1998 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	May 15 - September 18
Events	6
Cities	6
Countries	6
Riders	21 permanents 3 wild card(s)
Heats	144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion	SWE Tony Rickardsson
Runner-up	SWE Jimmy Nilsen
3rd place	POL Tomasz Gollob

The 1998 Speedway Grand Prix was the 53rd edition of the official World Championship.^[1][2] It was the fourth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion.^[3]

Tony Rickardsson won the World title, which included three wins from the six Grand Prix events. The Swede's win was his second World title success and he secured the gold medal comfortably ahead of nearest rivals Jimmy Nilsen and Tomasz Gollob.^[4]

Event format

The system used was a new one for the 4th SGP season 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 for Grand Prix

The 1998 season had 21 permanent riders and 3 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 15	Prague , Czech Republic Markéta Stadium	Tony Rickardsson	Billy Hamill	Jimmy Nilsen	Tomasz Gollob	results
2	June 6	Pocking , Germany Rottalstadion	Tony Rickardsson	Jimmy Nilsen	Billy Hamill	Tomasz Gollob	results
3	June 19	Vojens , Denmark Speedway Center	Hans Nielsen	Chris Louis	Tony Rickardsson	Jason Crump	results
4	August 7	Coventry , Great Britain Brandon Stadium	Jason Crump	Jimmy Nilsen	Tomasz Gollob	Ryan Sullivan	results
5	August 28	Linköping , Sweden Motorstadium	Tony Rickardsson	Chris Louis	Peter Karlsson	Greg Hancock	results
6	September 18	Bydgoszcz , Poland Polonia Stadium	Tomasz Gollob	Ryan Sullivan	Jimmy Nilsen	Hans Nielsen	results

Final standings

Pos.	Rider	Points	CZE	GER	DEN	GBR	SWE	POL
	(4) Tony Rickardsson	111	25	25	18	8	25	10
	(8) Jimmy Nilsen	99	18	20	8	20	15	18
	(3) Tomasz Gollob	97	16	16	8	18	14	25
4	(7) Hans Nielsen	76	8	12	25	7	8	16
5	(18) Chris Louis	75	15	8	20	6	20	6
6	(1) Greg Hancock	69	6	10	14	15	16	8
7	(9) Ryan Sullivan	68	12	7	3	16	10	20
8	(10) Jason Crump	62 (+3)	3	3	16	25	7	8
9	(2) Billy Hamill	62 (+N)	20	18	6	12	5	1
10	(5) Mark Loram	52	6	7	10	7	8	14
11	(15) Leigh Adams	51	10	6	4	4	12	15
12	(22) (23) (24) Antonín Kasper, Jr.	50	7	4	15	14	3	7
13	(14) Stefan Dannö	49	14	6	7	10	5	7
14	(17) Andy Smith	43	2	14	5	4	6	12
15	(19) Henrik Gustafsson	43	8	15	6	6	2	6
16	(6) Brian Andersen	31	5	–	7	8	7	4
17	(23) (25) Peter Karlsson	27	1	8	–	–	18	–
18	(11) Armando Castagna	23	1	5	3	3	6	5
19	(12) Zoltan Adorjan	21	7	5	2	3	1	3
20	(16) Craig Boyce	18	3	4	1	1	4	5
21	(13) Piotr Protasiewicz	16	2	1	5	2	3	3
22	(21) Jesper B. Jensen	14	4	–	1	5	2	2
23	(22) Brian Karger	12	–	–	12	–	–	–
24	(20) Sebastian Ułamek	10	–	1	2	1	4	2
25	(22) (24) Gerd Riss	6	4	2	–	–	–	–
26	(23) Bohumil Brhel	5	5	–	–	–	–	–
26	(23) Joe Screen	5	–	–	–	5	–	–
28	(24) Lars Gunnestad	5	–	–	4	–	1	–
29	(24) Jacek Gollob	4	–	–	–	–	–	4
30	(27) Jacek Krzyżaniak	3	–	3	–	–	–	–
31	(23) Robert Barth	2	–	2	–	–	–	–
32	(24) Martin Dugard	2	–	–	–	2	–	–
33	(23) Robert Dados	1	–	–	–	–	–	1
Pos.	Rider	Points	CZE	GER	DEN	GBR	SWE	POL

References

External links

• Official Speedway GP site