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2001

Tournament relaunched as Speedway World Cup ... Superb racing as unbeaten Crump leads Australia to victory at Wroclaw
After several years of changes to the format and heat formulae of the World Team Cup, the competition received a major make-over and was relaunched as the SWC (Speedway World Cup).
As with other sports, it was decided that the main competition would be held in one country in a limited time period (one week, for speedway). It would be organised by BSI (Benfield Sports International), who had successfully guided the Speedway Grand Prix through its early years.
BSI were not involved in the Qualifying Rounds.
Poland, with the highest domestic attendances, was chosen to stage this first SWC tournament, which would comprise 12 nations competing in three meetings, followed by a "Race-Off" and a Final. These five meetings were to be staged at Gdansk, Pila, Bydgoszcz, Wroclaw, and Katowice. Only two of these meetings would be guaranteed to feature the Polish team and, as most fans could have told the FIM and BSI, while Polish fans are very nationalistic and will support Polish riders and teams, they will not support meetings that do not feature their own countrymen. The staging tracks knew this, of course, and so it was eventually agreed that Gdansk would stage the three qualifiers, and Wroclaw the race-off and Final - so each track would be assured of at least one appearance of the Poland team to attract the crowds.

However, sales of tickets for the first Polish team appearance at Gdansk for "Event 1" were very poor, due to the high prices being charged, and any hope of fans turning up on the day were shattered by the weather. A heavy shower two hours before the start didn't help, and then the sky darkened as riders prepared in the pits. Their appearance onto the track for the introductions was the cue for the heavens to open. Torrential rain, thunder and lightning did their worst. Within minutes the track resembled a lake and the small crowd hunted for cover in vain. When it stopped an hour later, pumps were called in to clear the water and the start was delayed by 5 hours to 7.30pm. Hardly an ideal start to speedway's big new competition.

When racing eventually began, Poland dropped just ten points on their way to a comfortable victory. Great Britain qualified for the race-off as expected, but were impressive as they had lost two top riders from their team a few days earlier. Captain Chris Louis had suffered career-ending injuries at Czestochowa (when hit by a metal "tapes-holder" at the start line, which had not been removed after the start of the race) and Scott Nicholls dislocated a shoulder at Ipswich. Havelock proved to be an inspiring captain, and his troops responded superbly.

The young Danish team pushed the more experienced Swedes all the way in Event 2, and Russia impressed in clinching a place in the Race-Off. The final meeting at Gdansk was a comfortable win for Australia. USA, without the injured Billy Hamill, came within 5 points of them after heat 18, but then the Aussies showed their power by winning all of the last six races. USA just held off the Czechs for second place, when Bo Brhel's engine packed up when he was lying second in his heat 21 "joker" double-point ride.		 The two meetings at Wroclaw featured 5 teams and 5-rider races, which I think was a mistake. The only track suitable for such races is at Pardubice, Czech Republic, in my opinion. The problems occur as the riders emerge from bend 2 and are funnelled onto the narrower back straight , where the riders are "grabbed" by the air fence. There were some nasty-looking falls at this point in the early heats of the race-off, and it was a good decision to remove the air-fence from the straights in time for the Final. Having said that, the standard of racing at both Wroclaw meetings varied from good to magnificent.

At the Race-Off (a "last chance" qualifier for the Final), the top 3 teams were seperated by just one point, thanks to a last-heat victory by Loram for GB, but the same rider was beaten by USA's Hancock in a run-off for a place in the Final. GB had lost Hurry with a concussion folowing an early fall, but he bravely came back against medical advice to get a valuable 2 points in ht.23 when no other rider was eligible to ride. USA, still without Hamill, qualified for the Final - but lost Ermolenko with a seperated shoulder in a terrible heat 25 crash. The Czechs lost a rider too, Makovsky suffering a sickening crash early on. But it was the Danes who came out on top with a true "team" performance.

At the Final, the Poles had massive support from the 20,000 crowd, but started poorly with just one race winner in the first round of 5 heats. Meanwhile Australia, with Boyce replacing Lyons, scored 17 out of a possible 20 in those same 5 races to give themselves a wonderful start. Poland began to fight back, and it was a Gollob 8-pt "joker" win in heat 10 that actually put the host nation in front by just a point, though that lead didn't last long. But the crowd inspired the Poles to come back yet again, and with just one heat remaining they had restored their 1 pt lead. But then it all went wrong for the hosts in the final race when Krzyzaniak fell and was excluded from the rerun, leaving Crump, amidst whistles of derision from the Polish fans for their own team, to win the meeting for his country, and complete an unbeaten SWC for himself. For some strange reason Crump, on his celebration lap, was bombarded with cans and bottles, so he stood up on his bike and pointed to the Australia flag - on the butt of his kevlars! This ensured that he had to be protected by riot police on his return to the pits.

From a pure racing point of view, the first SWC was a stunning success. But the financial aspects, and the safety aspects of the 5-rider races, needed some discussion.

QUALIFYING ROUNDS 1 & 2 (1st & 2nd in each round to Events 1, 2, or 3)

QUALIFYING ROUND 1 Sun 03.06 : Ljubljana, Slovenia
Slovenia 48 Russia 45 Italy 25 Ukraine 1

Ljubljana 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Total
1 Izak Santej 3 3 3 3 2 14
2 Jernej Kolenko 3 f 3 2 2 10
3 Ales Dolinar 1 2 - - - 3
4 Matej Zagar - 1 2 - 3 6
17 Matej Ferjan † 3 3 3 3 3 15
SLOVENIA 3 4 7 10 11 13 13 16 18 21 24 27 30 33 35 38 41 43 45 48 48
5 Sergey Darkin 2 3 2 2 3 12
6 Roman Povazhny 3 2 2 3 ret 10
7 Rinat Mardanshin 2 3 2 2 2 11
8 Eduard Shaikhullin 2 2 3 2 3 12
18 (no rider) † -
RUSSIA 2 5 7 9 11 14 17 19 22 24 26 28 30 32 35 37 39 42 45 45 45
9 Alessandro Dalle Valle 1 3 1 1 2 8
10 Simone Tadiello 1 1 1 - 1 4
11 Andrea Maida 2 1 1 1 1 6
12 Armando Castagna 1 2 1 1 1 6
19 Christian Miotello † 1 1
ITALY 1 3 4 5 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 25 25
13 Aleksandr Liatosinsky 0 1 0 ret ex-2 1
14 Fredrik Petro 0 0 0 0 ret 0
15 Igor Borisenko 0 0 0 0 0 0
16 Igor Epifanov ret 0 0 0 0 0
20 (no rider) † -
UKRAINE 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

QUALIFYING ROUND 2 Sun 03.06 : Debrecen, Hungary
Finland 48 Hungary 47 Norway 12 Latvia 10

Debrecen 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Total
13 Kaj Laukkanen 3 3 3 2 1 12
14 Kauko Nieminen 3 2 3 2 3 13
15 Joonas Kylmakorpi 3 2 3 3 2 13
16 Tomi Reima 2 2 2 - - 6
20 Petri Kokko † 2 2 4
FINLAND 3 6 9 11 13 15 18 20 23 26 28 31 33 36 38 40 42 45 46 48 48
5 Robert Nagy 2 3 3 3 3 14
6 Norbert Magosi 2 3 2 3 3 13
7 Gabor Szegvari 1 2 2 2 3 10
8 Laszlo Szatmari 1 3 1 3 2 10
18 Zsolt Bencze † -
HUNGARY 2 4 5 6 9 12 14 17 18 20 23 25 28 30 33 36 39 41 44 47 47
9 Rune Holta 2 - - - - 2
10 Bjorn G Hansen 3 1 2 1 0 7
11 Pierre Moen 1 1 0 0 nf 2
12 Eivind Rappen 1 0 0 - - 1
19 (no rider) † -
NORWAY 1 2 4 7 7 8 8 9 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12
1 Denis Popovich 0 0 1 1 1 3
2 Leonid Paura 0 1 1 0 2 4
3 Stanislav Paura - 0 - 1 nf 1
4 Aleksandr Ivanov - 1 0 1 nf 2
17 (no rider) † -
LATVIA 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 5 6 6 7 7 7 9 10 10

EVENTS 1, 2, & 3 (Winners of each Event to Final. 2nd place teams, and two highest scoring 3rd placed teams, to Race-Off)
EVENT 1 Sun 01.07 : Gdansk, Poland Referee : Tony Steele (GB)
Poland 62 Great Britain 49 Finland 22 Germany 15
Team Manager: Zenon Plech Team Manager: Neil Middleditch Team Manager: Ila Teromaa Team Manager: Georg Hack

Gdansk 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Total
1 Tomasz Gollob 3 3 3 3 2 14
2 Piotr Protasiewicz 3 3 3 3 1 13
3 Miroslaw Kowalik 2 2 1 2 7
4 Sebastian Ulamek 2 3 3 3 3 14
5 Krzysztof Cegielski† 3 2 3 3 3 14
POLAND 2 4 7 10 13 16 18 21 24 26 29 30 33 36 39 41 44 47 50 53 56 59 60 62 62
1 Mark Loram 3 3 4^ 2 2 3 17
2 Carl Stonehewer 3 1 1 2 2 9
3 Lee Richardson 2 2 3 3 ret 3 13
4 Paul Hurry 0 0 - - 0
5 Gary Havelock © † 2 3 1 2 2 10
GREAT BRITAIN 3 6 6 8 10 11 14 16 16 19 23 26 28 29 30 33 33 35 37 39 41 43 46 49 49
1 Kaj Laukkanen 1 0 2^ 2 1 2 8
2 Kauko Nieminen 1 0 1 1 1 1 5
3 Joonas Kylmakorpi 1 2 1 2 1 0 7
4 Tomi Reima 1 0 0 0 0 1
5 Petri Kokko † 1 - - - 1
FINLAND 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 5 7 9 10 12 13 13 15 15 16 17 18 19 19 20 22 22 22
1 Gerd Riss 0 1 0 0 0 1
2 Jorg Pingel 0 1 0 0 0 1
3 Joachim Kugelmann 2 1 2 2 2^ 1 10
4 Herbert Rudolph 0 2 0 1 0 0 3
5 Steffen Mell † 0 0 - - 0
GERMANY 0 0 2 2 2 4 5 6 7 7 7 7 7 9 9 10 12 12 12 12 14 14 14 15 15
Time 65.91 65.62 65.69 65.48 65.70 65.91 64.72 65.53 64.22 65.72 65.17 65.65 65.30 66.60 66.00 65.63 66.50 65.69 65.97 66.25 65.59 66.25 65.59 66.00

EVENT 2 (Att: 2,000) Mon 02.07 : Gdansk, Poland Referee : Wojciech Grodzki (Pol)
Sweden 57 Denmark 48 Russia 31 Slovenia 12
Team Manager: Tony Olsson
 Team Managers: Erik Gundersen & Jacob Olsen Team Manager: Igor Dmitriev
 Team Manager: Franc Kalin

Gdansk 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Total
1 Tony Rickardsson 2 3 3 3 3 14
2 Mikael Karlsson 3 2 3 2 2 12
3 Jimmy Nilsen 3 1 2 2 3 11
4 Niklas Klingberg 1 1 2 2 6
5 Andreas Jonsson † 2 3 3 3 3 14
SWEDEN 2 5 6 9 11 13 16 17 18 21 23 25 28 31 34 36 38 40 43 46 49 51 54 57 57
1 Nicki Pedersen 0 3 3 6^ 1 2 15
2 Hans Clausen 2 2 ret - 4
3 Jesper B Jensen 2 3 2 1 3 1 12
4 Brian Andersen 3 3 1 1 2 10
5 Bjarne Pedersen † 3 1 2 1 7
DENMARK 3 5 5 7 10 13 15 18 21 22 22 25 27 28 30 31 32 38 39 40 42 45 46 48 48
1 Roman Povazhny 0 2 3 3 2 1 11
2 Rinat Mardanshin 1 0 0 0 1
3 Sergey Darkin 3 1 2 3 2 11
4 Eduard Shaikhullin 0 1 0 - 2^ 3
5 Sergey Kuzin † 1 2 1 0 1 5
RUSSIA 1 1 4 4 5 6 7 9 9 11 14 14 14 16 17 20 23 23 25 25 27 28 30 31 31
1 Matej Ferjan 1 2 0 f,ex 0 ret 3
2 Izak Santej 2 0 1 1 1 0 5
3 Jernej Kolenko 1 0 1 0 2 f 4
4 Primoz Klenovsek 0 0 - 0 0
5 Primoz Legan † 0 0 0 - 0
SLOVENIA 0 1 3 4 4 4 4 4 6 6 7 8 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 12 12 12 12 12 12
Time 65.3 64.8 64.6 65.2 64.6 63.8 63.9 64.7 64.8 64.3 65.0 64.9 64.0 64.9 65.5 65.1 65.6 64.8 65.3 64.9 65.8 65.6 64.8 65.4

EVENT 3 Tue 03.07 : Gdansk, Poland Referee : Tony Steele (GB)
Australia 56 USA 41 Czech Republic 35 Hungary 16
Team Manager: Neil Street Team Manager: Richard Childs Team Manager: Josef Lastovka Team Manager: Bela Kekesi

Gdansk 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 Total
1 Jason Crump 3 3 3 3 3 15
2 Jason Lyons 1 0 1 ret 2
3 Leigh Adams 1 3 3 3 3 13
4 Ryan Sullivan 3 3 2 2 3 13
5 Todd Wiltshire † 3 3 1 3 3 13
AUSTRALIA 3 4 7 8 11 14 14 17 20 23 24 27 30 32 33 35 38 38 41 44 47 50 53 56 56
1 Sam Ermolenko 2 2 4^ 2 0 10
2 Greg Hancock 2 2 2 2 2 10
3 Billy Janniro 0 3 0 2 5
4 Brent Werner 3 0 0 3 1 7
5 John Cook † 2 1 3 1 2 9
USA 2 4 4 7 9 9 12 14 16 17 21 23 23 23 26 29 31 33 35 36 37 39 41 41 41
1 Marian Jirout 1 2 2 0 5
2 Bohumil Brhel 3 2 3 3 ret^ 2 13
3 Michal Makovsky 0 ex
 0 - 0
4 Ales Dryml 2 1 3 1 1 8
5 Toni Kasper † 1 2 2 1 2 1 9
CZECH REPUBLIC 1 4 6 6 7 9 11 11 12 14 17 17 19 22 24 25 26 29 29 31 31 32 33 35 35
1 Robert Nagy 2 0 1 1 4^ 1 9
2 Attila Stefani 1 1 1 0 1 0 4
3 Norbert Magosi ex-t 1 1 0 0 2
4 Laszlo Szatmari 0 1 0 f,ex 1
5 Gabor Szegvari † 0 0 - 0 0
HUNGARY 0 0 1 3 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 7 8 9 9 9 9 10 11 11 15 15 15 16 16
Time 65.6 65.1 64.9 65.1 64.7 64.1 65.7 64.7 64.3 65.2 64.9 64.8 64.7 65.6 66.0 65.3 65.6 65.8 65.1 66.1 66.0 66.0 65.5 65.3

RACE-OFF (1st & 2nd to Final) 5-rider races ; scoring 4-3-2-1-0.
Thu 05.07 : Wroclaw, Poland Referee: Wojciech Grodzki (Pol)
Denmark 66 USA 65+3 Great Britain 65+2 Czech Rep. 42 Russia 20
Team Managers: Eric Gundersen & Jacob Olsen Team Manager:
Richard Childs		 Team Manager:
Neil Middleditch		 Team Manager:
Josef Lastovka		 Team Manager:
Igor Dmitriev

Wroclaw 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 RUN
OFF		 Total
1 Nicki Pedersen 3 4 4 3 4 18
2 Hans Clausen 2 4 4 2 1 13
3 Bjarne Pedersen 2 2 2 1 2 9
4 Jesper B Jensen 4 4 3 0 3 14
5 Brian Andersen 4 2 1 3 2 12
DENMARK 3 5 7 11 15 17 21 23 27 31 34 35 39 43 45 47 48 48 51 54 56 60 61 63 66 66
1 Greg Hancock 4 3 4 4 4 3 19 +3
2 Sam Ermolenko 4 4 3 8^ 4 f,ex 23
3 Brent Werner 3 0 0 1 4 8
4 Billy Janniro 2 0 - 1 1 4
5 John Cook 2 1 1 4 3 11
USA 4 8 11 13 15 19 19 19 20 23 24 28 31 31 39 40 44 48 52 53 57 58 61 65 65 +3 65+3
1 Mark Loram 2 4 2 2 4^ 4 2 18 +2
2 Carl Stonehewer 1 3 3 3 3 3 16
3 Lee Richardson 4 2 4 2 3 15
4 Paul Hurry f,ex - - - 2 2
5 Gary Havelock 3 3 2 3 3 14
GREAT BRITAIN 2 3 7 7 10 10 13 17 20 22 26 29 31 33 36 39 41 44 46 50 53 56 58 61 65 +2 65+2
1 Toni Kasper 1 2 0 2 1 4 10
2 Bohumil Brhel 3 6^ 3 0 4 ex-2 16
3 Ales Dryml 0 2 0 3 4 ret 9
4 Marian Jirout 3 ret 1 0 1 2 7
5 Michal Makovsky f,ex - - - - 0
CZECH REPUBLIC 1 4 4 7 7 13 15 18 20 20 20 20 21 24 24 28 28 30 31 35 36 38 42 42 42 42
1 Roman Povazhny 0 1 2 2^ ex 0 5
2 Sergey Darkin ret 1 2 3 0 6
3 Eduard Shaikhullin 1 1 f,ex 1 0 3
4 Oleg Kurguskin ex-2 0 - 0 1 1
5 Sergey Kuzin 1 1 1 0 2 5
RUSSIA 0 0 1 1 2 3 4 5 5 6 8 10 10 12 13 13 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 18 20 20
Time 68.5 67.7 68.4 68.9 68.1 68.0 68.2 68.0 69.0 68.6 69.0 68.8 68.6 68.1 68.3 68.8 68.5 68.2 68.4 68.7 69.0 68.8 68.8 69.4 69.4 69.0
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 R-O

FINAL 5-rider races ; scoring 4-3-2-1-0.
Sat 07.07 : Wroclaw, Poland (FIM Official Attendance : 20,000) Referee: Tony Steele (GB)
Australia 68 Poland 65 Sweden 51 Denmark 44 USA 30
Team Manager:
Neil Street		 Team Manager:
Zenon Plech		 Team Manager:
Tony Olsson		 Team Managers: Erik
Gundersen & Jacob Olsen		 Team Manager:
Richard Childs

Wroclaw 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Total
1 Jason Crump 4 4 4 4 4 20
2 Todd Wiltshire 3 0 3 2 2 10
3 Craig Boyce 3 1 3 1 1 9
4 Ryan Sullivan 4 0 4 2 3 13
5 Leigh Adams 3 4 2 3 4 16
AUSTRALIA 4 7 10 14 17 17 21 25 25 26 29 33 35 39 42 45 49 51 52 54 56 57 60 64 68 68
1 Kzysztof Cegielski 2 2 1 2 4 11
2 Piotr Protasiewicz 2 1 1 2 3 9
3 Tomasz Gollob 4 3 8^ 4 4 4 27
4 Sebastian Ulamek ex-t 4 2 4 3 13
5 Jacek Krzyzaniak 1 - 1 3 f,ex 5
POLAND 2 4 8 8 9 11 12 15 19 27 28 29 33 35 36 38 40 44 48 51 55 58 62 65 65 65
1 Jimmy Nilsen 0 3 4 0 ret 7
2 Mikael Karlsson ex-2 1 4 1 2 0 8
3 Tony Rickardsson 4^ 3 3 4 3 17
4 Niklas Klingberg 3 3 0 3 1 10
5 Andreas Jonsson 4 4 f,ex 1 - 9
SWEDEN 0 0 4 7 11 15 18 19 22 25 29 32 32 32 36 40 43 44 44 45 46 48 48 48 51 51
1 Nicki Pedersen 1 2 2 3 4 4 16
2 Bjarne Pedersen 1 - 3 1 1 6
3 Hans Clausen 0 1 2 1 2 6
4 Jesper B Jensen 2 2 0 0 1 5
5 Brian Andersen 4^ 2 0 2 3 11
DENMARK 1 2 2 4 8 9 11 13 15 17 17 17 20 23 25 26 27 27 29 33 36 40 41 43 44 44
1 Greg Hancock 3 0 2 0 3 1 9
2 Billy Hamill 4 3 1 3 ret^ 2 13
3 Brent Werner 1 0 1 0 - 2
4 Billy Janniro 1 0 - 0 0 1
5 John Cook 0 1 2 ret 2 5
USA 3 7 8 9 9 12 12 12 13 13 15 17 18 19 19 19 19 22 25 25 25 25 27 28 30 30
Time 69.8 68.1 67.7 67.2 68.3 68.0 66.7 66.5 68.0 67.9 67.6 67.0 67.4 68.0 68.2 66.9 67.7 68.2 68.0 68.1 68.4 68.1 67.6 67.3 67.6
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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† = reserve ; ^ = Double-point "Joker" ride (allowed when 6 pts behind leading team in 4-rider races, or 8pts behind in 5-rider races)
ef = engine failure ; ex = excluded ; ex-t = excluded-tapes ; ex-2 = excluded-2 minutes ; f = fell ; ret = retired
Note: Mikael Karlsson (Swe) later became Mikael Max ; Jesper B Jensen (Den) later became Jesper B Monberg
Contributors : Charles McKay, Roger Stevens, Jonas Holmqvist, David Austin

2000 2002

© Brian Collins