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.
30-452: 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
60-579: 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
90-407: A ninth place finish in the league during 1969. After a tough start to the 1970s, King's Lynn managed two consecutive third place finishes during the 1972 and 1973 seasons, with their strongest riders being Terry Betts and Malcolm Simmons and well supported by Howard Cole and Phil Crump . Ian Turner and Michael Lee were added to the team but it was not until 1977 that the first silverware
120-436: 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
150-692: 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
180-504: The King's Lynn Knights from 1997 to 2001. The Czech pair of Bohumil Brhel and Tomáš Topinka became fan's favourites. A junior side were introduced in 1998 and competed under various names in the following seasons, including the Starlets, Braves, Kids and Young Stars. During the 2000 Elite League speedway season the team finished runner-up behind Eastbourne Eagles and won the Knockout Cup for
210-627: The Norwich Stars but in 1994 the green was replaced with blue, to match the blue and yellow of the King's Lynn official town crest. During their time as the Knights, silver and black became the prominent colours, but since reviving the Stars nickname they returned to using blue and yellow. In 1997, the team returned to league action after missing the 1996 season, they joined the Elite League and were known as
240-511: 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
270-657: The 2006 Premier League Knockout Cup completing the treble for the year. Much of the success was down to Tomáš Topinka, Kevin Doolan and Troy Batchelor . In 2007, the Stars once again won the Premier Trophy and Premier League Knock-out Cup. They also finished top of the Premier League table but that year the Stars were beaten by the Sheffield Tigers in the play-off semi-final. In 2008, the Stars eventually finished third in
300-559: 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
330-595: 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
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#1732852381901360-529: The Knockout Cup (tier 2) in 2005, they finished top of the Premier League table in 2006 but were the first such team not automatically crowned champions because it was the first season that the Premier League used the play-off system to decide the championship. However, the Stars beat the Sheffield Tigers in the play off final to be crowned champions. King's Lynn Stars also won the 2006 Premier Trophy and
390-627: The Premier Trophy on 30 September beating the Edinburgh Monarchs 99–92 on aggregate over two legs and in October the Stars won the Knock-Out Cup, beating the same Edinburgh Monarchs again on aggregate over two legs. In total from 2005 to 2009 they won four knockout cups and two league titles. The 2011 season saw King's Lynn Stars return to the Elite League, marking a return to the top flight of speedway. Only Tomáš Topinka and Olly Allen were kept on
420-640: The South Lynn Stars named after the Norwich Stars , who had closed in 1964. The first meeting was on 23 May 1965 and the South Lynn Stars name was dropped in favour of the King's Lynn Stars. The team's inaugural league season was the 1966 British League season , where they finished 16th fom 19 teams. The team was led by new signing Terry Betts , who recorded a season average of 9.41. After finishing last in 1967 they signed Malcolm Simmons from West Ham Hammers but experienced another poor season before improving to
450-515: The Stars and Richard Hellsen was a popular rider with the fans. The team were starved of success throughout the 1980s and co-promoter Cyril Crane (a former Norwich and Sheffield rider) came under criticism during the period. The team continued to compete in the highest division until the end of the 1995 season but failed to finish any higher than fourth place. Riders included Mark Loram , Richard Knight and Henka Gustaffson . The team colours were originally green and yellow, taken directly from
480-412: 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
510-662: 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
540-701: 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
570-597: The highest league title, to have won it would have been the first time in the club's history. They topped the regular season table but lost in the play off final to Poole Pirates. Robert Lambert topped scored for the Stars and was well supported by Iversen. Following a season lost to the COVID-19 pandemic the team had a poor 2021 but reached the League Cup final in 2022. In June 2023, the club signed former world champion Artem Laguta for his first season in British speedway but
600-420: The league. They then participated in the play-off promotion battle, where they lost on aggregate to Edinburgh Monarchs in the final. In 2009, for the second time in three years, the Stars won the treble: the first club ever to achieve this feat twice. The Stars were crowned league champions on 16 September 2009 but then lost on aggregate to the Edinburgh Monarchs in the promotion play-off final. The Stars also won
630-600: 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 King%27s Lynn Stars King's Lynn Stars are a motorcycle speedway team who compete in the SGB Premiership . The nickname "Stars"
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#1732852381901660-572: 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
690-442: 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
720-488: The season disintegrated with Laguta unable to perform on the track and the team finished last. A complete revamp ensued for 2024, which included Niels Kristian Iversen's return and the mid-season signing of Czech rider Jan Kvěch . 1976 team 2011 team 2012 team For the 2012 season, the Bjerre brothers returned to their parent club, Peterborough Panthers and the Stars and declined to renew with Olly Allen, who also joined
750-501: The second time. The Stars pairing of Australian's Leigh Adams and Jason Crump topped the league averages. Adams left for Oxford in 2001 and the Stars brought in Nicki Pedersen and in 2002, the club became the King's Lynn Silver Machine for one season before reverting to their traditional name of the Stars. For the first time in their 36-year history, the team dropped to the second division (Premier League) from 2003. After winning
780-441: 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
810-542: 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
840-525: The squad, with the rest of the team brought in from other Elite squads. The Stars proved very competitive home and away and finished third in the League and qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the Poole Pirates in the semi-finals. They continued to compete in the Elite League and finished 2nd in 2014, when headed by Niels Kristian Iversen . During the SGB Premiership 2018 the club just failed to win
870-399: Was adopted from the defunct Norwich Stars team. The team was founded in 1965 and has been running continually since then, except for 1996 when King's Lynn failed to have a team competing in the British league system. Plans for speedway in King's Lynn surfaced in 1965, when Maurice Littlechild promoted on an open licence at King's Lynn Stadium . Littlechild had plans to create a team called
900-468: Was won by the team. The Knockout Cup win included a narrow two point win over Reading Racers on aggregate in the final , thanks largely to Lee and Betts. The following season in 1978, they won the Inter League Knock-out Cup. The team secured a second Inter League Knock-out Cup win 1980 and Michael Lee was crowned world champion. Dave Jessup emerged as a rider to match Michael Lee for
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