2004 Speedway Grand Prix

2004 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates May 1 - October 2
Events 9 in 9 cities in 7 countries
Riders 22 permanents,
2 wild card(s)
Heats 225 (in 9 events)
Champion  AUS Jason Crump
Runner-up  SWE Tony Rickardsson
3rd place  USA Greg Hancock

The 2004 Speedway Grand Prix season is the tenth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and is used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

After finishing second in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Jason Crump broke through to become Australia's first Individual World Champion since Jack Young had won his second straight World title in 1952.

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 2004 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

2004 Event Schedule and Winners

Calendar

Date Grand Prix Winner
May 1 SwedenSweden Leigh Adams Australia results
May 15 Czech RepublicCzech Republic Jason Crump Australia results
May 29 European UnionEurope Bjarne Pedersen Denmark results
June 12 United KingdomCardiff, Great Britain Greg Hancock United States results
June 26 DenmarkCopenhagen, Denmark Jason Crump Australia results
August 21 Kalmar UnionScandinavia Hans Andersen Denmark results
September 4 SloveniaSlovenia Tony Rickardsson Sweden results
September 18 PolandPoland Tomasz Gollob Poland results
October 2 NorwayNorway Tony Rickardsson Sweden results

Final 2004 standings

Pos.Rider NamePts
1 Jason Crump Australia 158(20,25,8,16,25,20,13,20,11)
2 Tony Rickardsson Sweden 155 (18,18,18,8,7,18,25,18,25)
3 Greg Hancock United States 137 (13,11,8,25,18,16,20,6,20)
4 Leigh Adams Australia 131 (25,13,11,20,11,11,11,13,16)
5 Nicki Pedersen Denmark 113 (13,8,13,13,16,13,13,11,13)
6 Tomasz Gollob Poland 113 (16,13,7,11,6,11,6,25,18)
7 Andreas Jonsson Sweden 97 (5,7,7,13,20,8,16,8,13)
8 Jarosław Hampel Poland 81 (3,20,20,6,-,6,6,13,7)
9 Hans Andersen Denmark 80 (4,6,3,3,7,25,18,8,6)
10 Bjarne Pedersen Denmark 78 (8,4,25,6,8,8,11,5,3)
11 Lee Richardson United Kingdom 76 (11,11,5,18,5,7,7,7,5)
12 Scott Nicholls United Kingdom 66 (5,-,4,11,11,13,5,11,6)
13 Ryan Sullivan Australia 65 (7,16,11,5,4,4,4,6,8)
14 Rune Holta Norway 60 (6,8,1,5,4,1,8,16,11)
15 Piotr Protasiewicz Poland 55 (2,1,16,7,5,5,5,7,7)
16 Mikael Max Sweden 49 (6,3,6,2,8,5,7,4,8)
17 Mark Loram United Kingdom 38 (8,4,6,7,2,2,3,4,2)
18 Jesper B. Jensen Denmark 37 (11,5,2,1,6,4,1,2,5)
19 Bohumil Brhel Czech Republic 32 (7,7,5,4,2,3,2,1,1)
20 Kaj Laukkanen Finland 25 (1,1,3,1,3,6,3,3,4)
21 Lukáš Dryml Czech Republic 22 (3,6,2,2,1,3,4,1,-)
22 Aleš Dryml, Jr. Czech Republic 22 (1,3,1,3,3,1,2,5,3)
23 Grzegorz Walasek Poland 13 (-,-,13,-,-,-,-,-,-)
24 Niels Kristian Iversen Denmark 13 (-,-,-,-,13,-,-,-,-)
25 Kenneth Bjerre Denmark 13 (-,-,-,-,13,-,-,-,-)
26 Matej Žagar Slovenia 8 (-,-,-,-,-,-,8,-,-)
27 David Norris United Kingdom 8 (-,-,8,-,-,-,-,-,-)
28 Peter Karlsson Sweden 7 (-,-,-,-,-,7,-,-,-)
29 Rafał Dobrucki Poland 5 (-,5,-,-,-,-,-,-,-)
30 Arnt Förland Norway 4 (-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,4)
31 Fredrik Lindgren Sweden 4 (4,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-)
32 Chris Louis United Kingdom 4 (-,-,-,4,-,-,-,-,-)
33 Wiesław Jaguś Poland 4 (-,-,4,-,-,-,-,-,-)
34 Krzysztof Kasprzak Poland 3 (-,-,-,-,-,-,-,3,-)
35 Tomasz Chrzanowski Poland 2 (-,-,-,-,-,-,-,2,-)
36 Peter Ljung Sweden 2 (2,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-)
37 Robert Barth Germany 2 (-,2,-,-,-,-,-,-,-)
38 Rune Sola Norway 2 (-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,2)
39 Antonio Lindbäck Sweden 2 (-,-,-,-,-,2,-,-,-)
40 Antonín Šváb, Jr. Czech Republic 2 (-,-,2,-,-,-,-,-,-)
41 Izak Šantej Slovenia 1 (-,-,-,-,-,-,1,-,-)
42 Joonas Kylmäkorpi Finland 1 (-,-,-,-,-,-,-,-,1)
43 Simon Stead United Kingdom 1 (-,-,-,-,1,-,-,-,-)

External links