had 21 permanent riders and 3 wild card at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below. Calendar 1998 CZE 1 May 15 Markéta Stadium Prague SWE Tony Rickardsson USA Billy Hamill SWE Jimmy Nilsen POL Tomasz Gollob 1998 GER 2 June 6 Rottalstadion Pocking SWE Tony Rickardsson SWE Jimmy Nilsen USA Billy Hamill POL Tomasz Gollob 1998 DEN 3 June 19 Speedway Center Vojens DEN Hans Nielsen GBR Chris Louis SWE Tony Rickardsson AUS Jason Crump 1998 GBR 4 August 7 Brandon Stadium Coventry AUS Jason Crump SWE Jimmy Nilsen POL Tomasz Gollob AUS Ryan Sullivan 1998 SWE 5 August 28 Motorstadium Linköping SWE Tony Rickardsson GBR Chris Louis SWE Peter Karlsson USA Greg Hancock 1998 POL 6 September 18 Polonia Stadium Bydgoszcz POL Tomasz Gollob AUS Ryan Sullivan SWE Jimmy Nilsen DEN Hans Nielsen Final standings 1998 CZE GER DEN GBR SWE POL Q P1 SWE 4 Tony Rickardsson a 25 a 25 c 18 f 8 a 25 e 10 Q P2 SWE 8 Jimmy Nilsen c 18 b 20 f 8 b 20 e 15 c 18 Q P3 POL 3 Tomasz Gollob d 16 d 16 f 8 c 18 e 14 a 25 Q 4 DEN 7 Hans Nielsen f 8 e 12 a 25 f 7 f 8 d 16 Q 5 GBR 18 Chris Louis e 15 f 8 b 20 f 6 b 20 f 6 Q 6 USA 1 Greg Hancock f 6 e 10 e 14 e 15 d 16 f 8 Q 7 AUS 9 Ryan Sullivan e 12 f 7 f 3 d 16 e 10 b 20 Q 8 AUS 10 Jason Crump f 3 f 3 d 16 a 25 f 7 f 8 3 P 9 USA 2 Billy Hamill b 20 c 18 f 6 e 12 f 5 f 1 N P 10 GBR 5 Mark Loram f 6 f 7 e 10 f 7 f 8 e 14 P 11 AUS 15 Leigh Adams e 10 f 6 f 4 f 4 e 12 e 15 w 12 CZE 22) (23) (24 Antonín Kasper, Jr. f 7 f 4 e 15 e 14 f 3 f 7 P 13 SWE 14 Stefan Dannö e 14 f 6 f 7 e 10 f 5 f 7 P 14 GBR 17 Andy Smith f 2 e 14 f 5 f 4 f 6 e 12 P 15 SWE 19 Henrik Gustafsson f 8 e 15 f 6 f 6 f 2 f 6 P 16 DEN 6 Brian Andersen f 5 x f 7 f 8 f 7 f 4 w 17 SWE 23) (25 Peter Karlsson f 1 f 8 x x c 18 x P 18 ITA 11 Armando Castagna f 1 f 5 f 3 f 3 f 6 f 5 P 19 HUN 12 Zoltan Adorjan f 7 f 5 f 2 f 3 f 1 f 3 P 20 AUS 16 Craig Boyce f 3 f 4 f 1 f 1 f 4 f 5 P 21 POL 13 Piotr Protasiewicz f 2 f 1 f 5 f 2 f 3 f 3 P 22 DEN 21 Jesper B. Jensen f 4 x f 1 f 5 f 2 f 2 w 23 DEN 22 Brian Karger x x e 12 x x x P 24 POL 20 Sebastian Ułamek x f 1 f 2 f 1 f 4 f 2 w 25 GER 22) (24 Gerd Riss f 4 f 2 x x x x w 26 CZE 23 Bohumil Brhel f 5 x x x x x w 26 GBR 23 Joe Screen x x x f 5 x x w 28 NOR 24 Lars Gunnestad x x f 4 x f 1 x w 29 POL 24 Jacek Gollob x x x x x f 4 w 30 POL 27 Jacek Krzyżaniak x f 3 x x x x w 31 GER 23 Robert Barth x f 2 x x x x w 32 GBR 24 Martin Dugard x x x f 2 x x w 33 POL 23 Robert Dados x x x x x f 1 References External links Official Speedway GP site 1998 World I