GRAND PRIX CHALLENGE FINAL - 5 riders qualify for next season's GP Series, a further 2 riders will be selected as permanent wildcards.

 

With just 5 places to go for it was a great start from current GP riders Jonus Sandin and Braxton McChesney who raced to unbeaten starts in their first two heats.  Behind them were Chris Adams and potential new GP faces Fillippe Chong and Gabrys Irzyk on 5 points each.
 
Adams won heat 10 to put himself in a strong position before heat 12 brought together Sandin, McChesney and Irzyk with the latter pulling off a great win ahead of McChesney, the pair joining Adams on 8 points.  That trio were 2 clear of experienced riders Sandin, Verner and Jugovic at the interval.
 
Adams all but booked his place back in the GP series by winning heat 13 while Irzyk took another point to move to 9.  McChesney headed Chong home in the next before Steen Eriksen won heat 15 from Jugovic, with Sandin seeing his hopes rapidly fading with another last place.  Heat 16 was a big one for Petr Verner who made it two straight wins to move to 9 points.
 
LEADING SCORES AFTER 16 RACES: Adams & McChesney 11 (qualified), Irzyk & Verner 9, Jugovic 8, Chong & Eriksen 7, Sandin 6
 
Heat 17 brought an end to Sandin's challenge with just a single point as Jens Isaksen won to move to 8.
 
Chong, Irzyk and Jugovic had a showdown in heat 18 and it was the youngsters who led the way, Irzyk winning to book his place in the 2016 GP Series whilst Chong kept his hopes alive by moving his final score to 9 points.
 
Heat 19 was mostly about Petr Verner picking up the point he needed to qualify for next season's GPs and he did it in fine style ahead of the already through McChesney and Adams.  The American confirming himself as the winner of the GP Challenge with his total of 13 points.
 
So to the final scheduled heat and all eyes were on Denmark's Steen Eriksen who would join McChesney, Adams, Irzyk and Verner in qualifying if he could win or force a run-off with Fillippe Chong with 2 poins in this one.  Olle Bjorn Thoresen won the heat, to move to 8 points and at least put himself in the thoughts of the GP Committee when it comes to selecting the permanent wildcard picks for the series.  Eriksen came in behind and so the final guarnateed place came down to a run-off between himself and Chong in which Eriksen made no mistake with a fast start and racing home to the line to qualify for the 2016 GP Series.  Only one matter remained to be settled with Adams and Verner completing the rostrum places in this meeting but it didn't really matter as the main job had already been successfully done.
 
Disappointment turned to joy shortly after the meeting when the GP Committee confirmed that the riders finishing in 6th and 7th would take the 2 wildcard picks for the final permanent places in the 2016 GP Series meaning the frowns of Chong and Thoresen were soon all smiles!
 
 
 
  1. Braxton McChesney......... 3  3  2  3  2  13   (QUALIFIED)
  2. Chris Adams............... 2  3  3  3  1  12   (QUALIFIED)
  3. Petr Verner............... 2  1  3  3  3  12   (QUALIFIED)
  4. Gabrys Irzyk.............. 3  2  3  1  3  12   (QUALIFIED)
  5. Steen Eriksen............. 1  1  2  3  2   9   (QUALIFIED)
  6. Fillippe Chong............ 3  2  0  2  2   9   (WILDCARD)
  7. Olle Bjorn Thoresen....... 0  3  1  1  3   8   (WILDCARD)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  8. Jens Isaksen.............. 1  1  1  2  3   8

  9. Yuri Jugovic.............. 2  2  2  2  Fx  8
 10. Jonus Sandin.............. 3  3  0  0  1   7
 11. Oleg Yelesnev............. Fx 2  0  2  2   6
 12. Erik Davidsson............ 1  0  2  1  1   5
 13. Jean-Marc Struthers....... 2  1  1  0  0   4
 14. Henrik Hansen............. 0  R  3  0  0   3
 15. Jeremie Loucks............ 1  0  0  1  0   2
 16. Ryan Irwin................ R  0  1  0  1   2
 17. Luke Treadwell............ Did not ride
 18. Rafal Narozny............. Did not ride
 
 No. Results
  1: Fillippe Chong, Jean-Marc Struthers, Jeremie Loucks, Oleg Yelesnev (Fx) 
  2: Gabrys Irzyk, Petr Verner, Steen Eriksen, Henrik Hansen 
  3: Jonus Sandin, Chris Adams, Erik Davidsson, Olle Bjorn Thoresen 
  4: Braxton McChesney, Yuri Jugovic, Jens Isaksen, Ryan Irwin (R) 
  5: Braxton McChesney, Oleg Yelesnev, Steen Eriksen, Erik Davidsson 
  6: Jonus Sandin, Fillippe Chong, Petr Verner, Ryan Irwin 
  7: Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Gabrys Irzyk, Jens Isaksen, Jeremie Loucks 
  8: Chris Adams, Yuri Jugovic, Jean-Marc Struthers, Henrik Hansen (R) 
  9: Petr Verner, Yuri Jugovic, Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Oleg Yelesnev 
 10: Chris Adams, Steen Eriksen, Jens Isaksen, Fillippe Chong 
 11: Henrik Hansen, Erik Davidsson, Ryan Irwin, Jeremie Loucks 
 12: Gabrys Irzyk, Braxton McChesney, Jean-Marc Struthers, Jonus Sandin 
 13: Chris Adams, Oleg Yelesnev, Gabrys Irzyk, Ryan Irwin 
 14: Braxton McChesney, Fillippe Chong, Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Henrik Hansen 
 15: Steen Eriksen, Yuri Jugovic, Jeremie Loucks, Jonus Sandin 
 16: Petr Verner, Jens Isaksen, Erik Davidsson, Jean-Marc Struthers 
 17: Jens Isaksen, Oleg Yelesnev, Jonus Sandin, Henrik Hansen 
 18: Gabrys Irzyk, Fillippe Chong, Erik Davidsson, Yuri Jugovic (Fx) 
 19: Petr Verner, Braxton McChesney, Chris Adams, Jeremie Loucks 
 20: Olle Bjorn Thoresen, Steen Eriksen, Ryan Irwin, Jean-Marc Struthers 
 
 Runoff for 5th: Steen Eriksen, Fillippe Chong 
 Runoff for 2nd-4th: Chris Adams, Petr Verner, Gabrys Irzyk