The ZIEBART MONARCHS 1998

WHAT IS SPEEDWAY?

Speedway is a team or individual sport involving four laps of a short track covered in shale. It developed from dirt track racing originating in Australia.

Team speedway meetings generally involve two teams of six or seven riders competing over fifteen or sixteen heats. There are however, some fixtures that involve four teams of four or five riders over sixteen heats. These are known as four team tournaments. There are also competitions for pairs of riders and for individual riders.


Rules for League Matches

Each heat consists of four riders, two from each team. The home riders wear red and blue helmet covers while the visitors wear while and yellow/black covers.

Each team member can expect to have four or five rides each meeting although they can take up to seven rides each. Normally a rider must complete at least three rides unless declared injured.

The winning rider gets 3 points for his team, the second 2 points and the third 1 point. No points are awarded for finishing last or not finishing through retirement or exclusion.

Because riders are usually paid for the number of points they gain, bonus points are awarded to discourage riders from racing against their team mate. Thus if a rider finished second behind a team-mate, he gains 2 points plus one bonus point. Similarly, a rider finishing third behind his partner in second place will get a bonus point. There is no financial advantage in trying to pass his partner and risk an accident putting one or both of them out of the Heat.

The scores are added progressively through the meeting. Points are awarded as two for a win and one for a draw. In addition another point is awarded for the team winning on the aggregate score between the home and away fixtures between the two teams.


Rule for Four-team Tournaments.

The four-team tournament, very popular in Denmark and Germany, involves four teams rather than two. Thus each heat will have only one rider from each team. They are normally held over 16 heats with each rider getting four outings. A fifth or reserve rider is there to substitute if necessary and can also take up to four rides.

The points awarded are the same as for league matches 3 for a win, 2 for second and 1 for third. No bonus points are awarded because there is only one member of each team competing in each heat.


Rules for Pairs Competitions

Competitions for pairs of riders are also held. This usually involves seven teams of two riders (sometimes with a reserve) competing over 21 heats. Each pair of riders have 6 outings. The scoring is 4 points for a win, 3 points for second and 2 points for third. This scoring system emphasizes team riding. First and second gives a team win of 7-2 while finishing second and third gives a 4-3 team win.


Rules for Individual Events

These have many and varied formats. Some are straight competitions of say 20 heats scoring 3, 2, 1, 0 as for other events. In the event of a tie, a run-off will be held to determine the winner. The Scottish Riders Championship was run on this format in 1997.

Other events have A, B, C and D finals and the heats are used to place each rider in the appropriate final. The top four go into the A final, the next four go into the B final etc. The meeting order is determined by placings in the A, B, C and D finals. This approach has been used for World Championship Grand Prix events in recent years although an different (and less comprehensible) format was used for 1998.

Finally, some individual events are run on a knock-out basis, with the heats used to determine the semi-finalists. The Premier League Riders Championships used this format for 1997 and the Scottish Open also used a varient of this approach in 1998.


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