2003 Speedway Grand Prix Qualification

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)
Pos	Rider	Points
1	Peter Karlsson	14
2	Piotr Protasiewicz	13
3	Robert Dados	12
4	Ryan Fisher	12
5	Steve Johnston	11
6	David Howe	11
7	Lukáš Dryml	9
8	Róbert Nagy	7
9	Andrea Maida	6
10	Josef Franc	5
11	Simon Stead	4
12	Eduard Shaihullin	4
13	Christian Miotello (R)	4
14	Jörg Pingel	4
15	Simone Terenzani	2
16	Alessandro Milanese (R)	0
17	Stéphane Trésarrieu	0
17	Sandor Lakatos	0

QF (12 May 2002 Pfaffenhofen)
Pos	Rider	Points
1	Hans Andersen	12
2	Bjarne Pedersen	12
3	Roman Povazhny	11
4	Sergej Darkin	9
5	Dean Barker	8
6	Bohumil Brhel	8
7	Rafał Okoniewski	8
8	Paul Hurry	8
9	Joachim Kugelmann	8
10	Zlato Krznaric	8
11	Matthias Kröger	7
12	Tomáš Topinka	7
13	Björn G Hansen	5
14	Mirko Wolter	5
15	Manuel Hauzinger	2
16	Herbert Rudolph (R)	1
17	Jim Groen	0

QF (18 May 2002 Ljubljana)
Pos	Rider	Points
1	Charlie Gjedde	14
2	Tomasz Bajerski	12
3	Attila Stefáni	10
4	Matej Žagar	10
5	Craig Watson	10
6	Aleš Dryml Jr.	10
7	Peter I Karlsson	9
8	Brent Werner	8
9	Jarosław Hampel	7
10	Anders Henriksson	6
11	Izak Šantej	5
12	Mark Lemon	5
13	Niels Kristian Iversen	5
14	Norbert Magosi	3
15	Chris Slabon	3
16	Joonas Kylmäkorpi	2

QF (24 May 2002 Vetlanda)
Pos	Rider	Points
1	Lee Richardson	11
2	Stefan Dannö	10
3	Jason Lyons	9
4	Kai Laukkanen	9
5	Andrzej Huszcza	9
6	Henrik Gustafsson	7
7	Ronni Pedersen	7
8	Lars Gunnestad	7
9	Billy Janniro	6
10	Danny Bird	6
11	Jernej Kolenko	5
12	Jacek Rempala	3
13	Niklas Karlsson (R)	3
14	Nikolai Kokin	3
15	Andrzej Korolew	1
16	Alexander Liatosinskij	0
17	Stefan Andersson	0
18	Freddie Eriksson (R)	0

Semi finals

16 riders from to GP Challenge

SF

15 June 2002 Mšeno

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Bohumil Brhel	14
2	Lukáš Dryml	12
3	Lee Richardson	11
4	Peter Karlsson	11
5	Ronni Pedersen	9
6	Tomasz Bajerski	9
7	Rafał Okoniewski	8
8	David Howe	8
9	Robert Dados	7
10	Kai Laukkanen	6
11	Andrea Maida (R)	6
12	Paul Hurry	4
13	Brent Werner (R)	4
14	Róbert Nagy	3
15	Attila Stefáni	3
16	Matej Žagar	2
17	Stefan Dannö	2
18	Antonín Šváb Jr.	1

SF

16 June 2002 Holsted

Pos.	Rider	Points
1	Jason Lyons	12
2	Bjarne Pedersen	12
3	Piotr Protasiewicz	12
4	Andrzej Huszcza	10
5	Dean Barker	8
6	Hans Andersen	7
7	Roman Povazhny	7
8	Steve Johnston	7
9	Peter Ingvar Karlsson	7
10	Lars Gunnestad	6
11	Craig Watson	6
12	Sergej Darkin	6
13	Ryan Fisher	6
14	Aleš Dryml Jr.	5
15	Charlie Gjedde	5
16	Henrik Gustafsson	4

Final Round

GP Challenge

6 riders to 2003 Grand Prix

25 August 2002 Piła

Pos.	Rider	Total	Points
1	Lee Richardson	14	3, 2, 3, 3, 3
2	Bohumil Brhel	12	3, 3, 3, 0, 3
3	Piotr Protasiewicz	11	0, 3, 3, 2, 3
4	Lukáš Dryml	11	3, 2, 2, 3, 1
5	Bjarne Pedersen	11	3, 1, 3, 2, 2
6	Tomasz Bajerski	11	2, 1, 2, 3, 3
7	Jason Lyons	10	2, 2, 1, 3, 2
8	Hans Andersen	9	2, 3, 0, 2, 2
9	Ronni Pedersen	9	0, 3, 2, ex, 0
10	Peter Karlsson	5	2, 1, 2, ex, 1
11	David Howe	4	0, 2, 1, 0, 0, 3
12	Robert Dados (R)	4	-, -, 1, 2, 1
13	Roman Povazhny	4	1, ef, 1, 1, 1
14	Andrzej Huszcza	3	ex, 0, 1, 2, 0
15	Steve Johnston	2	1, 0, 0, 1, ef
16	Rafał Okoniewski	2	1, 1, 0, -, -
17	Dean Barker	1	1, 0, 0, 0, -

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

References

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

[1] "Individual Championship". Speedway.org. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

[2] "HISTORICAL LIST OF RESULTS 1995-2013 Speedway Grand Prix - Qualifications". Speedway History. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

[3] "Aussie speedway strength shown by five in 2003 GP". Crash. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

[4] "Richardson qualifies for 2003 GP series". Crash. Retrieved 8 January 2023.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]