1998 Speedway Grand Prix

1998 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates May 15 - September 18
Events 6
Cities 6
Countries 6
Riders 21 permanents
3 wild card(s)
Heats 144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion  SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up  SWE Jimmy Nilsen
3rd place  POL Tomasz Gollob

The 1998 Speedway Grand Prix season was the fourth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and was used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

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

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

RoundDateCity and venueWinnerRunner-up3rd placed4th placedResults
1 May 15 Czech Republic Prague , Czech Republic
Markéta Stadium
Sweden Tony Rickardsson United States Billy Hamill Sweden Jimmy Nilsen Poland Tomasz Gollob results
2 June 6 Germany Pocking , Germany
Rottalstadion
Sweden Tony Rickardsson Sweden Jimmy Nilsen United States Billy Hamill Poland Tomasz Gollob results
3 June 19 Denmark Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center
Denmark Hans Nielsen United Kingdom Chris Louis Sweden Tony Rickardsson Australia Jason Crump results
4 August 7 United Kingdom Coventry , Great Britain
Brandon Stadium
Australia Jason Crump Sweden Jimmy Nilsen Poland Tomasz Gollob Australia Ryan Sullivan results
5 August 28 Sweden Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium
Sweden Tony Rickardsson United Kingdom Chris Louis Sweden Peter Karlsson United States Greg Hancock results
6 September 18 Poland Bydgoszcz , Poland
Polonia Stadium
Poland Tomasz Gollob Australia Ryan Sullivan Sweden Jimmy Nilsen Denmark Hans Nielsen results

Final standings

Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series
Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve
Pos. Rider Points CZE
Czech Republic
GER
Germany
DEN
Denmark
GBR
United Kingdom
SWE
Sweden
POL
Poland
Sweden (4) Tony Rickardsson 111 25251882510
Sweden (8) Jimmy Nilsen 99 18208201518
Poland (3) Tomasz Gollob 97 16168181425
4 Denmark (7) Hans Nielsen 76 812257816
5 United Kingdom (18) Chris Louis 75 158206206
6 United States (1) Greg Hancock 69 6101415168
7 Australia (9) Ryan Sullivan 68 1273161020
8 Australia (10) Jason Crump 62 (+3) 33162578
9 United States (2) Billy Hamill 62 (+N) 201861251
10 United Kingdom (5) Mark Loram 52 67107814
11 Australia (15) Leigh Adams 51 106441215
12 Czech Republic (22) (23) (24) Antonín Kasper, Jr. 50 74151437
13 Sweden (14) Stefan Dannö 49 14671057
14 United Kingdom (17) Andy Smith 43 21454612
15 Sweden (19) Henrik Gustafsson 43 8156626
16 Denmark (6) Brian Andersen 31 57874
17 Sweden (23) (25) Peter Karlsson 27 1818
18 Italy (11) Armando Castagna 23 153365
19 Hungary (12) Zoltan Adorjan 21 752313
20 Australia (16) Craig Boyce 18 341145
21 Poland (13) Piotr Protasiewicz 16 215233
22 Denmark (21) Jesper B. Jensen 14 41522
23 Denmark (22) Brian Karger 12 12
24 Poland (20) Sebastian Ułamek 10 12142
25 Germany (22) (24) Gerd Riss 6 42
26 Czech Republic (23) Bohumil Brhel 5 5
26 United Kingdom (23) Joe Screen 5 5
28 Norway (24) Lars Gunnestad 5 41
29 Poland (24) Jacek Gollob 4 4
30 Poland (27) Jacek Krzyżaniak 3 3
31 Germany (23) Robert Barth 2 2
32 United Kingdom (24) Martin Dugard 2 2
33 Poland (23) Robert Dados 1 1
Pos. Rider Points CZE
Czech Republic
GER
Germany
DEN
Denmark
GBR
United Kingdom
SWE
Sweden
POL
Poland
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