1997 Speedway Grand Prix

Season details
Dates| May 17 - September 20
Events| 6
Cities| 6
Countries| 6
Riders| 17 permanents
1 wild card(s)
Heats| 144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion|  USA Greg Hancock
Runner-up|  USA Billy Hamill
3rd place|  POL Tomasz Gollob

* ← 1996
* Speedway Grand Prix
* 1998 →

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

[edit]

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

[edit]

Main article: 1997 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification

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

[edit]

Round | Date | City and venue | Winner | Runner-up | 3rd placed | 4th placed | Results

|
|
|
|
|
|
|

1  | May 17  |  Prague , Czech Republic
Markéta Stadium |  Greg Hancock |  Billy Hamill |  Tomasz Gollob |  Slawomir Drabik | results
2  | June 14  |  Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium |  Tomasz Gollob |  Greg Hancock |  Tony Rickardsson |  Hans Nielsen | results
3  | July 5  |  Landshut , Germany
Stadion Ellermühle |  Hans Nielsen |  Brian Andersen |  Greg Hancock |  Billy Hamill | results
4  | August 9  |  Bradford , Great Britain
Odsal Stadium |  Brian Andersen |  Billy Hamill |  Jimmy Nilsen |  Mark Loram | results
5  | August 30  |  Wrocław , Poland
Olympic Stadium |  Greg Hancock |  Billy Hamill |  Tomasz Gollob |  Piotr Protasiewicz | results
6  | September 20  |  Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center |  Mark Loram |  Tony Rickardsson |  Greg Hancock |  Tomasz Gollob | results

## Final standings

[edit]

Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series

Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve
Pos.  | Rider  | Points  | CZE
| SWE
| GER
| GBR
| POL
| DEN

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

|  (3) Greg Hancock | 118  | 25 | 20 | 18 | 12 | 25 | 18
|  (1) Billy Hamill | 101  | 20 | 12 | 16 | 20 | 20 | 13
|  (13) Tomasz Gollob | 92  | 18 | 25 | 1 | 14 | 18 | 16
4  |  (4) Tony Rickardsson | 90  | 11 | 18 | 14 | 13 | 14 | 20
5  |  (7) Mark Loram | 81  | 7 | 13 | 8 | 16 | 12 | 25
6  |  (12) Brian Andersen | 80  | 9 | 14 | 20 | 25 | 4 | 8
7  |  (2) Hans Nielsen | 75  | 8 | 16 | 25 | 7 | 7 | 12
8  |  (11) Jimmy Nilsen | 71  | 13 | 7 | 13 | 18 | 9 | 11
9  |  (8) Chris Louis | 59  | 12 | 4 | 12 | 4 | 13 | 14
10  |  (10) Leigh Adams | 42  | 6 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 3 | 9
11  |  (14) Sławomir Drabik | 38  | 16 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 11 | 1
12  |  (6) Peter Karlsson | 37  | 4 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 7
13  |  (15) Piotr Protasiewicz | 31  | 1 | ns | 11 | 0 | 16 | 3
14  |  (18) Andy Smith | 22  | ns | 9 | 4 | 3 | ns | 6
15  |  (5) Henrik Gustafsson | 20  | 14 | 3 | – | 1 | 2 | ns
16  |  (17) Mikael Karlsson | 14  | ns | 1 | ns | 11 | ns | 2
17  |  (9) Simon Wigg | 13  | 3 | ns | 2 | ns | 8 | ns
18  |  (16) Jason Crump | 8  | – | 8 | – | – | – | –
19  |  (16) Joe Screen | 8  | – | – | – | 8 | – | –
20  |  (16) Robert Barth | 7  | – | – | 7 | – | – | –
21  |  (16) Jesper B. Jensen | 4  | – | – | – | – | – | 4
22  |  (16) Tomáš Topinka | 2  | 2 | – | – | – | – | –
23  |  (16) Rafał Dobrucki | 1  | – | – | – | – | 1 | –
Rider(s) not classified
|  (19) Sam Ermolenko | —  | – | – | ns | – | – | –
Pos. | Rider  | Points  | CZE
| SWE
| GER
| GBR
| POL
| DEN

## See also

[edit]

* motorcycle speedway

## References

[edit]

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.

## External links

[edit]

* Official Speedway GP site

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See also|

* Medalists
* Medal Classification
* Grands Prix
* SGP riders
* Super Prix
* SGP Statistics

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1997 Speedway Grand Prix

* Czech Republic
* Swedish
* German
* British
* Polish
* Danish

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