2008 Speedway Grand Prix

The 2008 Speedway Grand Prix was the 63rd edition of the official World Championship^[1][2] and the 14th season in the Speedway Grand Prix used to determine the Speedway World Champion. It was the second under the promotion of IMG.

2008 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	April 26 - October 18
Events	11
Cities	10
Countries	8
Riders	15 permanents 1 wild card(s) 2 track reserves
Heats	253 + 1 Super Prix (in 11 events)
Winners
Champion	DEN Nicki Pedersen
Runner-up	AUS Jason Crump
3rd place	POL Tomasz Gollob
← 2007 Speedway Grand Prix 2009 →

Event format

The format for 2008 was the same as that used in 2007 with 16 riders taking part in each Grand Prix. Over the course of 20 heats each rider raced against every other rider once. The top eight scorers advanced to a semi-final and from each semi-final the first and second placed riders advanced to the GP final.

All rides count towards Grand Prix points totals, including the semi-final and final, which counts double (6-4-2-0) and therefore the maximum points for a single Grand Prix is 24 (five heat wins, semi final win and final win). This format means that the winner of each Grand Prix may not be the rider who scores most GP points from each race.

Qualification

For the 2008 season, there were 15 permanent riders who were joined at each Grand Prix by one wild card and two track reserves.

2007 Grand Prix Main article: 2007 Speedway Grand Prix The top eight riders from the 2007 championship qualified as of right. These eight qualifiers were, in championship order: (1) Nicki Pedersen (2) Leigh Adams (3) Jason Crump (4) Tomasz Gollob (5) Hans Andersen (6) Greg Hancock (7) Rune Holta (8) Scott Nicholls

Grand Prix Challenge Main article: 2008 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification The top eight riders from 2007 were joined by three riders who qualified via the Grand Prix Challenge. These riders were, in order by qualifying position: (12) Niels Kristian Iversen (13) Lukáš Dryml (11) Bjarne Pedersen Nominations The final four riders were nominated by series promoters, Benfield Sports International, following the completion of the 2007 season. (9) Chris Harris (British SGP Winner) (10) Andreas Jonsson (Danish and German SGP Winner) (14) Krzysztof Kasprzak (2nd in Polish SGP and SWC Winner) (15) Fredrik Lindgren (3rd in Swedish SGP)

2008 Riders

No	Rider	DOB	Age[3]	2008 Clubs
				British	Polish	Swedish	Danish	Others
1	DEN Nicki Pedersen	1977-04-02	31		Częstochowa	Gislaved	Holsted (DEN)	Togliatti (RUS)
2	AUS Leigh Adams	1971-04-28	37	Swindon	Leszno	Avesta
3	AUS Jason Crump	1975-08-06	33	Belle Vue	Wrocław	Vetlanda
4	POL Tomasz Gollob	1971-04-11	37		Gorzów Wlkp.	Västervik
5	DEN Hans Andersen	1980-11-03	28	Coventry	Toruń	Målilla	Fjelsted (DEN)
6	USA Greg Hancock	1970-06-03	38		Częstochowa	Hallstavik
7	POL Rune Holta	1973-08-29	35		Gorzów Wlkp.	Vetlanda	Grindsted (DEN)
8	GBR Scott Nicholls	1978-05-16	30	Eastbourne	Rzeszów	Stockholm
9	GBR Chris Harris	1982-11-28	26	Coventry	Ostrów	Västervik
10	SWE Andreas Jonsson	1980-09-03	28	Lakeside	Bydgoszcz	Målilla
11	DEN Bjarne Pedersen	1978-07-12	30	Poole	Gdańsk	Västervik	Holstebro (DEN)
12	DEN Niels Kristian Iversen	1982-05-20	26	Wolverhampton	Zielona Góra	Västervik	Holsted (DEN)
13	CZE Lukáš Dryml	1981-04-16	27	Peterborough	Ostrów Wlkp.	Målilla		Pardubice (CZE)
14	POL Krzysztof Kasprzak	1984-07-18	24	Poole	Leszno	Eskilstuna
15	SWE Fredrik Lindgren	1985-09-15	23	Wolverhampton	Zielona Góra	Målilla		Pardubice (CZE)

Cities

• Bydgoszcz
• Cardiff
• Copenhagen
• Daugavpils
• Gelsenkirchen
• Gothenburg
• Krško
• Leszno
• Lonigo
• Målilla
• Prague

Calendar

Round	Date	City and venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd placed	4th placed	Results
1	April 26	Krško , Slovenia Matija Gubec Stadium	Tomasz Gollob	Nicki Pedersen	Hans N. Andersen	Andreas Jonsson	results
2	May 10	Leszno , Poland Alfred Smoczyk Stadium	Leigh Adams	Greg Hancock	Nicki Pedersen	Jarosław Hampel	results
3	May 24	Gothenburg , Sweden Ullevi	Rune Holta	Fredrik Lindgren	Nicki Pedersen	Jason Crump	results
4	June 14	Copenhagen , Denmark Parken Stadium	Tomasz Gollob	Nicki Pedersen	Jason Crump	Hans N. Andersen	results
5	June 28	Cardiff , Great Britain Millennium Stadium	Jason Crump	Greg Hancock	Nicki Pedersen	Scott Nicholls	results
6	August 2	Prague , Czech Republic Markéta Stadium	Nicki Pedersen	Hans N. Andersen	Jason Crump	Greg Hancock	results
7	August 16	Målilla , Sweden G&B Stadium	Leigh Adams	Hans N. Andersen	Nicki Pedersen	Jason Crump	results
8	August 30	Daugavpils , Latvia Latvijas Spīdveja Centrs	Jason Crump	Nicki Pedersen	Tomasz Gollob	Greg Hancock	results
9	September 13	Bydgoszcz , Poland Polonia Stadium	Greg Hancock	Nicki Pedersen	Tomasz Gollob	Scott Nicholls	results
10	September 27	Lonigo , Italy Santa Marina Stadium	Hans N. Andersen	Bjarne Pedersen	Jason Crump	Leigh Adams	results
11	October 18	Gelsenkirchen , Germany Veltins-Arena Bydgoszcz, Poland Polonia Stadium	Tomasz Gollob	Hans N. Andersen	Greg Hancock	Leigh Adams	results

The Final 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	EUR	SWE	DEN	GBR	CZE	SCA	LAT	POL	ITA	GER
	(1) Nicki Pedersen	174	17	16	16	20	11	22	14	18	21	6	13
	(3) Jason Crump	152	10	8	12	18	22	17	12	19	9	18	7
	(4) Tomasz Gollob	148	19	12	8	19	4	12	8	16	20	9	21
4	(6) Greg Hancock	144	8	20	6	10	20	13	12	13	18	9	15
5	(5) Hans N. Andersen	139	14	6	8	11	9	16	20	7	10	21	17
6	(2) Leigh Adams	125	5	20	9	8	7	10	21	9	9	12	15
7	(10) Andreas Jonsson	100	12	9	8	9	8	9	6	10	8	9	12
8	(7) Rune Holta	80	5	4	17	7	6	9	5	4	6	10	7
9	(8) Scott Nicholls	77	7	2	7	7	12	6	4	7	10	8	7
10	(15) Fredrik Lindgren	73	7	7	22	3	2	4	7	7	0	5	9
11	(11) Bjarne Pedersen	69	4	–	–	7	14	7	6	7	4	17	3
12	(12) Niels Kristian Iversen	59	8	10	2	6	6	7	9	1	4	6	ns
13	(9) Chris Harris	58	6	6	5	3	10	7	3	9	5	ns	4
14	(14) Krzysztof Kasprzak	57	6	3	5	3	4	1	9	7	6	8	5
15	(13) Lukáš Dryml	47	9	2	3	1	1	4	5	7	3	4	8
16	(16) Jarosław Hampel	16	–	16	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
17	(16) Kenneth Bjerre	11	–	–	–	11	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
18	(16) Wiesław Jaguś	9	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	9	–	–
19	(16) (19) Luboš Tomíček, Jr.	8	–	3	5	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–
20	(16) Matej Žagar	7	7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
21	(16) (17) Jonas Davidsson	7	–	–	7	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–
22	(16) Edward Kennett	4	–	–	–	–	4	–	–	–	–	–	–
23	(16) Peter Ljung	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	3	–	–	–	–
24	(16) Grigory Laguta	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2	–	–	–
25	(17) Mattia Carpanese	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2	–
26	(18) Billy Forsberg	2	–	–	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
27	(17) Nicolai Klindt	1	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
28	(17) (18) Krzysztof Buczkowski	1	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	–
29	(17) (18) Maciej Janowski	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	ns	–	1
30	(16) Guglielmo Franchetti	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	0	–
31	(16) Martin Smolinski	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	0
32	(17) Sebastian Aldén	0	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
33	(17) Maksims Bogdanovs	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	0	–	–	–
34	(18) Alessandro Milanese	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	0	–
35	(18) Grzegorz Zengota	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	0
Rider(s) not classified
	(17) Izak Šantej	—	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(17) Damian Baliński	—	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(17) Tai Woffinden	—	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(17) Adrian Rymel	—	–	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–
	(18) Denis Štojs	—	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(18) Patrick Hougaard	—	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(18) Simon Stead	—	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–	–
	(18) Filip Šitera	—	–	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–	–
	(18) Thomas H. Jonasson	—	–	–	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–	–
	(18) Kasts Poudzuks	—	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	ns	–	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	SVN	EUR	SWE	DEN	GBR	CZE	SCA	LAT	POL	ITA	GER

See also