2010 FIM SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX WILD CARDS ANNOUNCED
The FIM Speedway Grand Prix commission and BSI Speedway, rights holders of the FIM Speedway World Championships, has today announced the full rider line up for the 2010 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series (SGP), including the four riders that have been awarded a permanent wild card place.
The four riders, who will join the top eight from the 2009 SGP series and the three qualified riders are:
RIDER NAME NATIONALITYFredrik Lindgren SwedenHans Andersen DenmarkChris Harris Great BritainTai Woffinden Great Britain
Commenting on the selection, Paul Bellamy, managing director, BSI Speedway said:
"It has been a very difficult choice this year to select the four permanent wild cards for the Series and some can feel fortunate they have been selected while undoubtedly others will feel disappointed they have not made the cut.
"Fredrik Lindgren and Hans Andersen fluctuated in and out of the top eight all season and both made the podium on more than one occasion this year and were unfortunate to miss out on an automatic qualification spot. Chris Harris has proven in the past he can win Grands Prix and just missed out on clinching an automatic qualification spot at the Grand Prix qualifier back in September. His compatriot, Tai Woffinden, who at just 19 years old has continued to impress this season has been widely touted as one of the emerging talents of a new generation of riders coming through and we are confident he will continue to develop into one the best British riders we have seen in the series for many years."
Roy Otto, President of CCP, FIM Track Racing commission, commented:
"There is undoubtedly a 'changing of the guard' in the FIM Speedway Grand Prix series with younger riders developing and challenging for the world championship. This year we saw the emergence of Russian star Emil Sayfutdinov who set the sport alight with his competitive attitude and has given the next generation of riders the belief that they too can repeat his level of performance and be capable of winning Grands Prix. The 2010 line up is a very exciting one and on behalf of the FIM, the SGP Commission and the CCP Track Racing commission, we look forward to welcoming all of the riders in 2010."
The full rider line-up for 2010 is:
QUALIFIED RIDERSRIDING No. NAME NATIONALITY FMN1 Jason Crump Australia MA2 Tomasz Gollob Poland PZM3 Emil Sayfutdinov Russia MFR4 Greg Hancock USA AMA5 Andreas Jonsson Sweden SVEMO6 Nicki Pedersen Denmark DMU7 Rune Holta Poland PZM8 Kenneth Bjerre Denmark DMU9 Fredrik Lindgren Sweden SVEMO10 Hans Andersen Denmark DMU11 Magnus Zetterstrom Sweden SVEMO12 Chris Holder Australia MA13 Jaroslaw Hampel Poland PZM14 Chris Harris Great Britain ACU15 Tai Woffinden Great Britain ACU16 EVENT WILD CARD
TRACK RESERVESRIDING No. NAME NATIONALITY FMN17 TRACK RESERVE 18 TRACK RESERVE
QUALIFIED SUBSTITUTESRIDING No. NAME NATIONALITY FMN19 Piotr Protasiewicz Poland PZM20 Davey Watt Australia MA21 Martin Smolinski Germany DMSB22 Adrian Miedzinski Poland PZM23 Grzegorz Walasek Poland PZM24 Lukas Dryml Czech Republic ACCR
