| 1997 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification | |
|---|---|
The 1997 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 8 riders that qualified for the 1997 Speedway Grand Prix [1] to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1996 Speedway Grand Prix.
The format changed slightly in that four riders would qualify straight from the Intercontinental and Continental finals and four riders would qualify through the GP Challenge. [2] [3] [4]
Simon Wigg won the GP Challenge. [5]
3 riders to Intercontinental final+
+ Controversy over tyres at the final saw only 3 riders progress with an extra 5 places awarded in the Scandinavian final. [6] [7]
13 riders to Intercontinental final
(9 Jun 1996  Varhaug) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Points | |||
| 1 |  Jimmy Nilsen | 14 [8] | |||
| 2 |  Brian Andersen | 12 | |||
| 3 | Mikael Karlsson | 11 | |||
| 4 | Arnt Førland | 10 | |||
| 5 | John Jørgensen | 10 | |||
| 6 | Jan Stæchmann | 10 | |||
| 7 | Brian Karger | 10 | |||
| 8 | Stefan Dannö | 9 | |||
| 9 | Niklas Klingberg | 9 | |||
| 10 | Ronni Pedersen | 7 | |||
| 11 | Rune Holta | 4 | |||
| 12 |  Vesa Ylinen | 4 | |||
| 13 | Kai Laukkanen | 4 | |||
| 14 | Lars Gunnestad | 3 | |||
| 15 | Jarno Kosonen | 2 | |||
| 16 | Björn Tönnesen | 1 | |||
| 16 | John Pollestad | 0 | |||
Continental semi-finals - 16 riders from to Continental final
SF
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2 riders direct to Grand Prix, 5 riders to GP Challenge, Jimmy Nilsen won the event. [9]
| Pos. | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Tomasz Gollob | 12 |
| 2 | Sławomir Drabik | 11 |
| 3 |  Zoltán Adorján | 11 |
| 4 |  Robert Barth | 11 |
| 5 |  Rinat Mardanshin | 11 |
| 6 |  Simon Wigg | 10 |
| 7 | Sergej Darkin | 10 |
| 8 |  Armando Castagna | 9 |
| 9 |  Tomáš Topinka | 9 |
| 10 | Jacek Krzyżaniak | 6 |
| 11 | Tomasz Bajerski | 5 |
| 12 | Oleg Kurguskin | 5 |
| 13 | Zdeněk Schneiderwind | 3 |
| 14 | Antonín Kasper Jr. | 3 |
| 15 | Roman Jankowski | 2 |
| 16 |  Philippe Bergé | 1 |
| 17 |  Igor Marko | 1 |
| 18 | Václav Milík Sr. | 1 |
4 riders to 1997 Grand Prix
Prague | Pos. | Rider | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Wigg | 12 |
| 2 |  Leigh Adams | 12 |
| 3 | Mikael Karlsson | 11 |
| 4 | Andy Smith | 11 |
| 5 |  Sam Ermolenko | 11 |
| 6 | Jason Crump | 11 |
| 7 | Ryan Sullivan | 9 |
| 8 | Stefan Dannö | 9 |
| 9 | Joe Screen | 9 |
| 10 | Brian Karger | 8 |
| 11 | Zoltán Adorján | 6 |
| 12 | Gerd Riss | 4 |
| 13 | Robert Barth | 4 |
| 14 | Craig Boyce | 2 |
| 15 | Rinat Mardanshin | 0 |
| 16 | Tommy Knudsen | 0 |
| 17 | Armando Castagna | 0 |
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Leigh Scott Adams is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Australia. He is a multiple Speedway Grand Prix winner and World Team Champion. He also won a record 10 Australian Solo Championships, four Australian Under-21 Championships, the 1992 Individual Speedway Junior World Championship, and was the 1986 Australian Under-16 Champion.
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Peter Gunnar Karlsson is a former motorcycle speedway rider from Sweden, who was twice Swedish champion and a three times World Cup winner.
Henrik Anders (Henka) Gustafsson is an international Motorcycle speedway rider who won the 1993 World Pairs Championship with Tony Rickardsson and the Speedway World Team Cup with Sweden in 1994 and 2000. Early in his career Gustafsson was known as much for his long, curly blonde hair as he was his riding, though his riding soon outshone his locks.
Paul William George Hurry is a former motorcycle speedway rider from England. He earned 12 international caps for the England national speedway team and 5 caps for the Great Britain team.
The 1995 Intercontinental Final was the seventeenth running of the Intercontinental Final. Previously the IC Final had been the final qualifying stage for Motorcycle speedway riders from Scandinavia, the USA and from the Commonwealth nations for the old single meeting World Final. From 1995 riders from the Intercontinental Final moved into the GP Challenge as part of qualifying for the new Speedway Grand Prix series established in 1995. However, riders would be racing for a place in the following years SGP series and not for the current year.
The 1996 Intercontinental Final was the eighteenth running of the Intercontinental Final and was the second last qualifying stage for Motorcycle speedway riders to qualify for the 1997 Speedway Grand Prix series. The Final was run on 28 July at the Holsted Speedway Center in Holsted, Denmark
The Continental final was a Motorcycle speedway final sanctioned by the FIM as the qualifying round for the Speedway World Championship between 1976 and 2000.
The Speedway Grand Prix Challenge or Speedway Grand Prix Qualification is an annual speedway qualifying tournament to determine the qualifiers for the Speedway Grand Prix, which is the World Championship of speedway.
The 1996 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 8 riders that qualified for the 1996 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1995 Speedway Grand Prix and Jason Crump who was seeded through to the Grand Prix.
The 1998 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 16 riders that qualified for the 1998 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1997 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 1999 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 14 riders that qualified for the 1999 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1998 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2000 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 12 riders that would qualify for the 2000 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 10 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 1999 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2001 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 12 riders that would qualify for the 2001 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 10 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2000 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 12 riders that would qualify for the 2002 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 10 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2001 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2003 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 6 riders that would qualify for the 2003 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 16 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2002 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2004 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 6 riders that would qualify for the 2004 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 16 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2003 Speedway Grand Prix.
The 2005 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification or GP Challenge was a series of motorcycle speedway meetings used to determine the 2 riders that would qualify for the 2005 Speedway Grand Prix to join the other 8 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2004 Speedway Grand Prix and 6 seeded riders.
