2001 Speedway Grand Prix

The 2001 Speedway Grand Prix was the 56th edition of the official World Championship^[1][2][3] and the seventh season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and is used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

2001 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	5 May – 29 September
Events	6
Cities	6
Countries	6
Riders	22 permanents 2 wild card(s)
Heats	144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion	SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up	AUS Jason Crump
3rd place	POL Tomasz Gollob
← 2000 Speedway Grand Prix 2002 →

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 and the last two going towards the consolation final. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with 5th to 8th scoring 15, 14, 12 and 10-point, 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

Main article: 2001 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification

The 2001 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

Joe Screen had also qualified as a permanent rider for the 2001 season however as a result of injury he did not take part in any Grand Prix. He was replaced by first reserve, Henrik Gustafsson.

Calendar

Round	Date	City and venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd placed	4th placed	Results
1	5 May	Berlin , Germany F. L. Jahn Stadium	Tomasz Gollob	Henrik Gustafsson	Nicki Pedersen	Tony Rickardsson	results
2	9 June	Cardiff , Great Britain Millennium Stadium	Tony Rickardsson	Jason Crump	Tomasz Gollob	Niklas Klingberg	results
3	28 July	Vojens , Denmark Speedway Center	Tony Rickardsson	Jason Crump	Leigh Adams	Tomasz Gollob	results
4	18 August	Prague , Czech Republic Markéta Stadium	Billy Hamill	Tony Rickardsson	Jason Crump	Tomasz Gollob	results
5	8 September	Bydgoszcz , Poland Polonia Stadium	Jason Crump	Tony Rickardsson	Mikael Karlsson	Billy Hamill	results
6	29 September	Stockholm , Sweden Stockholms Stadion	Jason Crump	Mikael Karlsson	Ryan Sullivan	Mark Loram	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	GER	GBR	DEN	CZE	POL	SWE
	(3) Tony Rickardsson	121	16	25	25	20	20	15
	(4) Jason Crump	113	5	20	20	18	25	25
	(7) Tomasz Gollob	89	25	18	16	16	8	6
4	(9) Ryan Sullivan	80	10	15	8	15	14	18
5	(6) Leigh Adams	69	12	8	18	10	7	14
6	(2) Billy Hamill	61	5	3	4	25	16	8
7	(15) Mikael Karlsson	59	2	2	12	5	18	20
8	(8) Todd Wiltshire	56	14	14	14	6	3	5
9	(1) Mark Loram	54	6	8	5	7	12	16
10	(21) Niklas Klingberg	54	4	16	15	8	4	7
11	(13) Nicki Pedersen	52	18	7	7	6	8	6
12	(12) Carl Stonehewer	46	7	5	4	12	6	12
13	(5) Greg Hancock	43	8	6	5	4	10	10
14	(14) Rune Holta	41	1	2	10	8	15	5
15	(11) Peter Karlsson	39	15	–	8	2	6	8
16	(26) Grzegorz Walasek	34	–	10	6	14	4	–
17	(25) Henrik Gustafsson	33	20	3	2	3	2	3
18	(19) Brian Andersen	23	8	5	3	4	1	2
19	(22) Matej Ferjan	21	7	7	1	2	3	1
20	(16) Piotr Protasiewicz	20	4	6	1	5	2	2
21	(17) Jimmy Nilsen	20	1	12	7	–	–	–
22	(20) Andy Smith	12	3	1	2	1	1	4
23	(23) (27) Antonín Kasper Jr.	11	–	–	–	3	5	3
24	(24) Bohumil Brhel	7	–	–	–	7	–	–
25	(24) Jarosław Hampel	7	–	–	–	–	7	–
26	(24) Andreas Jonsson	7	–	–	–	–	–	7
27	(10) Chris Louis	6	3	1	–	1	–	1
28	(23) Robert Barth	6	6	–	–	–	–	–
29	(23) Hans Clausen	6	–	–	6	–	–	–
30	(23) Krzysztof Cegielski	5	–	–	–	–	5	–
31	(23) Martin Dugard	4	–	4	–	–	–	–
32	(23) Stefan Andersson	4	–	–	–	–	–	4
33	(24) Scott Nicholls	4	–	4	–	–	–	–
34	(24) Jesper B. Jensen	3	–	–	3	–	–	–
35	(24) Mirko Wolter	2	2	–	–	–	–	–
Rider(s) not classified
	(18) Joe Screen	—	–	–	–	–	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	GER	GBR	DEN	CZE	POL	SWE