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1997 Speedway Grand Prix

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1997 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
DatesMay 17 - September 20
Events6
Cities6
Countries6
Riders17 permanents
1 wild card(s)
Heats144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion USA Greg Hancock
Runner-up USA Billy Hamill
3rd place POL Tomasz Gollob

The 1997 Speedway Grand Prix was the 52nd edition of the official World Championship.[1][2] It was the third season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion.[3]

Greg Hancock from the United States became the World Champion with 118 points beating fellow American Billy Hamill into second place. The bronze medal went to Pole Tomasz Gollob.[4]

Event format

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During 1997 the initial SGP scoring system was used for the final time. 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 1997 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 17 Czech Republic Prague , Czech Republic
Markéta Stadium
United States Greg Hancock United States Billy Hamill Poland Tomasz Gollob Poland Slawomir Drabik results
2 June 14 Sweden Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium
Poland Tomasz Gollob United States Greg Hancock Sweden Tony Rickardsson Denmark Hans Nielsen results
3 July 5 Germany Landshut , Germany
Stadion Ellermühle
Denmark Hans Nielsen Denmark Brian Andersen United States Greg Hancock United States Billy Hamill results
4 August 9 United Kingdom Bradford , Great Britain
Odsal Stadium
Denmark Brian Andersen United States Billy Hamill Sweden Jimmy Nilsen United Kingdom Mark Loram results
5 August 30 Poland Wrocław , Poland
Olympic Stadium
United States Greg Hancock United States Billy Hamill Poland Tomasz Gollob Poland Piotr Protasiewicz results
6 September 20 Denmark Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center
United Kingdom Mark Loram Sweden Tony Rickardsson United States Greg Hancock Poland Tomasz Gollob 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 CZE
Czech Republic
SWE
Sweden
GER
Germany
GBR
United Kingdom
POL
Poland
DEN
Denmark
Gold United States (3) Greg Hancock 118 25 20 18 12 25 18
Silver United States (1) Billy Hamill 101 20 12 16 20 20 13
Bronze Poland (13) Tomasz Gollob 92 18 25 1 14 18 16
4 Sweden (4) Tony Rickardsson 90 11 18 14 13 14 20
5 United Kingdom (7) Mark Loram 81 7 13 8 16 12 25
6 Denmark (12) Brian Andersen 80 9 14 20 25 4 8
7 Denmark (2) Hans Nielsen 75 8 16 25 7 7 12
8 Sweden (11) Jimmy Nilsen 71 13 7 13 18 9 11
9 United Kingdom (8) Chris Louis 59 12 4 12 4 13 14
10 Australia (10) Leigh Adams 42 6 6 9 9 3 9
11 Poland (14) Sławomir Drabik 38 16 2 6 2 11 1
12 Sweden (6) Peter Karlsson 37 4 11 3 6 6 7
13 Poland (15) Piotr Protasiewicz 31 1 ns 11 0 16 3
14 United Kingdom (18) Andy Smith 22 ns 9 4 3 ns 6
15 Sweden (5) Henrik Gustafsson 20 14 3 1 2 ns
16 Sweden (17) Mikael Karlsson 14 ns 1 ns 11 ns 2
17 United Kingdom (9) Simon Wigg 13 3 ns 2 ns 8 ns
18 Australia (16) Jason Crump 8 8
19 United Kingdom (16) Joe Screen 8 8
20 Germany (16) Robert Barth 7 7
21 Denmark (16) Jesper B. Jensen 4 4
22 Czech Republic (16) Tomáš Topinka 2 2
23 Poland (16) Rafał Dobrucki 1 1
Rider(s) not classified
United States (19) Sam Ermolenko ns
Pos. Rider Points CZE
Czech Republic
SWE
Sweden
GER
Germany
GBR
United Kingdom
POL
Poland
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. ^ "Hoare, T. (1997) 'Relaxed Hancock lifts world crown'". The Times. 22 September 1997. Retrieved 11 July 2021 – via Gale Primary Sources.
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