1996 Speedway Grand Prix

1996 Speedway Grand Prix
1996 Speedway Grand Prix
Season details
Dates	May 18 - September 21
Events	6
Cities	6
Countries	6
Riders	17 permanents ; 1 wild card(s)
Heats	144 (in 6 events)
Winners
Champion	USA Billy Hamill
Runner-up	DEN Hans Nielsen
3rd place	USA Greg Hancock
	← 1995; Speedway Grand Prix; 1997 →;

The 1996 Speedway Grand Prix was the 51st edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^[1]^[2]^[3] It was the second season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and was used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

The world title was won by Billy Hamill; it was his first and only World Champion title.^[4]^[5] Defending champion Hans Nielsen was set to win his fifth world crown with a nine point lead going into the last of the six events at Vojens. However Hamill won the event gaining 25 points and Nielsen only managed 14 points leaving the Dane two points behind the American in the final standings.^[6]

Event format[]

During 1996 the initial SGP scoring system used in 1995 remained in place. Each rider raced every other in the meeting with the top 4 qualifying for a final - the points for all other riders determined their finishing position in the meeting and therefore their championship Grand Prix points. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with the reminder scoring 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Qualification for Grand Prix[]

The 1996 season had 17 permanent riders and one 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 18	Wrocław , Poland Olympic Stadium	Tommy Knudsen	Tony Rickardsson	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	results
2	June 14	Lonigo , Italy	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	Tony Rickardsson	Tommy Knudsen	results
3	July 6	Pocking , Germany	Hans Nielsen	Peter Karlsson	Henrik Gustafsson	Tony Rickardsson	results
4	August 10	Linköping , Sweden	Billy Hamill	Henrik Gustafsson	Tomasz Gollob	Greg Hancock	results
5	August 31	London , Great Britain London Stadium	Jason Crump	Hans Nielsen	Billy Hamill	Greg Hancock	results
6	September 21	Vojens , Denmark Speedway Center	Billy Hamill	Mark Loram	Greg Hancock	Sam Ermolenko	results

Final standings[]

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

Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	ITA	GER	SWE	GBR	DEN
	(5) Billy Hamill	113	16	20	9	25	18	25
	(1) Hans Nielsen	111	18	25	25	9	20	14
	(4) Greg Hancock	88	12	13	13	16	16	18
4	(2) Tony Rickardsson	86	20	18	16	14	7	11
5	(8) Henrik Gustafsson	80	14	4	18	20	11	13
6	(12) Peter Karlsson	62	7	3	20	7	13	12
7	(6) Mark Loram	58	6	2	6	12	12	20
8	(7) Chris Louis	54	8	9	14	8	6	9
9	(3) Sam Ermolenko	52	9	1	4	13	9	16
10	(15) Jason Crump	45	1	ns	7	6	25	6
11	(11) Tommy Knudsen	44	25	16	–	–	1	2
12	(16) (19) Tomasz Gollob	43	11	–	ns	18	14	ns
13	(13) Joe Screen	38	3	7	11	2	8	7
14	(17) Craig Boyce	30	ns	12	2	4	4	8
15	(9) Leigh Adams	28	2	ns	8	11	3	4
16	(14) Gary Havelock	27	13	14	–	–	–	–
17	(18) Andy Smith	19	ns	11	3	3	2	ns
18	(10) Marvyn Cox	15	4	8	1	1	ns	1
19	(16) Gerd Riss	12	–	–	12	–	–	–
20	(16) Stefano Alfonso	6	–	6	–	–	–	–
21	(16) Piotr Protasiewicz	3	–	–	–	–	–	3
Rider(s) not classified
	(20) Jan Stæchmann	—	–	–	–	ns	ns	–
	(21) Mikael Karlsson	—	–	–	–	ns	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	ITA	GER	SWE	GBR	DEN

References[]

^ "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 10 July 2021.
^ speedwaygp.republika.pl. Retrieved on 2009-03-23. Archived 2009-05-12.
^ world.speedway.org. Retrieved on 2009-03-123. Archived 2009-05-11.
^ "Sportsdesk". Reading Evening Post. 23 September 1996. Retrieved 11 July 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.

External links[]

Official Speedway GP site

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

[2] "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 10 July 2021.

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

[4] speedwaygp.republika.pl. Retrieved on 2009-03-23. Archived 2009-05-12.

[5] world.speedway.org. Retrieved on 2009-03-123. Archived 2009-05-11.

[6] "Sportsdesk". Reading Evening Post. 23 September 1996. Retrieved 11 July 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.

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v t Individual Speedway World Championship and Speedway Grand Prix seasons
Speedway World Championship	1936 1937 1938 1939 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
Speedway Grand Prix (SGP)	1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
See also	Medalists Medal Classification Grands Prix SGP riders Super Prix SGP Statistics