MATEJ ZAGAR BACKED THE NEW FIM SPEEDWAY GRAND PRIX SCORING SYSTEM FOR 2020
Slovenian champion Matej Zagar backed the new FIM Speedway Grand Prix scoring system for 2020, insisting “the winner of the meeting should get the best prize.”
The Ljubljana-born racer finished ninth in the SGP World Championship standings last year, but made it into SGP 2020 as winner of the GP Challenge in Gorican last August.
This season’s series sees a major change in how riders earn World Championship points, with each SGP winner guaranteed 20 points, with 18 for second place, 16 for third and 14 for finishing fourth in the final.
Riders score at least nine points for reaching the semis, while who fall short receive eight points or less on a sliding scale according to where they finished on the heat scoreboard.
Zagar believes guaranteeing the richest rewards for the finalists will make more sense to fans and raise the stakes at the business end of the meeting.
He said: “I’m a fan of this new system. I am definitely happy about it. I think that’s the way it should be. The winner of the meeting should get the best prize, which means points. It makes sense to be honest.
“The way it was last year was confusing. At the end of the meeting, you could see the rider winning the meeting might have fewer points than others sometimes. This is a good change to the system.
“This system is all about the semis and final. You could be perfect in the first part of the meeting – 20 heats. Then in the semi, if something goes wrong, you are nobody. Under the old system, you would still have 15 points. But now it is more important what you do in the semi. I think that’s good.”
