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1996 Speedway Grand Prix

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1996 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
DatesMay 18 - September 21
Events6
Cities6
Countries6
Riders17 permanents
1 wild card(s)
Heats144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion USA Billy Hamill
Runner-up DEN Hans Nielsen
3rd place USA Greg Hancock

The 1996 Speedway Grand Prix was the 51st edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.[1][2][3] It was the second season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and was used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

The world title was won by Billy Hamill; it was his first and only World Champion title.[4][5] Defending champion Hans Nielsen was set to win his fifth world crown with a nine point lead going into the last of the six events at Vojens. However Hamill won the event gaining 25 points and Nielsen only managed 14 points leaving the Dane two points behind the American in the final standings.[6]

Event format

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During 1996 the initial SGP scoring system used in 1995 remained in place. Each rider raced every other in the meeting with the top 4 qualifying for a final - the points for all other riders determined their finishing position in the meeting and therefore their championship Grand Prix points. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with the reminder scoring 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Qualification for Grand Prix

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The 1996 season had 17 permanent riders and one wild card at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

Calendar

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Round Date City and venue Winner Runner-up 3rd placed 4th placed Results
1 May 18 Poland Wrocław , Poland
Olympic Stadium
Denmark Tommy Knudsen Sweden Tony Rickardsson Denmark Hans Nielsen United States Billy Hamill results
2 June 14 Italy Lonigo , Italy
Santa Marina Stadium
Denmark Hans Nielsen United States Billy Hamill Sweden Tony Rickardsson Denmark Tommy Knudsen results
3 July 6 Germany Pocking , Germany
Rottalstadion
Denmark Hans Nielsen Sweden Peter Karlsson Sweden Henrik Gustafsson Sweden Tony Rickardsson results
4 August 10 Sweden Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium
United States Billy Hamill Sweden Henrik Gustafsson Poland Tomasz Gollob United States Greg Hancock results
5 August 31 United Kingdom London , Great Britain
London Stadium
Australia Jason Crump Denmark Hans Nielsen United States Billy Hamill United States Greg Hancock results
6 September 21 Denmark Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center
United States Billy Hamill United Kingdom Mark Loram United States Greg Hancock United States Sam Ermolenko results

Final standings

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Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series
Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve
Pos. Rider Points POL
Poland
ITA
Italy
GER
Germany
SWE
Sweden
GBR
United Kingdom
DEN
Denmark
Gold United States (5) Billy Hamill 113 16 20 9 25 18 25
Silver Denmark (1) Hans Nielsen 111 18 25 25 9 20 14
Bronze United States (4) Greg Hancock 88 12 13 13 16 16 18
4 Sweden (2) Tony Rickardsson 86 20 18 16 14 7 11
5 Sweden (8) Henrik Gustafsson 80 14 4 18 20 11 13
6 Sweden (12) Peter Karlsson 62 7 3 20 7 13 12
7 United Kingdom (6) Mark Loram 58 6 2 6 12 12 20
8 United Kingdom (7) Chris Louis 54 8 9 14 8 6 9
9 United States (3) Sam Ermolenko 52 9 1 4 13 9 16
10 Australia (15) Jason Crump 45 1 ns 7 6 25 6
11 Denmark (11) Tommy Knudsen 44 25 16 1 2
12 Poland (16) (19) Tomasz Gollob 43 11 ns 18 14 ns
13 United Kingdom (13) Joe Screen 38 3 7 11 2 8 7
14 Australia (17) Craig Boyce 30 ns 12 2 4 4 8
15 Australia (9) Leigh Adams 28 2 ns 8 11 3 4
16 United Kingdom (14) Gary Havelock 27 13 14
17 United Kingdom (18) Andy Smith 19 ns 11 3 3 2 ns
18 United Kingdom (10) Marvyn Cox 15 4 8 1 1 ns 1
19 Germany (16) Gerd Riss 12 12
20 Italy (16) Stefano Alfonso 6 6
21 Poland (16) Piotr Protasiewicz 3 3
Rider(s) not classified
Denmark (20) Jan Stæchmann ns ns
Sweden (21) Mikael Karlsson ns
Pos. Rider Points POL
Poland
ITA
Italy
GER
Germany
SWE
Sweden
GBR
United Kingdom
DEN
Denmark

See also

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References

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  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. ^ speedwaygp.republika.pl. Retrieved on 2009-03-23. 2009-05-12.
  5. ^ world.speedway.org. Retrieved on 2009-03-123. Archived 2009-05-11.
  6. ^ "Sportsdesk". Reading Evening Post. 23 September 1996. Retrieved 11 July 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
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