2003 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification Explained

2003 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification
Prev:	2002
Next:	2004

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^[1] to join the other 16 riders that finished in the leading positions from the 2002 Speedway Grand Prix.^[2]

Only 6 riders would qualify through the GP Challenge once again but there was a major change in the lead up to the GP Challenge with a new qualifying format of 4 quarter finals and 2 semi finals. The Intercontinental Final, Continental Final, Overseas Final and Scandinavian Finals were all scrapped.^[3]

Lee Richardson won the GP Challenge.^[4]

Format

First Round (7 riders from Poland to quarter final, 6 from Sweden & Great Britain, 5 from Denmark & Czech Republic, 4 from Australia & Germany, 3 riders from United States, Hungary, Italy, Russia & Slovenia, 2 from Norway, Finland, Latvia, 1 rider each from Austria, Canada, Croatia, France, Netherlands and Ukraine)
Quarter finals - 32 riders to semi finals
Semi finals - 16 riders to GP Challenge
Final Round - 6 riders from the GP Challenge to the 2003 Grand Prix

Quarter finals

32 riders to semi finals

QF (27 April 2002 Lonigo)
width=20	Pos	width=180	Rider	width=40	Points
1		14
2		13
3	Robert Dados	12
4		12
5		11
6		11
7	Lukáš Dryml	9
8	Róbert Nagy	7
9		6
10		5
11		4
12		4
13	Christian Miotello (R)	4
14		4
15		2
16	Alessandro Milanese (R)	0
17		0
17		0

QF (12 May 2002 Pfaffenhofen)
width=20	Pos	width=180	Rider	width=40	Points
1		12
2		12
3	Roman Povazhny	11
4		9
5		8
6		8
7	Rafał Okoniewski	8
8	Paul Hurry	8
9		8
10		8
11		7
12		7
13		5
14		5
15		2
16	Herbert Rudolph (R)	1
17		0

QF (18 May 2002 Ljubljana)
width=20	Pos	width=180	Rider	width=40	Points
1		14
2		12
3	Attila Stefáni	10
4		10
5		10
6		10
7	Peter I Karlsson	9
8	Brent Werner	8
9		7
10		6
11		5
12		5
13		5
14	Norbert Magosi	3
15		3
16		2

QF (24 May 2002 Vetlanda)
width=20	Pos	width=180	Rider	width=40	Points
1		11
2		10
3	Jason Lyons	9
4		9
5		9
6		7
7	Ronni Pedersen	7
8	Lars Gunnestad	7
9		6
10		6
11		5
12		3
13	Niklas Karlsson (R)	3
14		3
15		1
16		0
17		0
18	Freddie Eriksson (R)	0

Semi finals

16 riders from to GP Challenge

width=50% valign=top

15 June 2002 Mšeno

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		14
2		12
3	Lee Richardson	11
4		11
5		9
6		9
7	Rafał Okoniewski	8
8	David Howe	8
9		7
10		6
11	Andrea Maida (R)	6
12		4
13	Brent Werner (R)	4
14		3
15		3
16		2
17		2
18		1

width=50% valign=top

16 June 2002 Holsted

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		12
2		12
3	Piotr Protasiewicz	12
4		10
5		8
6		7
7	Roman Povazhny	7
8	Steve Johnston	7
9		7
10		6
11		6
12		6
13		6
14		5
15		5
16		4

valign=top

Final Round

GP Challenge

6 riders to 2003 Grand Prix

25 August 2002 Piła

width=25px	Pos.	width=180px	Rider	width=20px	Total	width=100px	Points
1		14	3, 2, 3, 3, 3
2		12	3, 3, 3, 0, 3
3		11	0, 3, 3, 2, 3
4		11	3, 2, 2, 3, 1
5		11	3, 1, 3, 2, 2
6		11	2, 1, 2, 3, 3
7		10	2, 2, 1, 3, 2
8		9	2, 3, 0, 2, 2
9		9	0, 3, 2, ex, 0
10		5	2, 1, 2, ex, 1
11		4	0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 3
12	Robert Dados (R)	4	-, -, 1, 2, 1
13		4	1, ef, 1, 1, 1
14		3	ex, 0, 1, 2, 0
15		2	1, 0, 0, 1, ef
16		2	1, 1, 0, -, -
17		1	1, 0, 0, 0, -

race off for 3rd place - Protasiewicz, Dryml, B Pedersen, Bajerski

Notes and References

Web site: Individual Championship . Speedway.org . 8 January 2023.
Web site: HISTORICAL LIST OF RESULTS 1995-2013 Speedway Grand Prix - Qualifications . Speedway History . 8 January 2023.
Web site: Aussie speedway strength shown by five in 2003 GP . Crash . 8 January 2023.
Web site: Richardson qualifies for 2003 GP series . Crash . 8 January 2023.