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.

2002 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	May 11 - October 26
Events	10
Cities	10
Countries	8
Riders	22 permanents 2 wild card(s)
Heats	250 (in 10 events)
Winners
Champion	SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up	AUS Jason Crump
3rd place	AUS Ryan Sullivan

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

Date	Grand Prix	Winner
May 11	Hamar, Norway	Tony Rickardsson	results
May 25	Bydgoszcz, Poland	Tomasz Gollob	results
June 8	Cardiff, Great Britain	Ryan Sullivan	results
June 22	Krško, Slovenia	Ryan Sullivan	results
July 6	Stockholm, Sweden	Tony Rickardsson	results
July 20	Prague, Czech Republic	Jason Crump	results
August 31	Gothenburg, Sweden	Leigh Adams	results
September 14	Chorzów, Poland	Nicki Pedersen	results
September 28	Vojens, Denmark	Tony Rickardsson	results
October 26	Sydney, Australia	Greg Hancock	results

Final 2002 standings

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

External links

• Official Speedway GP site