Speedway of Nations explained: How the 2022 international extravaganza works and world champions are crowned

Following a thrilling first half of the FIM Speedway Grand Prix season, the midway stage sees the riders take a break from the battle for individual glory to chase success with their countries at the 2022 Speedway of Nations.

Replacing the previous Speedway World Cup, Speedway of Nations is an event for national teams, held each year in a different country, with the first edition of the competition in the current format taking place in 2018.

For the first time this year, the event will see two days of exciting semi-final action before the final itself, all taking place across four days in the same country.

In the past, Speedway of Nations has consisted of just a single final or semi-finals held in a different location weeks prior to the main race. For example, in 2021, the semis were held in Daugavpils, Latvia a month before the final in Manchester, England.

This year, the Speedway of Nations will be held solely at the Vojens Speedway Centre in Vojens, Denmark with the semi-finals on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 July, and the final on Saturday July 29.

Friday, July 28 will see the under-21s Speedway of Nations 2 event.

Hosts Denmark have the benefit of being awarded a place in the final and will be joined by three teams from each semi.

Each semi-final will feature seven nations with Poland, Latvia, Australia, Germany, USA, Finland and Ukraine contesting the first, while holders Great Britain go up against Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Italy and Slovakia in the second 24 hours later.

The teams go up against each other in head-to-head battles across a total of 21 heats of racing per semi, with each nation in a given heat selecting two riders who are allocated to either gates one and three, or two and four.

Heat advantage

The scoring format is 4-3-2-0 with the heat winner taking four points, second place three points, third place two and zero points for finishing last. Failure to finish or being disqualified will also result in no points.

A ‘heat advantage’ is when a team collects the most points from a heat. For example, if the winner of a heat is from a given nation but their second rider finishes last, their opponents gain the heat advantage having claimed more points finishing second and third respectively.

This exact scenario is how the 2021 Grand Final played out with Great Britain taking the title after Robert Lambert and Dan Bewley took second and third place behind Poland’s Bartosz Zmarzlik, who finished first. With Zmarzlik’s compatriot Maciej Janowski finishing last, the Brits had a 5-4 heat advantage to take the crown.

Points are tallied across the evening of racing and the two countries with the most points at the end of each semi-final will move into the final.

The nations finishing third and fourth in the semis then go into a final qualifier and the team who secures the heat advantage also progresses to the final.

The final again consists of 21 heats, with the same scoring format as the semis. The highest-scoring nation at the conclusion of these heats then advances to the Grand Final.

Their opponents will be either the second or third place side from the heats. These two teams go head-to-head in a Grand Final qualifier with the winner going through to the Grand Final.

The winners of the Grand Final are crowned the Speedway of Nations champions.

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