The 1999 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 14 riders that qualified for the 1999 Speedway Grand Prix^[1] to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1998 Speedway Grand Prix.^[2]

The format was similar to the previous year, in that 4 riders would qualify straight from the Intercontinental and Continental finals and 8 riders would qualify through the GP Challenge. The remaining two places would go to Billy Hamill and Robert Dados (world U21 champion) who were seeded through.

Leigh Adams won the GP Challenge.^[3]

Format

• First Round - 6 riders each from Sweden & Denmark, 2 riders each from Finland & Norway to Scandinavian Final
• First Round - 32 riders from Continental quarter finals to Continental semi-finals
• First Round - 8 riders from British Final to Overseas Final
• First Round - 3 riders from Australian Final to Overseas Final
• First Round - 1 rider from New Zealand Final to Overseas Final
• First Round - 1 rider from South African Final to Overseas Final
• First Round - 3 riders from United States Final to Overseas Final
• Second Round - 8 riders from Scandinavian Final to Intercontinental Final
• Second Round - 8 riders from Overseas Final to Intercontinental Final
• Second Round - 16 riders from Continental semi-finals to Continental Final
• Third Round - 12 riders from positions 9-20 from the 1998 Grand Prix to GP Challenge
• Third Round - 2 riders from the Continental Final to 1999 Grand Prix and 5 to GP Challenge
• Third Round - 2 riders from the Intercontinental Final to 1999 Grand Prix and 6 to GP Challenge
• Final Round - 8 riders from the GP Challenge to the 1999 Grand Prix

First round

Continental quarter finals

QF (1 May Mureck) Pos Rider Points 1 Rafał Dobrucki 14 2 Andreas Bössner 13+ 3 Andrea Maida 13+ 4 Jacek Rempala 10 5 Joachim Kugelmann 10 6 Laszlo Bodi 9 7 Alexander Liatosinski 9 8 Alessandro Dalla Valle 9 9 Thomas Stadler 8 10 Siegfried Eder 7 11 Zsolt Bencze 5 12 Tomasz Sustersic 3 13 Zeljko Feher 3 14 Ivan Nagar 3 15 Vladimir Visvader 2 16 Igor Marko 1

QF (3 May Moorwinkelsdamm) Pos Rider Points 1 Marvyn Cox 13 2 Tomáš Topinka 13 3 Robert Barth 12 4 Tomasz Bajerski 11 5 Roman Povazhny 11 6 Piotr Świst 10 7 Philippe Bergé 8 8 Matthias Kröger 8 9 Marián Jirout 8 10 Stefano Alfonso 8 11 Oleg Kurguskin 5 12 Björn Danielczik 4 13 Björn Dräger 3 14 Roy Verbrugge 2 15 Mirko Wolter 2 16 Sergej Eroschin 1 17 Patrick Verbrugge 1 18 Jean Michael Bouillaud 0

QF (9 May Krško) Pos Rider Points 1 Todd Wiltshire 14 2 Matej Ferjan 14 3 Sándor Tihanyi 13 4 George Štancl 11 5 Bohumil Brhel 10 6 Izak Šantej 10 7 Norbert Magosi 9 8 Karel Průša Jr. 8 9 Gerhard Lekse 8 10 Renato Kuster 7 11 Krunoslav Zganec 5 12 Toni Pilotto 4 13 Francesco Ulian 3 14 Graziano Franchetti 2 15 Sebastien Trésarrieu 1 16 Stéphane Trésarrieu 1

QF (10 May Gniezno) Pos Rider Points 1 Roman Jankowski 14 2 Antonín Kasper Jr. 14 3 Adam Fajfer 13 4 Róbert Nagy 11 5 Sławomir Drabik 10 6 Rinat Mardanshin 9 7 Michail Starostin 9 8 Vladimir Voronkov 8 9 Nikolaj Kokins 7 10 László Szatmári 6 11 Vladimir Trofimov 4 12 Sergej Darkin 3 13 Rob Steman 3 14 Alexander Biznia 3 15 Vladimir Kolodij 3 16 Andrzej Huszcza 2 17 Adrian Rymel 1 18 Grzegorz Rempala 0

Second round

Scandinavian Final

8 riders to Intercontinental final

(4 July 1998 Norrköping)
Pos	Rider	Points
1	John Jørgensen	13
2	Peter Karlsson	13
3	Mikael Karlsson	12
4	Brian Karger	11
5	Nicki Pedersen	10
6	Ronni Pedersen	10
7	Lars Gunnestad	9
8	Peter Nahlin	9
9	Andreas Jonsson	9
10	Niklas Klingberg	6
11	Kai Laukkanen	5
12	Arnt Førland	4
13	Niklas Karlsson	4
14	Hans Clausen	2
15	Bjarne Pedersen	2
16	Kauko Nieminen	1

Continental semi finals

Continental semi-finals - 16 riders from to Continental final

SF 13 June 1998 Lonigo Pos. Rider Points 1 Rafał Dobrucki 14 2 Piotr Świst 11 3 Marián Jirout 11 4 Tomasz Bajerski 10 5 Tomáš Topinka 10 6 Jacek Rempala 9 7 Andrea Maida 9 8 Roman Povazhny 9 9 Matthias Kröger 9 10 Robert Barth 7 11 Laszlo Bodi 5 12 Joachim Kugelmann 4 13 Andreas Bössner 3 14 Alexander Liatosinski 3 15 Philippe Bergé 2 16 Alessandro Dalla Valle 2 17 Stefano Alfonso 2 18 Thomas Stadler 0

SF 14 June 1998 Prelog Pos. Rider Points 1 Antonín Kasper Jr. 15 2 Todd Wiltshire 13 3 Adam Fajfer 12 4 Sándor Tihanyi 11 5 Sławomir Drabik 10 6 Matej Ferjan 9 7 Róbert Nagy 7 8 Roman Jankowski 7 9 Rinat Mardanshin 7 10 Izak Šantej 6 11 Norbert Magosi 6 12 Gerhard Lekse 5 13 Michail Starostin 5 14 Bohumil Brhel 4 15 George Štancl 3 16 Karel Průša Jr. 0

Third round

• 12 riders from positions 9-20 from the 1998 Speedway Grand Prix to GP Challenge

Continental Final

• 2 riders direct to Grand Prix, 5 riders to GP Challenge
• 25 July 1998 Debrecen

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Antonín Kasper Jr.	13
2	Marián Jirout	11
3	Roman Povazhny	10
4	Róbert Nagy	10
5	Sławomir Drabik	9
6	Sándor Tihanyi	9
7	Piotr Świst	9
8	Adam Fajfer	9
9	Rafał Dobrucki	8
10	Tomáš Topinka	8
11	Jacek Rempala	7
12	Matej Ferjan	6
13	Todd Wiltshire	5
14	Andrea Maida	4
15	Tomasz Bajerski	1
16	Roman Jankowski	1

Final Round

GP Challenge

8 riders to 1998 Grand Prix

• 3 October 1998 Pardubice

Pos.	Rider	pre-qual	qual	sf	Final
1	Leigh Adams	x	3, 3	3	3
2	Brian Andersen	x	2, 2	2	2
3	Henrik Gustafsson	x	2, 1, 3	3	1
4	Andy Smith	x	1, 2, 2	2	0
5	Stefan Dannö	x	3, 3	1	x
6	Mikael Karlsson	2, 2	2, 2	1	x
7	Joe Screen	2, 3	1, 3	0	x
8	John Jørgensen	1, 3	3, 3	0	x
9	Mark Loram	x	3, 0, 1	x	x
10	Nicki Pedersen	3, 3	1, 3, 1	x	x
11	Zoltán Adorján	x	2, 0, 0	x	x
12	Sam Ermolenko	2, 0	2, 1, 2	x	x
13	Armando Castagna	x	0, 1	x	x
14	Sebastian Ulamek	3, 2	0, 1	x	x
15	Jesper B Jensen	3, 1	3, 0, 0	x	x
16	Piotr Świst	0, 2	2, 0, 0	x	x
17	Craig Boyce	2, 0	1	x	x
18	Gary Havelock	1, 2	1	x	x
19	Piotr Protasiewicz	3, 1	0	x	x
20	Sándor Tihanyi	0, 3	0	x	x
21	Ronni Pedersen	1, 1	x	x	x
22	Sławomir Drabik	0, 1	x	x	x
23	Roman Povazhny	1, 0	x	x	x
24	Róbert Nagy	0, 0	x	x	x

References