2003 Speedway Grand Prix


The 2003 Speedway Grand Prix season was the ninth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and was used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

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 - there was no consolation final. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with 5th and 6th place getting 13, 7th and 8th 11, 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 2003 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

2003 event schedule and winners

Calendar
DateGrand PrixWinner
May 17EuropeTony Rickardsson
May 31SwedenRyan Sullivan
June 14Cardiff, Great BritainNicki Pedersen
June 28DenmarkJason Crump
July 12SloveniaLeigh Adams
August 30ScandinaviaRyan Sullivan
September 6Czech RepublicJason Crump
September 20PolandTomasz Gollob
October 4NorwayGreg Hancock

Final 2003 standings
Pos.Rider NamePts
1Nicki Pedersen 152
2Jason Crump 144
3Tony Rickardsson 127
4Leigh Adams 126
5Greg Hancock 121
6Tomasz Gollob 111
7Scott Nicholls 102
8Rune Holta 98
9Ryan Sullivan 94
10Andreas Jonsson 76
11Piotr Protasiewicz 63
12Lukáš Dryml 58
13Mikael Max 52
14Bjarne Pedersen 51
15Tomasz Bajerski 51
16Lee Richardson 45
17Hans Andersen 41
18Mark Loram 32
19Todd Wiltshire 30
20Jason Lyons 29
21Peter Karlsson 28
22Bohumil Brhel 26
23Ronni Pedersen 23
24Krzysztof Cegielski 15
25Jarosław Hampel 13
26Tomáš Topinka 13
27David Howe 8
28Peter Ljung 7
29Roman Povazhny 6
30Matej Žagar 5
31Lars Gunnestad 4
32David Ruud 4
33Charlie Gjedde 4
34Sebastian Ułamek 4
35Izak Šantej 4
36Aleš Dryml, Jr. 3
37Rafał Kurmański 3
38Simon Stead 3
39Robert Dados 3
40Joonas Kylmäkorpi 3
41Rafał Szombierski 2
42Sándor Tihanyi 2
43Jesper B. Jensen 1
44Magnus Zetterström 1
45Josef Franc 1
46Chris Harris 1
47Denis Štojs'' 1