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.

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 23 permanent riders and one wild card at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

1998 Event Schedule and Winners

SGP Calendar|rounds=

Final 1998 standings

SGP Table|CZE |DEU |DNK |GBR |SWE |POL |RIDERS=SGP Table/rider|Q|1 |SWE|4| Tony Rickardsson |111
25|25|18|8 |25|10SGP Table/rider|Q|2 |SWE|8| Jimmy Nilsen |99
18|20|8 |20|15|18SGP Table/rider|Q|3 |POL|3| Tomasz Gollob |97
16|16|8 |18|14|25SGP Table/rider|Q|4 |DNK|7| Hans Nielsen |76
8 |12|25|7 |8 |16SGP Table/rider|Q|5 |GBR|18| Chris Louis |75
15|8 |20|6 |20|6 SGP Table/rider|Q|6 |USA|1| Greg Hancock |69
6 |10|14|15|16|8 SGP Table/rider|Q|7 |AUS|9| Ryan Sullivan |68
12|7 |3 |16|10|20SGP Table/rider|Q|8 |AUS|10| Jason Crump |62+3
3 |3 |16|25|7 |8 SGP Table/rider|P|9 |USA|2| Billy Hamill |62+n
20|18|6 |12|5 |1 SGP Table/rider|P|10|GBR|5| Mark Loram |52
6 |7 |10|7 |8 |14SGP Table/rider|P|11|AUS|15| Leigh Adams |51
10|6 |4 |4 |12|15SGP Table/rider|W|12|CZE|22) (23) (24| Antonín Kasper, Jr. |50
7 |4 |15|14|3 |7 SGP Table/rider|P|13|SWE|14| Stefan Dannö |49
14|6 |7 |10|5 |7 SGP Table/rider|P|14|GBR|17| Andy Smith |43
2 |14 | 5 | 4 | 6 |12SGP Table/rider|P|15|SWE|19| Henrik Gustafsson |43
8 |15|6 |6 |2 |6 SGP Table/rider|P|16|DNK|6| Brian Andersen |31
5 | -|7 |8 |7 |4 SGP Table/rider|W|17|SWE|23) (25| Peter Karlsson |27
1 |8 | -| -|18| -SGP Table/rider|P|18|ITA|11| Armando Castagna |23
1 |5 |3 |3 |6 |5 SGP Table/rider|P|19|HUN|12| Zoltan Adorjan |21
7 |5 |2 |3 |1 |3 SGP Table/rider|P|20|AUS|16| Craig Boyce |18
3 |4 |1 |1 |4 |5 SGP Table/rider|P|21|POL|13| Piotr Protasiewicz |16
2 |1 |5 |2 |3 |3 SGP Table/rider|P|22|DNK|21| Jesper B. Jensen |14
4 | -|1 |5 |2 |2 SGP Table/rider|W|23|DNK|22| Brian Karger |12
-| -|12| -| -| -SGP Table/rider|P|24|POL|20| Sebastian Ułamek |10
-|1 |2 |1 |4 |2 SGP Table/rider|W|25|DEU|22) (24| Gerd Riss |6
4 |2 | -| -| -| -SGP Table/rider|W|26|CZE|23| Bohumil Brhel |5
5 | -| -| -| -| -SGP Table/rider|W|27|GBR|23| Joe Screen |5
-| -| -|5 | -| -SGP Table/rider|W|28|NOR|24| Lars Gunnestad |5
-| -|4 | -|1 | -SGP Table/rider|W|29|POL|24| Jacek Gollob |4
-| -| -| -| -|4 SGP Table/rider|W|30|POL|27| Jacek Krzyżaniak |3
-|3 | -| -| -| -SGP Table/rider|W|31|DEU|23| Robert Barth |2
-|2 | -| -| -| -SGP Table/rider|W|32|GBR|24| Martin Dugard |2
-| -| -|2 | -| -SGP Table/rider|W|33|POL|23| Robert Dados |1
-| -| -| -| -|1

External links

* [http://www.speedwayworld.tv/ Official Speedway GP site]