The 2004 Speedway Grand Prix was the 59th edition of the official World Championship[1][2] and the tenth season in the Speedway Grand Prix era used to determine the Speedway World Champion.
| 2004 Speedway Grand Prix | |
|---|---|
| Season details | |
| Dates | 1 May – 2 October |
| Events | 9 |
| Cities | 9 |
| Countries | 7 |
| Riders | 22 permanents 2 wild card(s) |
| Heats | 225 (in 9 events) |
| Winners | |
| Champion |  AUS Jason Crump |
| Runner-up |  SWE Tony Rickardsson |
| 3rd place |  USA Greg Hancock |
|
| |
After finishing second in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Jason Crump broke through to become Australia's first Individual World Champion since Jack Young had won his second straight World title in 1952.
The system first used in 1998 continued to be adopted with 24 riders, divided into two classes. The eight best would be directly qualified for the "Main Event", while the sixteen others would be knocked out if they finished out of the top two in 4-man heats on two occasions – while they would go through if they finished inside the top two on two occasions. This resulted in 10 heats, where eight proceeded to the Main Event, where exactly the same system was applied to give eight riders to a semi-final.
The semi-finals were then two heats of four, where the top two qualified for a final – there was no consolation final. The 4 finalists scored 25, 20, 18 and 16 points, with 5th and 6th place getting 13, 7th and 8th 11, and after that 8, 8, 7, 7, etc. Places after 8th place were awarded according to the time a rider was knocked out and, secondly, according to position in the last heat he rode in.
The 2004 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event. The permanent riders are highlighted in the results table below.
Calendar
| Date | Grand Prix | Venue | Winner | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 May | Sweden | Olympiastadion, Stockholm | Leigh Adams | 2004 Swedish GP[3] |
| 15 May | Czech Republic | Markéta Stadium, Prague | Jason Crump | 2004 Czech GP[4] |
| 29 May | Europe | Stadion Olimpijski, Wrocław | Bjarne Pedersen | 2004 European GP[5] |
| 12 June | Great Britain | Millennium Stadium, Cardiff | Greg Hancock | 2004 British GP[6] |
| 26 June | Denmark | Parken Stadium, Copenhagen | Jason Crump | 2004 Danish GP[7] |
| 21 August | Scandinavia | Ullevi, Gothenburg | Hans Andersen | 2004 Scandinavian GP[8] |
| 4 September | Slovenia | Matija Gubec Stadium, Krško | Tony Rickardsson | 2004 Slovenian GP[9] |
| 18 September | Poland | Polonia Stadium, Bydgoszcz | Tomasz Gollob | 2004 Polish GP[10] |
| 2 October | Norway | Vikingskipet, Hamar | Tony Rickardsson | 2004 Norwegian GP[11] |
| Qualifies for next season's Grand Prix series |
| Full-time Grand Prix rider |
| Wild card, track reserve or qualified reserve |
| Pos. | Rider | Points | SWE |
CZE  |
EUR  |
GBR  |
DEN  |
SCA |
SVN  |
POL |
NOR 
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
(2) Jason Crump
|
158 | 20 | 25 | 8 | 16 | 25 | 20 | 13 | 20 | 11 |
|
(3) Tony Rickardsson
|
155 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 8 | 7 | 18 | 25 | 18 | 25 |
|
(5) Greg Hancock
|
137 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 25 | 18 | 16 | 20 | 6 | 20 |
| 4 | (4) Leigh Adams
|
131 | 25 | 13 | 11 | 20 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 16 |
| 5 | (1) Nicki Pedersen
|
113 | 13 | 8 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 13 |
| 6 | (6) Tomasz Gollob
|
113 | 16 | 13 | 7 | 11 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 25 | 18 |
| 7 | (10) Andreas Jonsson
|
97 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 8 | 16 | 8 | 13 |
| 8 | (22) Jarosław Hampel
|
81 | 3 | 20 | 20 | 6 | – | 6 | 6 | 13 | 7 |
| 9 | (17) Hans Andersen
|
80 | 4 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 25 | 18 | 8 | 6 |
| 10 | (15) Bjarne Pedersen
|
78 | 8 | 4 | 25 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 11 | 5 | 3 |
| 11 | (16) Lee Richardson
|
76 | 11 | 11 | 5 | 18 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 5 |
| 12 | (7) Scott Nicholls
|
66 | 5 | – | 4 | 11 | 11 | 13 | 5 | 11 | 6 |
| 13 | (9) Ryan Sullivan
|
65 | 7 | 16 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| 14 | (8) Rune Holta
|
60 | 6 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 16 | 11 |
| 15 | (12) Piotr Protasiewicz
|
55 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| 16 | (14) Mikael Max
|
49 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 8 |
| 17 | (11) Mark Loram
|
38 | 8 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 2 |
| 18 | (21) Jesper B. Jensen
|
37 | 11 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 19 | (18) Bohumil Brhel
|
32 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 20 |  (19) Kai Laukkanen
|
25 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 21 | (13) Lukáš Dryml
|
22 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | – |
| 22 | (20) Aleš Dryml Jr.
|
22 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
| 23 | Grzegorz Walasek
|
13 | – | – | 13 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 24 | Niels-Kristian Iversen
|
13 | – | – | – | – | 13 | – | – | – | – |
| 25 | Kenneth Bjerre
|
13 | – | – | – | – | 13 | – | – | – | – |
| 26 | Matej Žagar
|
8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 8 | – | – |
| 27 | David Norris
|
8 | – | – | – | 8 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 28 | Peter Karlsson
|
7 | – | – | – | – | – | 7 | – | – | – |
| 29 | Rafał Dobrucki
|
5 | – | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 30 | Arnt Förland
|
4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 |
| 31 | Fredrik Lindgren
|
4 | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 32 | Chris Louis
|
4 | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | – |
| 33 | Wiesław Jaguś
|
4 | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 34 | Krzysztof Kasprzak
|
3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 3 | – |
| 35 | Tomasz Chrzanowski
|
2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – |
| 36 | Peter Ljung
|
2 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 37 |  Robert Barth
|
2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 38 | Rune Sola
|
2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 2 |
| 39 | Antonio Lindbäck
|
2 | – | – | – | – | – | 2 | – | – | – |
| 40 | Antonín Šváb Jr.
|
2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 41 | Izak Šantej
|
1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – |
| 42 | Joonas Kylmäkorpi
|
1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| 43 | Simon Stead
|
1 | – | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – |
| Pos. | Rider | Points | SWE |
CZE |
EUR |
GBR |
DEN |
SCA |
SVN |
POL |
NOR
|