1998 Speedway Grand Prix

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.

1998 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
DatesMay 15 - September 18
Events6
Cities6
Countries6
Riders21 permanents
3 wild card(s)
Heats144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up SWE Jimmy Nilsen
3rd place POL Tomasz Gollob

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 Prague , Czech Republic
Markéta Stadium
Tony Rickardsson Billy Hamill Jimmy Nilsen Tomasz Gollob results
2 June 6 Pocking , Germany
Rottalstadion
Tony Rickardsson Jimmy Nilsen Billy Hamill Tomasz Gollob results
3 June 19 Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center
Hans Nielsen Chris Louis Tony Rickardsson Jason Crump results
4 August 7 Coventry , Great Britain
Brandon Stadium
Jason Crump Jimmy Nilsen Tomasz Gollob Ryan Sullivan results
5 August 28 Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium
Tony Rickardsson Chris Louis Peter Karlsson Greg Hancock results
6 September 18 Bydgoszcz , Poland
Polonia Stadium
Tomasz Gollob Ryan Sullivan Jimmy Nilsen 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
GER
DEN
GBR
SWE
POL
(4) Tony Rickardsson 111 25251882510
(8) Jimmy Nilsen 99 18208201518
(3) Tomasz Gollob 97 16168181425
4 (7) Hans Nielsen 76 812257816
5 (18) Chris Louis 75 158206206
6 (1) Greg Hancock 69 6101415168
7 (9) Ryan Sullivan 68 1273161020
8 (10) Jason Crump 62 (+3) 33162578
9 (2) Billy Hamill 62 (+N) 201861251
10 (5) Mark Loram 52 67107814
11 (15) Leigh Adams 51 106441215
12 (22) (23) (24) Antonín Kasper, Jr. 50 74151437
13 (14) Stefan Dannö 49 14671057
14 (17) Andy Smith 43 21454612
15 (19) Henrik Gustafsson 43 8156626
16 (6) Brian Andersen 31 57874
17 (23) (25) Peter Karlsson 27 1818
18 (11) Armando Castagna 23 153365
19 (12) Zoltan Adorjan 21 752313
20 (16) Craig Boyce 18 341145
21 (13) Piotr Protasiewicz 16 215233
22 (21) Jesper B. Jensen 14 41522
23 (22) Brian Karger 12 12
24 (20) Sebastian Ułamek 10 12142
25 (22) (24) Gerd Riss 6 42
26 (23) Bohumil Brhel 5 5
26 (23) Joe Screen 5 5
28 (24) Lars Gunnestad 5 41
29 (24) Jacek Gollob 4 4
30 (27) Jacek Krzyżaniak 3 3
31 (23) Robert Barth 2 2
32 (24) Martin Dugard 2 2
33 (23) Robert Dados 1 1
Pos. Rider Points CZE
GER
DEN
GBR
SWE
POL
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