Speedway World Cup

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FIM Speedway World Cup
FormerlySpeedway World Team Cup (1960-2000)
SportMotorcycle speedway
Founded2001, 2023
Ceased2017
Replaced bySpeedway of Nations
DirectorPhil Morris
MottoNo brakes, no gears, no fear
No. of teams9 national teams
ContinentWorld
Last
champion(s)
 Poland (2017)
Most titles Poland (8 times)
TV partner(s)BT Sport (UK)
Related
competitions
Speedway Grand Prix
Official websiteWebsite

The Speedway World Cup is an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was held in 2001 and replaced the old World Team Cup which ran from 1960 until 2000.[1] The last edition was in 2017. Since 2018, the World Cup was replaced by the Speedway of Nations, which effectively brought back the pairs format.[2] However, in 2023 the World Cup will return.

Format[]

Race format
Gate A
(inside)
B
 
C
 
D
(outside)
Heat No Riders starting No
1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5
6 5 3 4 1
7 1 4 5 2
8 2 3 5 1
9 4 3 1 2
10 2 3 4 5
11 3 1 2 4
12 3 4 2 5
13 5 1 3 4
14 1 5 4 2
15 5 2 1 3
16 1 2 3 5
17 2 3 4 1
18 2 3 4 5
19 4 5 3 1
20 1 5 2 4
21 2 4 1 5
22 1 2 5 3
23 4 1 2 3
24 3 4 5 2
25 4 3 1 5

The final tournament usually lasted for about a week with four meetings held in six or seven days. It started with two first round "events", each consisting of four national teams. The winners of these events qualified automatically for the final, while those who finished second and third competed in the race-off. Last place finishers were eliminated. The top two in the race-off joined the event winners in the final. The winners of the final carried home the Ove Fundin Trophy, named after one of the all-time greats of speedway who won the world championship five times.

The two events were held in different countries, normally in one of the countries that competed in that event. The race-off and the final was held in another country that did not host an event. For example, in the 2014 competition, Great Britain and Sweden hosted the two events, while Poland hosted both the race-off and final. From 2012 onwards the host nation were seeded direct to the final.

Rules[]

Place Prize money
in US dollars
1st 25,000
2nd 20,000
3rd 18,000
4th 16,000
5th 14,000
6th 12,000
7th 8,500
8th 8,500

Each of the four meetings were competed between four national teams, and each national team were represented by four riders + one reserve rider, who had to be under 21 years of age. The nomination of the reserve rider was not compulsory.

Team A (helmet colour red).
Team B (blue).
Team C (white).
Team D (yellow/black).

The meetings lasted for 20 heats with one rider for each competing team racing in each heat. Each rider was scheduled to race in five heats and face each of the opposing nations' riders once during the meeting. Teams scored 3 points if their rider won a heat, 2 points if their rider finished second, 1 for a third-place finish, and none if their rider finished last or was excluded from a heat.

The U-21 reserve rider could take place of any other rider in his team at any time during the meeting, not exceeding a total amount of five programmed rides permitted. If a team fell six points behind the leader then they were allowed to make tactical substitutions, replacing a rider who is possibly out of form for one who is playing better in the hope of closing the gap on the leader. Each rider, however, could be used as a tactical substitute once only, and it was their additional (sixth) ride in the meeting. Each team was also allowed to play one tactical "joker" if they fell six points behind the leader. The joker did not have to be used only as a replacement of another rider. A rider who should have to participate in a heat due to the schedule, might have also been used as joker in that heat, replacing himself. With the joker, a team scored double the points their finishing position was usually worth, so if their rider finished first, they picked up six points instead of the normal three. Both of these special rules were implemented with the intention of keeping interest in meetings that may have been a foregone conclusion. No tactical substitutions and jokers were allowed to be used during heats 17-20 though a reserve substitution could still be used. The final four heats were nominated by their team managers. The lowest scoring team had first pick followed the team in third place, then the second place team, and finally the leading team.

Medal tables[]

By season[]

Year Venue Winners Runner-up 3rd place
2001 Poland Wrocław  Australia (68 pts)  Poland (65 pts)  Sweden (51 pts)
2002 United Kingdom Peterborough  Australia (64 pts)  Denmark (58 pts)  Sweden (54 pts)
2003 Denmark Vojens  Sweden (62 pts)  Australia (57 pts)  Denmark (53 pts)
2004 United Kingdom Poole  Sweden (49 pts)  Great Britain (48 pts)  Denmark (32 pts)
2005 Poland Wrocław  Poland (62 pts)  Sweden (34 pts)  Denmark (31 pts)
2006 United Kingdom Reading  Denmark (45 pts)  Sweden (37 pts)  Great Britain (36 pts)
2007 Poland Leszno  Poland (55 pts)  Denmark (52 pts)  Australia (29 pts)
2008 Denmark Vojens  Denmark (49 pts)  Poland (46 pts)  Sweden (39 pts)
2009 Poland Leszno  Poland (44 pts)  Australia (43 pts)  Sweden (36 pts)
2010 Denmark Vojens  Poland (44 pts)  Denmark (39 pts)  Sweden (35 pts)
2011 Poland Gorzów Wielkopolski  Poland (51 pts)  Australia (45 pts)  Sweden (30 pts)
2012 Sweden Målilla  Denmark (39 pts)  Australia (36 pts)  Russia (30 pts)
2013 Czech Republic Prague  Poland (41 pts)  Denmark (40 pts)  Australia (34 pts)
2014 Poland Bydgoszcz  Denmark (38 pts)  Poland (37 pts)  Australia (36 pts)
2015 Denmark Vojens  Sweden (34 pts)  Denmark (32 pts)  Poland (27 pts)
2016 United Kingdom Manchester  Poland (39 pts)  Great Britain (32 pts)  Sweden (30 pts)
2017 Poland Leszno  Poland (50 pts)  Sweden (42 pts)  Russia (18 pts)
Poland Toruń

Medal classification[]

Pos National Team Gold Silver Bronze Total
1.  Poland 8 3 1 12
2.  Denmark 4 5 3 12
3.  Sweden 3 3 7 13
4.  Australia 2 4 3 9
5.  Great Britain - 2 1 3
6.  Russia - - 2 2

 

Pos Rider Team Gold Silver Bronze Total
1. Jarosław Hampel  Poland 6 2 - 8
2. Tomasz Gollob  Poland 5 2 - 7
3. Krzysztof Kasprzak  Poland 5 1 - 6
4. Nicki Pedersen  Denmark 4 4 3 11
5. Niels Kristian Iversen  Denmark 4 4 2 10
6. Andreas Jonsson  Sweden 3 2 6 11
7. Piotr Protasiewicz  Poland 3 2 - 5
8. Rune Holta  Poland 3 1 - 4
9. Patryk Dudek  Poland 3 - - 3
10. Jason Crump  Australia 2 4 1 7

Champions[]

This is a complete list of speedway riders who won the Speedway World Cup. In total, 34 different riders from 4 national teams have a World Cup title. Bold indicates the most recent champions.

Six-time champion:

Five-time champion:

  • Poland Tomasz Gollob (2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
  • Poland Krzysztof Kasprzak (2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016)

Four-time champions:

  • Denmark Niels Kristian Iversen (2006, 2008, 2012, 2014)
  • Denmark Nicki Pedersen (2006, 2008, 2012, 2014)

Three-time champions:

  • Poland Rune Holta (2005, 2007, 2010)
  • Poland Piotr Protasiewicz (2005, 2009, 2011)
  • Sweden Andreas Jonsson (2003, 2004, 2015)
  • Poland Patryk Dudek (2013, 2016, 2017)

Two-time champions:

One-time champions:

Participating nations[]

Tomasz Gollob won the title five times as part of the Polish team.
Legend
  • Gold – Champions.
  • Silver – Runners-up.
  • Bronze – Third place.
  • 4–12 – 4th to 12th places.
  •  ••  – Qualified, but withdrew.
  •  •  – Did not qualify.
  •     – Did not enter or withdrew.
  • XX – Country did not exist or national team was inactive.
  •    – Race-off and final hosts.
  • Q – Qualified for upcoming tournament.
  • q – Will take part in the upcoming qualification.
Team 2001
Poland
(12)
2002
United Kingdom
(12)
2003
Denmark
(12)
2004
United Kingdom
(8)
2005
Poland
(8)
2006
United Kingdom
(8)
2007
Poland
(8)
2008
Denmark
(8)
2009
Poland
(8)
2010
Denmark
(8)
2011
Poland
(8)
2012
Sweden
(9)
2013
Czech Republic
(9)
2014
Poland
(9)
2015
Denmark
(9)
2016
United Kingdom
(9)
2017
Poland
(9)
 Poland Silver 4 4 4 Gold 5 Gold Silver Gold Gold Gold 5 Gold Silver Bronze Gold Gold
 Sweden Bronze Bronze Gold Gold Silver Silver 5 Bronze Bronze Bronze Bronze 4 8 5 Gold Bronze Silver
 Russia 8 9 8 7 6 6 4 6 5 Bronze 9 7 6 Bronze
 Great Britain 6 7 5 Silver 4 Bronze 4 5 5 4 6 6 7 4 5 Silver 4
 Australia Gold Gold Silver 5 5 4 Bronze 4 Silver 5 Silver Silver Bronze Bronze 4 4 5
 Latvia •• 6 8 9 6
 United States 5 6 6 7 8 5 6 6 7 7
 Denmark 4 Silver Bronze Bronze Bronze Gold Silver Gold 6 Silver 4 Gold Silver Gold Silver 5 8
 Czech Republic 7 5 6 6 6 8 7 8 8 7 7 4 7 8 8 9
Team 2001
Poland
(12)
2002
United Kingdom
(12)
2003
Denmark
(12)
2004
United Kingdom
(8)
2005
Poland
(8)
2006
United Kingdom
(8)
2007
Poland
(8)
2008
Denmark
(8)
2009
Poland
(8)
2010
Denmark
(8)
2011
Poland
(8)
2012
Sweden
(9)
2013
Czech Republic
(9)
2014
Poland
(9)
2015
Denmark
(9)
2016
United Kingdom
(9)
2017
Poland
(9)
 France
 Germany 11 12 10 8 8 9 9
 Italy 12 7 9
 Slovenia 12 11 9 7
 Hungary 10 10 11 8 8
 Ukraine
 Finland 9 8 7 7 8 7
 Norway
 Austria

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 13 July 2021.
  2. ^ "FIM Speedway of Nations". Speedway GB. Retrieved 13 July 2021.

External links[]

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