1997 Speedway Grand Prix

1997 Speedway Grand Prix
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

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

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

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

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