2002 Speedway Grand Prix


The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix season is the eighth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and is used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

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

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
DateGrand PrixWinner
May 11Hamar, NorwayTony Rickardsson
May 25Bydgoszcz, PolandTomasz Gollob
June 8Cardiff, Great BritainRyan Sullivan
June 22Krško, SloveniaRyan Sullivan
July 6Stockholm, SwedenTony Rickardsson
July 20Prague, Czech RepublicJason Crump
August 31Gothenburg, SwedenLeigh Adams
September 14Chorzów, PolandNicki Pedersen
September 28Vojens, DenmarkTony Rickardsson
October 26Sydney, AustraliaGreg Hancock

Final 2002 standings
Pos.Rider NamePts
1Tony Rickardsson 181
2Jason Crump 162
3Ryan Sullivan 158
4Leigh Adams 127
5Mikael Karlsson 122
6Greg Hancock 122
7Tomasz Gollob 117
8Mark Loram 97
9Billy Hamill 95
10Lukáš Dryml 95
11Rune Holta 80
12Nicki Pedersen 73
13Scott Nicholls 72
14Andreas Jonsson 70
15Todd Wiltshire 63
16Krzysztof Cegielski 55
17Sebastian Ułamek 39
18Niklas Klingberg 37
19Carl Stonehewer 30
20Andy Smith 29
21Grzegorz Walasek 25
22Matej Ferjan 22
23Peter Karlsson 21
24Piotr Protasiewicz 18
25Lee Richardson 17
26Bjarne Pedersen 10
27Steve Johnston 7
28Lars Gunnestad 6
29Joe Screen 6
30Jarosław Hampel 6
31Kaj Laukkanen 6
32Freddie Eriksson 3
33Bohumil Brhel 3
34Mick Poole 3
35Jason Lyons 3
36Ronni Pedersen 3
37Sándor Tihanyi 2
38David Ruud 2
39Izak Šantej 1
40Hans Andersen 1
41Aleš Dryml'' 1