2008 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain

United Kingdom 2008 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain
FIM Meridian Lifts British Speedway Grand Prix
Information
Date 28 June 2008
City United Kingdom Cardiff
Event 5 of 11 (105)
Referee Poland Marek Wojaczek
Jury President Finland IIkka Teromaa
Stadium details
Stadium Millennium Stadium
Capacity 62,500
Length 387.7 m
Track Temporary
SGP Results
Best Time Australia Jason Crump
55.8 secs (in Heat 3)
Winner Australia Jason Crump
Runner-up United States Greg Hancock
3rd place Denmark Nicki Pedersen

The 2008 Speedway Grand Prix of Great Britain, known as the 2008 FIM Meridian Lifts British Speedway Grand Prix for sponsorship reasons, was the fifth race of the 2008 Speedway Grand Prix season. It took place on 28 June, in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom.[1] The British Grand Prix is one of the four Super Prix events held in 2008. The winner in Cardiff will progress to the Super Prix final, taking gate 3 and the white helmet colour.

Riders

Edward Kennett was nominated as a wild card after he finished 2nd at the 2008 British Speedway Championship. Tai Woffinden and Simon Stead were the next highest finishing non-Grand Prix riders and both will be track reserves at Cardiff.[2] The starting positions draw was made on 18 June, at the FIM Headquarters in Mies, Switzerland.[3]

Result

The 2008 British Grand Prix at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff

Jason Crump from Australia was the winner of the British Grand Prix, he finished ahead of second placed Greg Hancock of the USA. Crump therefore takes the white helmet colour in the Super Prix final.[4]

Nicki Pedersen benefited from controversial decisions by Polish referee Marek Wojaczek.[5] Pedersen touched the tapes in an early heat, which should have resulted in a mandatory exclusion but Wojaczek allowed the race to continue and later, after an innocuous clash with Leigh Adams on the first corner of heat 17, Adams was excluded.[4] In the first semi-final Bjarne Pedersen, who led the qualifying scorers with 14 points, clashed with his Nicki Pedersen in identical fashion to Adams and he, too, was excluded, much to the anger of the 45,000 crowd.[4][5]

Great Britain’s Scott Nicholls reached the final for the first time this year only to break the start tapes which resulted in his exclusion from the final. Nicki Pedersen fell in the final and therefore scored 0 points from the race, but still took third place on the podium. Nicki Pedersen still led the standings after the British Grand Prix, and it was the fifth time out of five Grand Prix that he had reached the final, although his first Grand Prix win in 2008 would not come until the following Czech Grand Prix.[4]

Heat details

Placing Draw Rider Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts Pos 21 22 23
1 12 Australia (3) Jason Crump 22 3 2 3 3 3 14 2 2 3
2 13 United States (6) Greg Hancock 20 3 3 3 3 1 13 3 3 2
3 10 Denmark (1) Nicki Pedersen 11 2 1 2 0 3 8 7 3 F3
4 3 United Kingdom (8) Scott Nicholls 12 1 3 2 2 2 10 4 2 T
5 16 Denmark (11) Bjarne Pedersen 14 2 3 3 3 3 14 1 X
6 5 United Kingdom (9) Chris Harris 10 3 1 2 1 2 9 5 1
7 14 Denmark (5) Hans Andersen 9 0 3 1 1 3 8 6 1
8 15 Sweden (10) Andreas Jonsson 8 1 2 1 2 2 8 8 0
9 1 Australia (2) Leigh Adams 7 2 2 1 2 X 7 9
10 4 Denmark (12) Niels Kristian Iversen 6 3 0 F3 3 Fx 6 10
11 8 Poland (7) Rune Holta 6 2 1 3 0 X/F2 6 11
12 6 Poland (4) Tomasz Gollob 4 0 2 2 F4 0 4 12
13 9 United Kingdom (16) Edward Kennett 4 1 0 0 1 2 4 13
14 11 Poland (14) Krzysztof Kasprzak 4 0 1 0 2 1 4 14
15 7 Sweden (15) Fredrik Lindgren 2 1 0 X/2x X/F3 1 2 15
16 2 Czech Republic (13) Lukáš Dryml 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 16
17 17 United Kingdom (17) Tai Woffinden - - 17
18 18 United Kingdom (18) Simon Stead - - 18
Placing Draw Rider Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Pts Pos 21 22 23

e: retired or mechanical failure • m: exclusion for exceeding two minute time allowance • t: exclusion for touching the tapes • x: other exclusion • f: fell
ns: non-starter • nc: non-classify
Semi-finals: Heat 21: Riders placed 1st, 4th, 6th & 7th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
Heat 22: Riders placed 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 8th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
Big Final (heat 23): The first and second placed riders in each of the Semi-Finals

gate A – inside gate B gate C gate D – outside

Heat after heat

  1. (56.6) Iversen, Adams, Nicholls, Dryml
  2. (56.0) Harris, Holta, Lindgren, Gollob
  3. (55.8) Crump, N.Pedersen, Kennett, Kasprzak
  4. (56.9) Hancock, B.Pedersen, Jonsson, Andersen
  5. (55.9) Hancock, Adams, Harris, Kennett
  6. (56.5) Andersen, Gollob, N.Pedersen, Dryml
  7. (56.5) Nicholls, Jonsson, Kasprzak, Lindgren
  8. (56.8) B.Pedersen, Crump, Holta, Iversen
  9. (57.4) B.Pedersen, Gollob, Adams, Kasprzak
  10. (56.2) Crump, Harris, Jonsson, Dryml
  11. (57.6) Holta, Nicholls, Andersen, Kennett
  12. (56.7) Hancock, N.Pedersen, Lindgren (X/2x), Iversen (u)
  13. (56.2) Crump, Adams, Andersen, Lindgren (X/F)
  14. (57.2) Hancock, Kasprzak, Dryml, Holta
  15. (57.3) B.Pedersen, Nicholls, Harris, N. Pedersen
  16. (57.1) Iversen, Jonsson, Kennett, Gollob (E4)
  17. (57.1) N.Pedersen, Jonsson, Holta (X/F), Adams (X)
  18. (57.5) B.Pedersen, Kennett, Lindgren, Dryml
  19. (57.8) Crump, Nicholls, Hancock, Gollob
  20. (57.5) Andersen, Harris, Kasprzak, Iversen (X/F)
    Semi-Finals:
  21. (57.6) N.Pedersen, Nicholls, Andersen, B. Pedersen (X)
  22. (57.7) Hancock, Crump, Harris, Jonsson
    Final:
  23. (57.9) Crump (6 points), Hancock (4 points), N. Pedersen (F3), Nicholls (T)

The intermediate classification

Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series
Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve
Pos. Rider Points SVN
Slovenia
EUR
Poland
SWE
Sweden
DEN
Denmark
GBR
United Kingdom
CZE
Czech Republic
SCA
Sweden
LAT
Latvia
POL
Poland
ITA
Italy
FIN
Poland
1 Denmark (1) Nicki Pedersen 80 17 16 16 20 11            
2 Australia (3) Jason Crump 70 10 8 12 18 22            
3 United States (6) Greg Hancock 64 8 20 6 10 20            
4 Poland (4) Tomasz Gollob 62 19 12 8 19 4            
5 Australia (2) Leigh Adams 49 5 20 9 8 7            
6 Denmark (5) Hans N. Andersen 48 14 6 8 11 9            
7 Sweden (10) Andreas Jonsson 46 12 9 8 9 8            
8 Sweden (15) Fredrik Lindgren 41 7 7 22 3 2            
9 Poland (7) Rune Holta 39 5 4 17 7 6            
10 United Kingdom (8) Scott Nicholls 35 7 2 7 7 12            
11 Denmark (12) Niels Kristian Iversen 32 8 10 2 6 6            
12 United Kingdom (9) Chris Harris 30 6 6 5 3 10            
13 Denmark (11) Bjarne Pedersen 25 4 7 14            
14 Poland (14) Krzysztof Kasprzak 21 6 3 5 3 4            
15 Czech Republic (13) Lukáš Dryml 16 9 2 3 1 1            
16 Poland (16) Jarosław Hampel 16 16            
17 Denmark (16) Kenneth Bjerre 11 11            
18 Czech Republic (19) Luboš Tomíček, Jr. 8 3 5            
19 Slovenia (16) Matej Žagar 7 7            
20 Sweden (16) Jonas Davidsson 7 7            
21 United Kingdom (16) Edward Kennett 4 4            
22 Sweden (18) Billy Forsberg 2 2            
23 Denmark (17) Nicolai Klindt 1 1            
24 Sweden (17) Sebastian Aldén 0 0            
Rider(s) not classified
Slovenia (17) Izak Šantej ns            
Poland (17) Damian Baliński ns            
United Kingdom (17) Tai Woffinden ns            
Slovenia (18) Denis Štojs ns            
Poland (18) Krzysztof Buczkowski ns            
Denmark (18) Patrick Hougaard ns            
United Kingdom (18) Simon Stead ns            
Pos. Rider Points SVN
Slovenia
EUR
Poland
SWE
Sweden
DEN
Denmark
GBR
United Kingdom
CZE
Czech Republic
SCA
Sweden
LAT
Latvia
POL
Poland
ITA
Italy
FIN
Poland

See also

References

  1. "SGP Permanent Wild Cards and 2008 Calendar Announced". SpeedwayWorld.Tv. 2007-10-22. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  2. "Terrific Tai". SpeedwayWorld.com. 2008-05-30. Archived from the original on 8 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
  3. "Draw for the 2008 FIM Meridian Lifts British Speedway Grand Prix". WorldSpeedway.com. 2008. Archived from the original on 20 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-18.
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Crump is back!". SpeedwayWorld.tv. Benfield Sports International. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-10.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "’GP ref should be axed’". Bournemouth Daily Echo. Newsquest. 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-10.

External links