2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia

2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia
	2015 Don Smallgoods Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix
Information
Date	24 October 2015
City	Melbourne
Event	12 of 12
Referee	Jesper Steentoft
Stadium details
Stadium	Etihad Stadium
Capacity	42,000
Length	346 m (378 yd)
Track	temporary track
SGP Results
Attendance	26,609
Best Time	Greg Hancock ; 60.04 secs (in Heat 21)
Winner	Greg Hancock
Runner-up	Niels-Kristian Iversen
3rd place	Niels-Kristian Iversen

Last updated October 04, 2019

The 2015 Don Smallgoods Australian FIM Speedway Grand Prix was the twelfth and final round of the 2015 Speedway Grand Prix season. It took place on 24 October at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.

The 2015 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 21st season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 70th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the fifteenth series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company. Greg Hancock was the defending champion from 2014.

Docklands Stadium, also known by naming rights sponsorship as Marvel Stadium, is a multi-purpose sports and entertainment stadium in the Docklands area of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Construction started in October 1997, under the working name "Victoria Stadium", and was completed in 2000 at a cost of A$460 million.

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia and Oceania. Its name refers to an urban agglomeration of 2,080 km² (800 sq mi), comprising a metropolitan area with 31 municipalities, and is also the common name for its city centre. The city occupies much of the coastline of Port Phillip bay and spreads into the hinterlands towards the Dandenong and Macedon ranges, Mornington Peninsula and Yarra Valley. It has a population of 5 million, and its inhabitants are referred to as "Melburnians".

Riders

Australian rider Sam Masters was given the wildcard for the event. Fellow Aussies Justin Sedgemen and three time reigning Australian Under-21 Champion Max Fricke were named as the reserves.

Samuel Peter "Sam" Masters is an Australian motorcycle speedway rider who won the Premier League Riders' Championship in 2011. Masters is the reigning Australian Champion having won the Championship in January 2017.

The Australian Under-21 Speedway Championship is a motorcycle speedway championship held each year since 1986, with the exception of 1994 and 1995, to determine the Australian Under-21 national champion. The event is organised by Motorcycling Australia (MA). The event was run as the Australian Under-18 Championship in 1986. This lasted just one year and was changed to the Under-21 Championship in 1987 to bring it in line with the Individual Speedway Junior World Championship which is also for Under-21s.

Max Fricke is an Australian speedway rider who won the Australian Under-21 Championship in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017, and the Australian Solo Championship in 2019.

Masters was involved in a heated clash with triple World Champion Nicki Pedersen at the end of Heat 8. Unhappy that Pedersen had squeezed him close to the wall on the back straight, the two exchanged words at the pit gate. Then as Masters was walking back to his pit he was confronted by Pedersen's mechanic Marek Hu. More words were exchanged and Masters punched Hu before being led away. For his actions Masters was fined by the FIM.^[1]

Nicki Pedersen is a Danish motorcycle speedway rider. He has won the World Championship in 2003, 2007 and 2008 and was a World Cup winner with Denmark in 2006, 2008, 2012 and 2014. His brother, Ronni Pedersen, has also ridden in the Speedway Grand Prix and World Cup.

The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme is the global governing/sanctioning body of motorcycle racing. It represents 111 national motorcycle federations that are divided into six regional continental unions.

Results

American Greg Hancock, who had won the only previous SGP of Australia in 2002, was unbeaten on the night to take his 20th Speedway Grand Prix win in his record 81st SGP Final. Danish star Niels-Kristian Iversen finished second with Poland's Maciej Janowski in third place.^[2] Reigning Australian Champion Jason Doyle qualified for the final but was outed in a crash in the first turn in which he suffered neck and chest injuries. A fully conscious Doyle was then transported to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for observation. Greg Hancock took control of the re-run from the start and was never headed. His win also saw him finish in second place in the World Championship standings.^[3]

Gregory Alan "Greg" Hancock is an American motorcycle speedway rider.

The 2002 Speedway Grand Prix season is the eighth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era and is used to determine the Speedway World Champion.

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.

Going into the second semi-final, Denmark's Peter Kildemand needed 4 points to join Australia's 2012 World Champion Chris Holder on 95 points for the season and force a run-off for the last automatic qualifying spot in the 2016 series. Tai Woffinden won the start of the second semi, but down the back straight Kildemand flew past into the lead and looked set for a place in the final where he would only need to finish second to secure his place or third to force the run-off. Unfortunately however, Woffinden fell on lap two and the race was stopped and re-run with the 2015 World Champion excluded. Kildemand could not repeat his effort in the re-run and finished in third place behind Niels-Kristian Iversen and Maciej Janowski, missing his chance for automatic qualification. However, as there are 15 permanent riders in the SGP, Kildemand as the 9th-place finisher in 2015 received one of the wildcard spots for the season essentially giving him automatic qualification for 2016.

Peter Kildemand is a Danish motorcycle speedway rider who is a member of Denmark U-21 national teams. He was a member of the Swindon Robins Elite League Championship winning side of 2012 and was named "Rider of the Year" for the club at the end of the season.

The 2012 Speedway Grand Prix season was the 18th season of the Speedway Grand Prix era, and decided the 67th FIM Speedway World Championship. It was the twelfth series under the promotion of Benfield Sports International, an IMG company. The series began on 31 March in Auckland and finish on 6 October in Torun.

Christopher Robert "Chris" Holder is an Australian speedway rider currently riding for Lejonen in the Swedish Elitserien and for Unibax Toruń in the Polish Speedway Ekstraliga. He became the Australian Individual Speedway Champion in 2008 and followed up with wins in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2014 as well as winning the Australian Under-21 Championship in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. He finished as runner-up in the Under-21 World Championship in 2007 and 2008. He is 2012 World Speedway Champion. His brother, James, also rode in the UK with the Plymouth Devils in the Premier League and younger brother Jack Holder also rides for the Somerset Rebels in the SGB Premiership.

Heat details

Placing	Draw	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21	22	23
	6	(45) Greg Hancock	21		3				3			3							3			3		15	1	3		3
	1	(88) Niels-Kristian Iversen	15	3				2				0				2				3				10	5		3	2
	10	(71) Maciej Janowski	11			3			1						1			3		0				8	8		2	1
4	11	(69) Jason Doyle	11			1				3		2					0						3	9	6	2		0
5	13	(19) Peter Kildemand	13				3	3							3		1					2		12	2		1
6	7	(108) Tai Woffinden	12		2					2					2	3					3			12	3		0
7	2	(100) Andreas Jonsson	12	2					2				3				2				2			11	4	1
8	8	(507) Krzysztof Kasprzak	9		1						1			3			3			1				9	7	0
9	4	(55) Matej Žagar	7	1							3				0				1				2	7	9
10	15	(52) Michael Jepsen Jensen	7				0			1			2						2	2				7	10
11	12	(3) Nicki Pedersen	7			2					2		1			1						1		7	11
12	16	(16) Sam Masters	5				2				0	1						2			0			5	12
13	9	(30) Thomas H. Jonasson	4			0		1						2					0		1			4	13
14	14	(23) Chris Holder	2				1		0					1		0							0	2	14
15	5	(75) Troy Batchelor	2		0			0					0					1					1	2	15
16	3	(37) Chris Harris	0	0						0				0				0				0		0	16
17	17	(17) Justin Sedgemen	0																					0	17
18	18	(18) Max Fricke	0																					0	18
Placing	Draw	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21	22	23

e: retired or mechanical failure • m: exclusion for exceeding two minute time allowance • t: exclusion for touching the tapes • x: other exclusion • f: fell
ns: non-starter • nc: non-classify
Semi-finals: Heat 21: Riders placed 1st, 4th, 6th & 7th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
Heat 22: Riders placed 2nd, 3rd, 5th & 8th in the intermediate classification (after 20 heats)
Big Final (heat 23): The first and second placed riders in each of the Semi-Finals

gate A – inside

gate B

gate C

gate D – outside

The intermediate classification

^[4]

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

Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	FIN	CZE	GBR	LVA	SWE	DEN	PL2	SLO	SCA	POL	AUS
	(108) Tai Woffinden (C)	163	5	17	18	15	8	17	11	18	18	16	8	12
	(45) Greg Hancock	147	5	9	13	12	10	9	7	17	20	16	8	21
	(3) Nicki Pedersen	131	3	16	15	9	11	17	7	7	13	7	19	7
4	(88) Niels-Kristian Iversen	120	7	6	8	14	8	10	7	10	11	14	10	15
5	(69) Jason Doyle	114	4	11	7	7	8	11	12	6	11	8	18	11
6	(55) Matej Žagar	107	8	7	9	10	6	13	12	16	8	4	7	7
7	(71) Maciej Janowski	106	3	2	18	3	12	8	12	5	9	12	11	11
8	(23) Chris Holder	95	0	7	6	18	10	10	10	8	9	4	11	2
9	(19) Peter Kildemand	92	–	–	–	12	8	3	14	9	13	9	11	13
10	(100) Andreas Jonsson	88	3	12	9	2	7	5	7	6	4	10	11	12
11	(52) Michael Jepsen Jensen	84	5	10	4	8	7	7	13	10	2	6	5	7
12	(75) Troy Batchelor	59	0	7	6	4	11	2	6	4	9	5	3	2
13	(37) Chris Harris	55	7	6	5	5	4	5	2	5	4	9	3	0
13	(30) Thomas H. Jonasson	55	4	4	1	7	7	7	7	1	2	6	5	4
15	(507) Krzysztof Kasprzak	45	3	10	4	4	0	0	4	1	3	6	1	9
16	(33) Jarosław Hampel	31	7	11	13	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
17	(16) Antonio Lindback	20	–	–	–	–	–	14	–	–	–	6	–	–
18	(17,16) Bartosz Zmarzlik	17	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	14	–	–	–	–
19	(18,17) Piotr Pawlicki Jr.	8	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	7	–
20	(16) Craig Cook	7	–	–	–	7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
21	(16) Mikkel Michelsen	6	–	–	–	–	–	–	6	–	–	–	–	–
22	(16) Sam Masters	5	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	5
23	(16) Tomasz Gollob	4	4	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
24	(16) Timo Lahti	3	–	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
24	(16) Kjastas Puodzuks	3	–	–	–	–	3	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
26	(16) Vaclav Milik	2	–	–	2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
27	(18) Robert Lambert	1	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
27	(17) Adrian Cyfer	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	–	–	–
27	(16) Aleksander Conda	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	–	–
27	(17) Denis Stojs	1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	–	–	–
31	(17) Nike Lunna	0	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
31	(18) Jiri Nieminen	0	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
31	(17) Matěj Kůs	0	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
31	(18) Josef Franc	0	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
31	(17) Jason Garrity	0	–	–	–	0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Pos.	Rider	Points	POL	FIN	CZE	GBR	LVA	SWE	DEN	PL2	SLO	SCA	POL	AUS

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References

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[1] Masters regrets Melbourne melee

[2] 2015 Speedway Grand Prix of Australia

[3] Doyle stable after crash

[4] "2015 FIM Speedway World Championship standings". SGP.