1996 Speedway Grand Prix

The 1996 Speedway Grand Prix was the 51st edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^[1][2][3] It was the second season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and was used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

1996 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	May 18 - September 21
Events	6
Cities	6
Countries	6
Riders	17 permanents 1 wild card(s)
Heats	144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion	USA Billy Hamill
Runner-up	DEN Hans Nielsen
3rd place	USA Greg Hancock
← 1995 Speedway Grand Prix 1997 →

The world title was won by Billy Hamill; it was his first and only World Champion title.^[4][5] Defending champion Hans Nielsen was set to win his fifth world crown with a nine-point lead going into the last of the six events at Vojens. However Hamill won the event gaining 25 points and Nielsen only managed 14 points leaving the Dane two points behind the American in the final standings.^[6]

Event format

During 1996 the initial SGP scoring system used in 1995 remained in place. 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 remainder scoring 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Qualification for Grand Prix

Main article: 1996 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification

The 1996 season had 17 permanent riders and one wild card at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

Calendar

Round	Date	City and venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd placed	4th placed	Results
1	May 18	Wrocław , Poland Olympic Stadium	Tommy Knudsen	Tony Rickardsson	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	results
2	June 14	Lonigo , Italy Santa Marina Stadium	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	Tony Rickardsson	Tommy Knudsen	results
3	July 6	Pocking , Germany Rottalstadion	Hans Nielsen	Peter Karlsson	Henrik Gustafsson	Tony Rickardsson	results
4	August 10	Linköping , Sweden Motorstadium	Billy Hamill	Henrik Gustafsson	Tomasz Gollob	Greg Hancock	results
5	August 31	London , Great Britain London Stadium	Jason Crump	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	Greg Hancock	results
6	September 21	Vojens , Denmark Speedway Center	Billy Hamill	Mark Loram	Greg Hancock	Sam Ermolenko	results

Final standings

Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series

Full-time Grand Prix rider

Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve

Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	ITA	GER	SWE	GBR	DEN
	(5) Billy Hamill	113	16	20	9	25	18	25
	(1) Hans Nielsen	111	18	25	25	9	20	14
	(4) Greg Hancock	88	12	13	13	16	16	18
4	(2) Tony Rickardsson	86	20	18	16	14	7	11
5	(8) Henrik Gustafsson	80	14	4	18	20	11	13
6	(12) Peter Karlsson	62	7	3	20	7	13	12
7	(6) Mark Loram	58	6	2	6	12	12	20
8	(7) Chris Louis	54	8	9	14	8	6	9
9	(3) Sam Ermolenko	52	9	1	4	13	9	16
10	(15) Jason Crump	45	1	ns	7	6	25	6
11	(11) Tommy Knudsen	44	25	16	–	–	1	2
12	(16) (19) Tomasz Gollob	43	11	–	ns	18	14	ns
13	(13) Joe Screen	38	3	7	11	2	8	7
14	(17) Craig Boyce	30	ns	12	2	4	4	8
15	(9) Leigh Adams	28	2	ns	8	11	3	4
16	(14) Gary Havelock	27	13	14	–	–	–	–
17	(18) Andy Smith	19	ns	11	3	3	2	ns
18	(10) Marvyn Cox	15	4	8	1	1	ns	1
19	(16) Gerd Riss	12	–	–	12	–	–	–
20	(16) Stefano Alfonso	6	–	6	–	–	–	–
21	(16) Piotr Protasiewicz	3	–	–	–	–	–	3
Rider(s) not classified
	(20) Jan Stæchmann	—	–	–	–	ns	ns	–
	(21) Mikael Karlsson	—	–	–	–	ns	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	ITA	GER	SWE	GBR	DEN

See also

• motorcycle speedway