Speedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone speedway

Motorcycle speedway

Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. Speedway motorcycles use only one gear and have no brakes and racing takes place on a flat oval track usually...

 events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion

Speedway World Championship

The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world. Today, it is organised as a series of Speedway Grand Prix events, where points are awarded according to performance in the event and tallied up at the end of each...

. As of 2008, all of the events take place in Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Event format

The format for a Speedway Grand Prix changed for the 2007 season onwards. Sixteen riders take part in each Grand Prix and over the course of twenty heats each rider will race against every other rider once. The top eight scorers advance to a semi-final and from each semi-final the 1st and 2nd placed riders will advance to the GP final.

All rides now count towards Grand Prix points totals, including the semi-final and final, which counts double (6-4-2-0) and therefore the maximum points for a single GP is 24 (5x heat wins, semi final win and final win). This scoring revision was introduced as a result of comments made during 2006 that the 4 finalists received too many points compared to the losing semi-finalists who in turn received little benefit compared to, say, the 9th placed non-qualifier http://www.speedwayworld.tv/en/sgp/a7292. Also, this format means that the winner of each Grand Prix may not be the rider who scores most GP points from each race.

Qualification for Grand Prix

The same 15 riders form the basis of the Grand Prix line up throughout the course of the season, barring injuries. The 16th rider, known as the "wild card", will normally be a leading non-GP rider from the country in which the Grand Prix is being held. The Wild Card can win the Grand Prix like any other rider, and their World Championship points count the same as the 15 permanent riders, although this has only happened on three occasions by Mark Loram

Mark Loram

Mark Roysten Gregory Loram is a former British motorcycle speedway rider who started his career with the Hackney Kestrels in 1987. He is a former World Speedway Champion. In March 2007 Loram broke his thigh and dislocated his arm whilst riding in the opening fixture of the British Elite League...

, Martin Dugard

Martin Dugard (speedway rider)

Martin Robert Dugard is a former international motorcycle speedway rider who spent much of his career with the Eastbourne Eagles. He also rode for the Oxford Cheetahs....

 and most recently Hans Andersen

Hans Nørgaard Andersen

Hans Nørgaard Andersen is a motorcycle speedway rider and captain of the Denmark speedway team that won the Speedway World Cup in 2006 and 2008.- Career summary :...

 at the 2006 Danish Grand Prix

Speedway Grand Prix of Denmark

The Speedway Grand Prix of Denmark is a speedway event that is a part of the Speedway Grand Prix Series.- Winners :- See also :* motorcycle speedway* List of Speedway Grand Prix riders...

.

The 15 permanent Grand Prix riders have been decided by various methods over the history of the series. For the 2008 season, 3 riders qualified via the Grand Prix qualifying system of regional qualifiers and international finals. They were joined by the top 8 riders in the 2006 World Championship who had not already qualified and 4 riders who were nominated by series promoters, IMG

IMG (business)

IMG, originally known as the International Management Group is a global sports and media business headquartered in New York City.-History:...

.

Event promotion

The Speedway Grand Prix series and the Speedway World Cup

Speedway World Cup

The Speedway World Cup is an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was in 2001 and it replaced the old World Team Cup competition.-Format:...

 were originally promoted by Benfield Sports International, which later was re-named to BSI Speedway. On 11 April 2007 it was announced that BSI Speedway had been acquired by IMG

IMG (business)

IMG, originally known as the International Management Group is a global sports and media business headquartered in New York City.-History:...

and the existing team shall take up roles within IMG.http://www.worldspeedway.com/artman/publish/article_2357.shtml

External links

• Official Speedway GP site