2002 Speedway Grand Prix

2002 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates11 May - 26 October
Events10
Cities10
Countries8
Riders22 permanents
2 wild card(s)
Heats250 (in 10 events)
Winners
Champion SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up AUS Jason Crump
3rd place AUS Ryan Sullivan

The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix was the 57th edition of the official World Championship[1][2][3] and the eighth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion. The world title was won by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden.[4]

Event format

The system first used in 1998 continued to be adopted 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 - there was no consolation final. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with 5th and 6th place getting 13, 7th and 8th 11, 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

Main article: 2002 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification

The 2002 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

2002 event schedule and winners

Calendar

Date Grand Prix Venue Winner Result
11 May Norway Vikingskipet, Hamar Sweden Tony Rickardsson 2002 Norwegian GP[5][6]
25 May Poland Polonia Stadium, Bydgoszcz Poland Tomasz Gollob 2002 Polish GP[7]
8 June Great Britain Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Australia Ryan Sullivan 2002 British GP[8]
22 June Slovenia Matija Gubec Stadium, Krško Australia Ryan Sullivan 2002 Slovenian GP[9][10]
6 July Sweden Olympiastadion, Stockholm Sweden Tony Rickardsson 2002 Swedish GP[11]
20 July Czech Republic Markéta Stadium, Prague Australia Jason Crump 2002 Czech Republic GP[12]
31 August Scandinavia Ullevi, Gothenburg Australia Leigh Adams 2002 Scandinavian GP[13]
14 September Europe Stadion Śląski, Chorzów Denmark Nicki Pedersen 2002 European GP[14]
28 September Denmark Vojens Speedway Center, Vojens Sweden Tony Rickardsson 2002 Danish GP[15]
26 October Australia Stadium Australia, Sydney United States Greg Hancock 2002 Australian GP[16]

Final 2002 standings

Pos Rider Total NOR POL GBR SVN SWE CZE SCA EUR DEN AUS
1 Sweden Tony Rickardsson 181 25 20 13 13 25 16 20 16 25 8
2 Australia Jason Crump 162 16 16 11 11 16 25 13 20 16 18
3 Australia Ryan Sullivan 158 20 13 25 25 11 18 11 11 13 11
4 Australia Leigh Adams 127 13 13 16 13 13 11 25 11 7 5
5 Sweden Mikael Karlsson 122 18 7 18 11 11 7 13 18 6 13
6 United States Greg Hancock 122 8 4 4 8 18 20 16 6 13 25
7 Poland Tomasz Gollob 117 7 25 11 20 8 8 5 5 20 8
8 United Kingdom Mark Loram 97 8 18 8 18 13 13 6 7 5 1
9 United States Billy Hamill 95 11 11 7 7 7 13 6 8 18 7
10 Czech Republic Lukáš Dryml 95 5 1 6 7 20 11 18 8 8 11
11 Norway Rune Holta 80 1 11 5 5 6 7 11 7 11 16
12 Denmark Nicki Pedersen 73 2 4 2 5 4 6 8 25 11 6
13 United Kingdom Scott Nicholls 72 3 5 8 4 - 4 7 13 8 20
14 Sweden Andreas Jonsson 70 3 8 7 16 7 5 4 3 4 13
15 Australia Todd Wiltshire 63 11 8 20 6 1 2 7 2 2 4
16 Poland Krzysztof Cegielski 55 4 3 1 8 6 8 8 13 - 4
17 Poland Sebastian Ułamek 39 2 6 5 4 3 3 2 5 4 5
18 Sweden Niklas Klingberg 37 5 3 3 3 5 3 4 6 3 2
19 United Kingdom Carl Stonehewer 30 13 5 2 1 2 4 3 - - -
20 United Kingdom Andy Smith 29 4 6 4 6 2 2 1 2 1 1
21 Poland Grzegorz Walasek 25 7 2 3 3 5 5 - - - -
22 Slovenia Matej Ferjan 22 1 1 1 2 1 6 1 1 2 6
23 Sweden Peter Karlsson 21 - - - - 8 - 5 3 5 -
24 Poland Piotr Protasiewicz 18 - 7 - - 4 - - 1 6 -
25 United Kingdom Lee Richardson 17 - - 13 - - - - 4 - -
26 Denmark Bjarne Pedersen 10 - - - - - - 3 - 7 -
27 Australia Steve Johnston 7 - - - - - - - - - 7
28 Norway Lars Gunnestad 6 6 - - - - - - - - -
29 United Kingdom Joe Screen 6 - - 6 - - - - - - -
30 Poland Jarosław Hampel 6 - 2 - - - - - 4 - -
31 Finland Kaj Laukkanen 6 6 - - - - - - - - -
32 Sweden Freddie Eriksson 3 - - - - 3 - - - - -
33 Czech Republic Bohumil Brhel 3 - - - - - 1 - - - 2
34 Australia Mick Poole 3 - - - - - - - - - 3
35 Australia Jason Lyons 3 - - - - - - - - - 3
36 Denmark Ronni Pedersen 3 - - - - - - - - 3 -
37 Hungary Sándor Tihanyi 2 - - - 2 - - - - - -
38 Sweden David Ruud 2 - - - - - - 2 - - -
39 Slovenia Izak Šantej 1 - - - 1 - - - - - -
40 Denmark Hans Andersen 1 - - - - - - - - 1 -
41 Czech Republic Aleš Dryml 1 - - - - - 1 - - - -

References

  1. ^ "World individual final - rider index". British Speedway. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  2. ^ "History Speedway and Longtrack". Speedway.org. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  3. ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Hancock takes final 2002 GP in Sydney". Crash.net. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  5. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Great ride turns title Ricko's way". Dorset Echo. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
  7. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  10. ^ "Speedway: Cheetahs ace Adams up to fourth in GP". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 12 July 2024.
  11. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  13. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  14. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  15. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
  16. ^ "Grand Prix result". Speedway World. Retrieved 11 July 2024.