Hamill: It was hard to pull out.

American hero, and current Coventry Bees skipper, Billy Hamill dropped a sensational pre-season bombshell on world championship speedway yesterday by pulling out of this year's grand prix series - but admits that it was a tough decision to take.

Hamill, who has ridden in every grand prix round since the competition was launched in 1995 - and was crowned as the second world champion in 1996 - blamed financial reasons for his dramatic decision to drop out. The 32-year old Californian, who will start his sixth season with the Victor Chandler Bees when the tapes go up on the 2003 British campaign next month, becomes the first rider to willingly withdraw from the GP series, having finished ninth last year to book an automatic place in this season's starting line-up.

"I have been unable to put together a racing budget to compete in the grand prix this year," a rueful Hamill explained, "I have been in the grand prix from the start, so I have had a good run at it. I have enjoyed the involvement, and I think my record is pretty good too.

"It has been a very difficult decision to make to pull out, as I have been pretty much focused on winning the world title ever since I started racing. I knew it might come to this last year, but I didn't really want it to happen. I will now have to adopt a different way of thinking and I can concentrate fully on my league racing in England, Sweden and Poland."

Hamill has ridden in all 52 grand prix meetings since 1995 and, as well as lifting the world title in 1996, he was also runner-up twice, once to countryman and ex-Bees colleague Greg Hancock in 1997 and behind Mark Loram in 2000. His year-by-year finishing positions since 1995 have been fifth, first, second, ninth, 18th - when he was making a comeback from a serious back injury - second, sixth and ninth.

Denmark's Hans Andersen, who has switched from Poole to Peterborough during the British winter, will replace Hamill in this year's nine-round grand prix series.