2020 Speedway Grand Prix

2020 Speedway Grand Prix
2020 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	August 28 - October 3
Events	8
Cities	4
Countries	2
Riders	15 permanents ; 1 wild card(s); 2 track reserves
Heats	184 (in 8 events)
Winners
Champion	POL Bartosz Zmarzlik
Runner-up	GBR Tai Woffinden
3rd place	SWE Fredrik Lindgren
	← 2019; Speedway Grand Prix; 2021 →;

The 2020 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 26th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 75th FIM Speedway World Championship.^[1]^[2] It was the 20th series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company

A new points system was introduced with overall positions deciding the number of championship points a rider scored from a Grand Prix (GP), and points scored in each individual heat used to determine a rider's progress in a GP.

The series was dominated by Polish venues with six of the eight races held in Poland.^[3] Bartosz Zmarzlik was the defending champion, having won the 2019 Speedway Grand Prix series, and he successfully retained his title in 2020 by winning four of the eight rounds. Former three-time champion Tai Woffinden finished second after winning a run-off with Fredrik Lindgren. Maciej Janowski, Leon Madsen and Jason Doyle completed the top six, thus earning places in the 2021 series.

Qualification edit

For the 2020 season there were 15 permanent riders, who were joined at each Grand Prix by one wild card and two track reserves.

The top eight riders from the 2019 championship qualified automatically.^[4] These riders were joined by the three riders who qualified via the Grand Prix Challenge.

The final four riders were nominated by series promoters, Benfield Sports International, following the completion of the 2019 season.^[5]

Qualified riders edit

#	Riders	2019 place	GP Ch place	Appearance	Previous appearances in series
95	Bartosz Zmarzlik	1	—	5th	2012–2015, 2016–2019
30	Leon Madsen	2	—	2nd	2013, 2019
89	Emil Sayfutdinov	3	—	9th	2009–2013, 2017–2019
66	Fredrik Lindgren	4	—	11th	2004, 2006–2007, 2008–2014, 2016, 2017–2019
54	Martin Vaculík	5	4	5th	2012, 2013, 2017–2019
71	Maciej Janowski	6	—	6th	2008, 2012, 2014, 2015–2019
69	Jason Doyle	7	—	6th	2015–2019
692	Patryk Dudek	8	—	4th	2016, 2017–2019
55	Matej Žagar	9	1	10th	2003–2005, 2006–2007, 2008–2009, 2011, 2013–2019
88	Niels-Kristian Iversen	10	2	9th	2004–2005, 2006, 2008, 2009–2010, 2013–2017, 2018, 2019
46	Max Fricke	16	3	1st	2016-2017, 2019
222	Artem Laguta	11	—	4th	2011, 2018–2019
85	Antonio Lindbäck	12	—	10th	2004, 2005–2007, 2009–2010, 2011–2013, 2015, 2016–2017, 2019
108	Tai Woffinden	13	—	9th	2010, 2011, 2013–2019
155	Mikkel Michelsen•	17	14	1st	2015, 2018–2019

•Michelsen was handed a spot after initial wildcard pick Greg Hancock announced his retirement from the sport and first reserve Martin Smolinski withdrew due to injury.^[6]

Qualified substitutes edit

The following riders were nominated as substitutes:

#	Riders	2019 place	GP Ch place
115	Bartosz Smektała	18	—
105	Anders Thomsen	—	5
20	Pontus Aspgren	—	6
96	Dimitri Bergé	—	—

Calendar edit

The 2020 season originally consisted of 10 events, the same number as in 2019.^[7] The Slovenian round had been replaced by a new round in Russia. The British Grand Prix was originally scheduled to be held on July 18, but was cancelled on June 1. The first round in Warsaw was postponed to August 28, the Czech Grand Prix was postponed to September 19 & the German Grand Prix was postponed to a unknown date, all due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rounds in Hallstavik and Målilla were cancelled on June 18.^[8] On July 29 a final revised calendar was published by the organisers of the series, with a total of 8 rounds; 6 in Poland and 2 in the Czech Republic.

Round	Date	City and venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd placed	4th placed	Results
1	August 28	Wrocław, Poland Olympic Stadium	Artem Laguta	Maciej Janowski	Fredrik Lindgren	Tai Woffinden	results
2	August 29	Wrocław, Poland Olympic Stadium	Maciej Janowski	Tai Woffinden	Bartosz Zmarzlik	Fredrik Lindgren	results
3	September 11	Gorzów, Poland Edward Jancarz Stadium	Bartosz Zmarzlik	Jason Doyle	Fredrik Lindgren	Leon Madsen	results
4	September 12	Gorzów, Poland Edward Jancarz Stadium	Fredrik Lindgren	Leon Madsen	Jason Doyle	Emil Sayfutdinov	results
5	September 18	Prague, Czech Republic Markéta Stadium	Bartosz Zmarzlik	Tai Woffinden	Martin Vaculík	Emil Sayfutdinov	results
6	September 19	Prague, Czech Republic Markéta Stadium	Bartosz Zmarzlik	Tai Woffinden	Jason Doyle	Fredrik Lindgren	results
7	October 2	Toruń, Poland Rose Motoarena	Max Fricke	Maciej Janowski	Tai Woffinden	Bartosz Zmarzlik	results
8	October 3	Toruń, Poland Rose Motoarena	Bartosz Zmarzlik	Maciej Janowski	Artem Laguta	Fredrik Lindgren	results

Final Classification edit

^[9]

Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series
Full-time Grand Prix rider
Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve

Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	PL2	PL3	PL4	CZE	CZ2	PL5	PL6
	(95) Bartosz Zmarzlik (C)	133	11	16	20	12	20	20	14	20
	(108) Tai Woffinden	117	14	18	11	10	18	18	16	12
	(66) Fredrik Lindgren	117	16	14	16	20	12	14	11	14
4	(71) Maciej Janowski	107	18	20	10	9	5	9	18	18
5	(30) Leon Madsen	89	12	6	14	18	9	11	9	10
6	(69) Jason Doyle	87	6	2	18	16	11	16	7	11
7	(222) Artem Laguta	84	20	12	8	5	10	5	8	16
8	(89) Emil Sayfutdinov	81	10	5	7	14	14	10	12	9
9	(54) Martin Vaculík	78	9	3	12	11	16	12	10	5
10	(46) Max Fricke	64	2	10	4	8	8	8	20	4
11	(55) Matej Žagar	46	8	4	9	6	3	7	6	3
12	(692) Patryk Dudek	39	5	8	2	1	7	6	4	6
13	(88) Niels-Kristian Iversen	32	3	11	6	4	4	2	1	1
"	(155) Mikkel Michelsen	32	4	7	5	2	6	3	3	2
15	(85) Antonio Lindbäck	22	1	1	1	3	2	4	2	8
16	(16) Gleb Chugunov	16	7	9	–	–	–	–	–	–
17	(16) Jack Holder	12	–	–	–	–	–	–	5	7
18	(16) Anders Thomsen	10	–	–	3	7	–	–	–	–
19	(17) Eduard Krčmář	1	–	–	–	–	1	0	–	–
"	(16) Václav Milík	1	–	–	–	–	0	1	–	–
21	(17) Rafał Karczmarz	0	–	–	0	0	–	–	–	–
"	(18) Wiktor Jasiński	0	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–
"	(18) Przemysław Liszka	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
"	(17) Michał Curzytek	0	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
"	(18) Jan Kvěch	0	–	–	–	–	0	–	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	PL2	PL3	PL4	CZE	CZ2	PL5	PL6

References edit

^ "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "Calendar". Speedway GP. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
^ "2019 FIM Speedway World Championship results". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
^ "2020 wildcards announced". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-10-06. Retrieved 2019-10-06.
^ "Mikkelsen replaces Smolinski". SGP. Archived from the original on 2020-09-13. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
^ "2020 FIM Speedway World Championship calendar confirmed". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.
^ "Grand Prix Events Cancelled". Speedway Grand Prix. 18 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.
^ "2020 FIM Speedway World Championship standings". SGP.

External links edit

SpeedwayGP.com – Speedway World Championships

[1] "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 10 July 2021.

[2] "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 10 July 2021.

[3] "Calendar". Speedway GP. Retrieved 29 July 2021.

[4] "2019 FIM Speedway World Championship results". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-05-26. Retrieved 2019-10-06.

[5] "2020 wildcards announced". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-10-06. Retrieved 2019-10-06.

[6] "Mikkelsen replaces Smolinski". SGP. Archived from the original on 2020-09-13. Retrieved 2020-08-20.

[7] "2020 FIM Speedway World Championship calendar confirmed". SGP. Archived from the original on 2019-11-04. Retrieved 2019-11-04.

[8] "Grand Prix Events Cancelled". Speedway Grand Prix. 18 June 2020. Archived from the original on 24 July 2020. Retrieved 24 July 2020.

[9] "2020 FIM Speedway World Championship standings". SGP.

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