SWINDON Robins skipper Troy Batchelor has been handed a permanent wildcard slot in the 2015 FIM Speedway Grand Prix series.

Australian rider Batchelor missed out on an automatic return to next year's championship after finishing ninth in the overall standings following the Grand Prix of Poland last weekend. It was Batchelor's debut year in the series having only earned a call-up shortly before the season-opening round in Auckland.

Danish duo Niels-Kristian Iversen and Michael Jepsen Jensen and Swedish champion Tomas H Jonasson all join Batchelor as wildcard picks - but there is no place for Robins number one Peter Kildemand, despite the Dane reaching two finals in his two Wildcard appearances this term.

Commenting on his wildcard on Twitter, Batchelor said: "Pumped to be back in the SGP for 2015! Gonna be a big winter getting ready for it, aiming to improve on this years efforts.''

The wildcard quartet join this year’s World Championship top eight, which features new champion Greg Hancock, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Nicki Pedersen, Tai Woffinden, Matej Zagar, Andreas Jonsson, Chris Holder and Jaroslaw Hampel, plus GP Challenge qualifiers Jason Doyle, Chris Harris and Maciej Janowski.