2002 Speedway Grand Prix

2002 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	11 May - 26 October
Events	10
Cities	10
Countries	8
Riders	22 permanents 2 wild card(s)
Heats	250 (in 10 events)
Winners
Champion	SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up	AUS Jason Crump
3rd place	AUS Ryan Sullivan
← 2001 Speedway Grand Prix 2003 →

The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix was the 57th edition of the official World Championship^[1][2][3] and the eighth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion. The world title was won by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden.^[4]

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.

The 2002 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

Calendar

Date	Grand Prix	Venue	Winner	Result
11 May	Norway	Vikingskipet, Hamar	Tony Rickardsson	2002 Norwegian GP[5][6]
25 May	Poland	Polonia Stadium, Bydgoszcz	Tomasz Gollob	2002 Polish GP[7]
8 June	Great Britain	Millennium Stadium, Cardiff	Ryan Sullivan	2002 British GP[8]
22 June	Slovenia	Matija Gubec Stadium, Krško	Ryan Sullivan	2002 Slovenian GP[9][10]
6 July	Sweden	Olympiastadion, Stockholm	Tony Rickardsson	2002 Swedish GP[11]
20 July	Czech Republic	Markéta Stadium, Prague	Jason Crump	2002 Czech Republic GP[12]
31 August	Scandinavia	Ullevi, Gothenburg	Leigh Adams	2002 Scandinavian GP[13]
14 September	Europe	Stadion Śląski, Chorzów	Nicki Pedersen	2002 European GP[14]
28 September	Denmark	Vojens Speedway Center, Vojens	Tony Rickardsson	2002 Danish GP[15]
26 October	Australia	Stadium Australia, Sydney	Greg Hancock	2002 Australian GP[16]

Final 2002 standings

Pos	Rider	Total	NOR	POL	GBR	SVN	SWE	CZE	SCA	EUR	DEN	AUS
1	Tony Rickardsson	181	25	20	13	13	25	16	20	16	25	8
2	Jason Crump	162	16	16	11	11	16	25	13	20	16	18
3	Ryan Sullivan	158	20	13	25	25	11	18	11	11	13	11
4	Leigh Adams	127	13	13	16	13	13	11	25	11	7	5
5	Mikael Karlsson	122	18	7	18	11	11	7	13	18	6	13
6	Greg Hancock	122	8	4	4	8	18	20	16	6	13	25
7	Tomasz Gollob	117	7	25	11	20	8	8	5	5	20	8
8	Mark Loram	97	8	18	8	18	13	13	6	7	5	1
9	Billy Hamill	95	11	11	7	7	7	13	6	8	18	7
10	Lukáš Dryml	95	5	1	6	7	20	11	18	8	8	11
11	Rune Holta	80	1	11	5	5	6	7	11	7	11	16
12	Nicki Pedersen	73	2	4	2	5	4	6	8	25	11	6
13	Scott Nicholls	72	3	5	8	4	-	4	7	13	8	20
14	Andreas Jonsson	70	3	8	7	16	7	5	4	3	4	13
15	Todd Wiltshire	63	11	8	20	6	1	2	7	2	2	4
16	Krzysztof Cegielski	55	4	3	1	8	6	8	8	13	-	4
17	Sebastian Ułamek	39	2	6	5	4	3	3	2	5	4	5
18	Niklas Klingberg	37	5	3	3	3	5	3	4	6	3	2
19	Carl Stonehewer	30	13	5	2	1	2	4	3	-	-	-
20	Andy Smith	29	4	6	4	6	2	2	1	2	1	1
21	Grzegorz Walasek	25	7	2	3	3	5	5	-	-	-	-
22	Matej Ferjan	22	1	1	1	2	1	6	1	1	2	6
23	Peter Karlsson	21	-	-	-	-	8	-	5	3	5	-
24	Piotr Protasiewicz	18	-	7	-	-	4	-	-	1	6	-
25	Lee Richardson	17	-	-	13	-	-	-	-	4	-	-
26	Bjarne Pedersen	10	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	-	7	-
27	Steve Johnston	7	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	7
28	Lars Gunnestad	6	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
29	Joe Screen	6	-	-	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
30	Jarosław Hampel	6	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	4	-	-
31	Kaj Laukkanen	6	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
32	Freddie Eriksson	3	-	-	-	-	3	-	-	-	-	-
33	Bohumil Brhel	3	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	2
34	Mick Poole	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3
35	Jason Lyons	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3
36	Ronni Pedersen	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	3	-
37	Sándor Tihanyi	2	-	-	-	2	-	-	-	-	-	-
38	David Ruud	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-	-
39	Izak Šantej	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
40	Hans Andersen	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
41	Aleš Dryml	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-

• Official Speedway GP site