Speedway Grand Prix are a series of stand-alone motorcycle speedway events over the course of a season used to determine the Speedway World Champion . The series started in 1995 replacing the previous format of a single event final. The first winner was Hans Nielsen of Denmark.
15-455: The format for a Grand Prix changed for the 2007 season onwards. Sixteen riders take part in each Grand Prix and over the course of twenty heats each rider will race against every other rider once. The top eight scorers advance to a semi-final and from each semi-final the 1st and 2nd placed riders will advance to the GP final. In this format all rides counted towards Grand Prix points totals, including
30-594: A Grand Prix rider until the end of the 2004 season. Loram won a third British Speedway Championship in 2001 and won the Knockout Cup with Peterborough Panthers during the 2001 Elite League speedway season . He won another Knockout Cup with Eastbourne Eagles the following year. After two seasons with Eastbourne he joined the Arena Essex Hammers for 2004 and 2005 seasons. In March 2007, Loram broke his thigh and dislocated his arm whilst riding in
45-436: The 2012 Speedway Grand Prix of Nordic , Adrian Miedziński at the 2013 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland and most recently Bartosz Zmarzlik at the 2014 Speedway Grand Prix of Poland . The 15 permanent Grand Prix riders have been decided by various methods over the history of the series. For the 2016 season, the top 8 riders from the 2015 World Championship automatically qualified. They were joined by 3 riders who qualified via
60-721: The England national speedway team and 10 caps for the Great Britain team. Born in Mtarfa , Malta , Mark Loram started his career with the Hackney Kestrels during the 1987 British League season . He averaged a respectable 5.08 and retained his place in the Hackney side for the 1988 National League season , where he not only topped the league averages but also led hackney to the league and cup double. he also became
75-521: The "wild card", will normally be a leading non-GP rider from the country in which the Grand Prix is being held. The Wild Card can win the Grand Prix like any other rider, and their World Championship points count the same as the 15 permanent riders, although this has only happened on six occasions by Mark Loram , Martin Dugard , Hans Andersen at the 2006 Danish Grand Prix , Michael Jepsen Jensen at
90-572: The British junior champion. He signed for Ipswich Witches for the 1989 National League season and won his first individual honours by winning the Riders' Championship . He also reached the final of the Under 21 World Championship . The following season he stepped up to the highest league after joining King's Lynn Stars for the 1990 British League season . Despite the team finishing last he topped
105-619: The Grand Prix Qualifiers, and 4 riders who were nominated by then-series promoters, IMG . The Speedway Grand Prix series and the Speedway World Cup were originally promoted by Benfield Sports International, which later was renamed to BSI Speedway. On 11 April 2007 it was announced that BSI Speedway had been acquired by IMG and the existing team took up roles within IMG Motorsport. IMG Motorsport managed
120-412: The club averages for the season, reached his British Speedway Championship and competed in the 1990 Individual Long Track World Championship . For the next three seasons ( 1991 , 1992 and 1993 ) he rode for King's Lynn as a heat leader and reached a second World U21 final in 1992, losing to Leigh Adams in a run-off for the title. By 1994 he was competing with the world's best riders and reached
135-682: The final of the 1994 Individual Speedway World Championship , where he finished in 8th place. The following season in 1995 he moved to Exeter Falcons from King's Lynn and took part in the 1995 Speedway Grand Prix (the new version of the World Championship). In 1997, he became British champion, won the Danish Grand Prix in Vojens and won the league title with Bradford Dukes . After a season with Wolverhampton Wolves in 1998, he joined Poole Pirates . In 1999, Loram became
150-733: The first rider in Speedway Grand Prix history to win a GP whilst being entered as a wild card and won the Swedish Grand Prix in Linköping . He also became British champion for the second time. Loram became the Speedway World Champion in 2000 despite not winning any of the Grand Prix meetings held that year, the only rider to ever do so. However he was the only rider to reach the semi-finals in all six meetings which along with runner-up placings in
165-522: The opening fixture of the Elite League season for the Ipswich Witches . This ended his involvement in the sport for 2007, and he was unable to ride in 2008 and 2009. On 17 December 2009, Loram officially announced his retirement from speedway. Finals First 1991 & 1993 1989 Speedway Under-21 World Championship The 1989 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship
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#1732771991982180-588: The opening two rounds in the Czech Republic and Sweden as well as a third in Britain in Round 4 gave him enough points to secure his first and only world title. Loram scored 102 points over the six rounds to defeat 1996 champion Billy Hamill on 95 and defending champion Tony Rickardsson on 94. Loram's win saw him become the 7th British rider to win speedway's ultimate individual prize. He would remain
195-442: The rider who scores most GP points from each round. The scoring system has been overhauled for the 2020 season which will see championship points scored based on the overall GP result of a rider rather than each individual heat of which those points will only decide the progress of a rider in a GP. The same 15 riders form the basis of the Grand Prix line up throughout the course of the season, barring injuries. The 16th rider, known as
210-441: The semi-final and final, the maximum points for a single GP is 21 (5x heat wins, semi final win and final win). This scoring revision was introduced as a result of comments made during 2006 that the 4 finalists received too many points compared to the losing semi-finalists who in turn received little benefit compared to, say, the 9th placed non-qualifier [1] . Also, this format means that the winner of each Grand Prix may not have been
225-562: The series until 2021. Speedway Grand Prix is currently promoted by Discovery Sports Events, formerly Eurosport Events since 2022. Mark Loram Mark Roysten Gregory Loram (born 12 January 1971) is a British former motorcycle speedway rider, who won the World Speedway Championship in 2000 and won the British Championship in 1997, 1999, and 2001. He earned 36 international caps for
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