Speedway World Cup

FIM Speedway World Cup
Sport Motorcycle speedway
Founded 2001
Director Phil Morris
Motto No brakes, no gears, no fear
No. of teams 9 national teams
Continent World
Most recent
champion(s)
 Poland (2016)
Most titles  Poland (7 times)
TV partner(s) BT Sport (UK)
Related
competitions
Speedway Grand Prix
Official website Website

The Speedway World Cup is an annual speedway event held each year in different countries. The first edition of the competition in the current format was in 2001 and it replaced the old World Team Cup competition which was amalgamated with the World Pairs Championship.

Format

Race format
Gate A
(inside)
B
 
C
 
D
(outside)
Heat No Riders starting No
1 1 1 1 1
2 2 2 2 2
3 3 3 3 3
4 4 4 4 4
5 5 5 5 5
6 5 3 4 1
7 1 4 5 2
8 2 3 5 1
9 4 3 1 2
10 2 3 4 5
11 3 1 2 4
12 3 4 2 5
13 5 1 3 4
14 1 5 4 2
15 5 2 1 3
16 1 2 3 5
17 2 3 4 1
18 2 3 4 5
19 4 5 3 1
20 1 5 2 4
21 2 4 1 5
22 1 2 5 3
23 4 1 2 3
24 3 4 5 2
25 4 3 1 5

The final tournament usually lasts for about a week with four meetings held in six or seven days. It starts with two first round "events", each consisting of four national teams. The winners of these events will qualify automatically for the final, while those who finish second and third will have to compete in the race-off. Last place finishers will be eliminated. The top two in the race-off will join the event winners in the final. The winners of the final will carry home the Ove Fundin Trophy, named after one of the all-time greats of speedway who won the world championship five times.

The two events are held in different countries, normally in one of the countries that compete in that event. The race-off and the final is held in another country that did not host an event. For example, in the 2014 competition, Great Britain and Sweden hosted the two events, while Poland hosted both the race-off and final. Since 2013 the host nation has been seeded direct to the final.

Rules

Place Prize money
in US dollars
25,000
20,000
18,000
4th 16,000
5th 14,000
6th 12,000
7th 8,500
8th 8,500

Each of the four meetings is competed between four national teams, and each national team will be represented by four riders; there shall be no substitute rider:

Team A (helmet colour red).
Team B (blue).
Team C (white).
Team D (yellow/black).

The meetings last for 20 heats with one rider for each competing team will race in each heat. Each rider is scheduled to race in five heats and face each of the opposing nations' riders once during the meeting. Teams score 3 points if their rider wins a heat, 2 points if their rider finishes second, 1 for a third-place finish, and none if their rider finishes last or is excluded from a heat.

If a team fall six points behind the leader then they are allowed to make tactical substitutions, replacing a rider who is possibly out of form for one who is playing better in the hope of closing the gap on the leader. Each team is also allowed to play one "joker" if they fall six points behind the leader. With the joker, a team will score double the points their finishing position is usually worth, so if their rider finishes first, they will pick up six points instead of the normal three. This is a controversial rule but was implemented with the intention of keeping interest in meetings that may have been a foregone conclusion. No jokers are allowed to be used during heats 17-20 though a tactical substitute may still be used. The final four heats are nominated by their team managers. The lowest scoring team has first pick followed the team in third place, then the second place team, and finally the leading team.

Medal tables

By season

For more details on this topic, see List of Speedway World Cup medalists.
Year Venue Winners Runner-up 3rd place
2001 Poland Wrocław  Australia (68 pts)  Poland (65 pts)  Sweden (51 pts)
2002 United Kingdom Peterborough  Australia (64 pts)  Denmark (58 pts)  Sweden (54 pts)
2003 Denmark Vojens  Sweden (62 pts)  Australia (57 pts)  Denmark (53 pts)
2004 United Kingdom Poole  Sweden (49 pts)  Great Britain (48 pts)  Denmark (32 pts)
2005 Poland Wrocław  Poland (62 pts)  Sweden (34 pts)  Denmark (31 pts)
2006 United Kingdom Reading  Denmark (45 pts)  Sweden (37 pts)  Great Britain (36 pts)
2007 Poland Leszno  Poland (55 pts)  Denmark (52 pts)  Australia (29 pts)
2008 Denmark Vojens  Denmark (49 pts)  Poland (46 pts)  Sweden (39 pts)
2009 Poland Leszno  Poland (44 pts)  Australia (43 pts)  Sweden (36 pts)
2010 Denmark Vojens  Poland (44 pts)  Denmark (39 pts)  Sweden (35 pts)
Year Venue Winners Runner-up 3rd place
2011 Poland Gorzów Wielkopolski  Poland (51 pts)  Australia (45 pts)  Sweden (30 pts)
2012 Sweden Målilla  Denmark (39 pts)  Australia (36 pts)  Russia (30 pts)
2013 Czech Republic Prague  Poland (41 pts)  Denmark (40 pts)  Australia (34 pts)
2014 Poland Bydgoszcz  Denmark (38 pts)  Poland (37 pts)  Australia (36 pts)
2015 Denmark Vojens  Sweden (34 pts)  Denmark (32 pts)  Poland (27 pts)
2016 United Kingdom Manchester  Poland (39 pts)  Great Britain (32 pts)  Sweden (30 pts)
Year Venue Winners Runner-up 3rd place

Medal classification

Pos National Team Total
1.  Poland 11 7 3 1
2.  Denmark 12 4 5 3
3.  Sweden 12 3 2 7
4.  Australia 9 2 4 3
5.  Great Britain 3 - 2 1
6.  Russia 1 - - 1

 

For more details on this topic, see Speedway World Cup Classification.
Pos Rider Team Total
1. Jarosław Hampel  Poland 8 6 2
2. Tomasz Gollob  Poland 7 5 2
3. Krzysztof Kasprzak  Poland 6 5 1
4. Nicki Pedersen  Denmark 11 4 4 3
5. Niels Kristian Iversen  Denmark 10 4 4 2
6. Andreas Jonsson  Sweden 11 3 2 6
7. Piotr Protasiewicz  Poland 5 3 2
8. Rune Holta  Poland 4 3 1
9. Jason Crump  Australia 7 2 4 1
10. Hans N. Andersen  Denmark 8 2 3 3
= Bjarne Pedersen  Denmark 8 2 3 3

This is a complete list of speedway riders who have won the Speedway World Cup. In total, 34 different riders from 4 national teams have a World Cup title. Bold indicates the most recent champions.

Six-time champion:

Five-time champion:

Four-time champions:

Three-time champions:

Two-time champions:

One-time champions:

Participating nations

Tomasz Gollob won the title five times as part of the Polish team.
Legend
Team 2001
Poland
(12)
2002
United Kingdom
(12)
2003
Denmark
(12)
2004
United Kingdom
(8)
2005
Poland
(8)
2006
United Kingdom
(8)
2007
Poland
(8)
2008
Denmark
(8)
2009
Poland
(8)
2010
Denmark
(8)
2011
Poland
(8)
2012
Sweden
(9)
2013
Czech Republic
(9)
2014
Poland
(9)
2015
Denmark
(9)
2016
United Kingdom
(9)
 Australia 5 5 4 4 5 4 4
 Czech Republic 7 5 6 6 6 8 7 8 8 7 7 4 7 8 8
 Denmark 4 6 4 5
 Finland 9 8 7 7 8 7
 Germany 11 12 10 8 8 9 8
 Great Britain 6 7 5 4 4 5 5 4 6 6 7 4 5
 Hungary 10 10 11 8 8
 Italy 12 7 9
 Latvia •• 6 8 9
 Poland 4 4 4 5 5
 Russia 8 9 8 7 6 6 4 6 5 9 7 6
 Slovenia 12 11 9 7
 Sweden 5 4 8 5
 United States 5 6 6 7 8 5 6 6 7
Team 2001
Poland
(12)
2002
United Kingdom
(12)
2003
Denmark
(12)
2004
United Kingdom
(8)
2005
Poland
(8)
2006
United Kingdom
(8)
2007
Poland
(8)
2008
Denmark
(8)
2009
Poland
(8)
2010
Denmark
(8)
2011
Poland
(8)
2012
Sweden
(9)
2013
Czech Republic
(9)
2014
Poland
(9)
2015
Denmark
(9)
2016
United Kingdom
(9)
 Austria
 France
 Norway
 Ukraine

See also

References

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