1995 Speedway Grand Prix

The 1995 Speedway Grand Prix was the 50th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.[1][2]

1995 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates20 May - 30 September
Events6
Cities6
Countries6
Riders17 permanents
1 wild card(s)
Heats144 + 1 Run-off (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion DEN Hans Nielsen
Runner-up SWE Tony Rickardsson
3rd place USA Sam Ermolenko

1994 World Championship

It was the first season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion.[3] The Grand Prix series was won by Hans Nielsen; it was his fourth World Champion title.[4][5][6]

Event format

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For the new Speedway Grand Prix series it remained the case at each meeting that each rider raced every other once. However, the top 4 riders qualified for a final and the points for all other riders determined their finishing position in the meeting and therefore their championship Grand Prix points. The 4 finalists scored 20, 18, 17 and 16 points, with the reminder scoring 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Qualification for Grand Prix

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The 1995 season had 17 permanent riders (2 as track reserve) and 1 wild card at each event. Each event also could feature 2 reserves who were available to compete and qualify for full points. The 17 riders selected for the 1995 Grand Prix were the top 10 from the 1994 World final, 5 seeded through who were (Sam Ermolenko, Chris Louis, Tomasz Gollob, Gary Havelock and Andy Smith) and 2 wildcards (Billy Hamill and Mikael Karlsson).[7]

The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.

1995 Event Schedule and Winners

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Round Date City and venue Winner Runner-up 3rd placed 4th placed Results
1 20 May   Wrocław , Poland
Olympic Stadium
  Tomasz Gollob   Hans Nielsen   Chris Louis   Mark Loram results
2 17 June   Wiener Neustadt , Austria
Stadion Wiener Neustadt
  Billy Hamill   Tony Rickardsson   Hans Nielsen   Mark Loram results
3 8 July   Abensberg , Germany
Motorstadion
  Tommy Knudsen   Hans Nielsen   Billy Hamill   Gerd Riss results
4 12 August   Linköping , Sweden
Motorstadium
  Tommy Knudsen   Tony Rickardsson   Greg Hancock   Hans Nielsen results
5 9 September   Vojens , Denmark
Speedway Center
  Hans Nielsen   Sam Ermolenko   Tony Rickardsson   Tomasz Gollob results
6 30 September   London , Great Britain
Hackney Wick Stadium
  Greg Hancock   Sam Ermolenko   Mark Loram   Henka Gustafsson results

Final standings

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Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series
Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve
Pos. Rider Points POL
 
AUT
 
GER
 
SWE
 
DEN
 
GBR
 
    (2) Hans Nielsen 103 18 17 18 16 20 14
    (1) Tony Rickardsson 88 15 18 12 18 17 8
    (12) Sam Ermolenko 83 14 11 10 12 18 18
4   (4) Greg Hancock 82 9 13 9 17 14 20
5   (18) Billy Hamill 80 4 20 17 11 13 15
6   (8) Mark Loram 77 16 16 8 9 11 17
7   (11) Chris Louis 77 17 10 13 15 15 7
8   (7) Henrik Gustafsson 73 (+3) 12 15 15 8 7 16
9   (13) Tomasz Gollob 73 (+2) 20 12 6 10 16 9
10   (5) Tommy Knudsen 67 2 2 20 20 12 11
11   (3) Craig Boyce 60 11 8 7 14 10 10
12   (6) Marvyn Cox 54 8 14 11 7 8 6
13   (15) Gary Havelock 45 13 7 4 6 2 13
14   (14) Andy Smith 38 6 9 14 3 3 3
15   (10) Jan Stæchmann 23 7 4 3 1 6 2
16   (17) Mikael Karlsson 17 3 3 2 4 1 4
17   (16) Gerd Riss 16 16
18   (16) (19) Peter Karlsson 16 1 1 1 13
19   (16) Jason Crump 12 12
20   (16) Dariusz Śledź 10 10
21   (16) Lars Gunnestad 9 9
22   (9) Josh Larsen 7 2 4 1
23   (16) Franz Leitner 6 6
Pos. Rider Points POL
 
AUT
 
GER
 
SWE
 
DEN
 
GBR
 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  2. ^ "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  3. ^ "How Cardiff became Speedway Grand Prix's 'Monaco'". The Mirror. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  4. ^ speedwaygp.republika.pl. Retrieved on 2009-03-17. Archived 2009-05-11.
  5. ^ world.speedway.org. Retrieved on 2009-03-17. Archived 2009-05-11.
  6. ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Unfancied Swede gets a taste of big night". Birmingham Daily Post. 22 August 1994. Retrieved 5 January 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.