After finishing second in 2001, 2002 and 2003, Jason Crump broke through to become Australia's first Individual World Champion since Jack Young had won his second straight World title in 1952.

The system first used in 1998 continued to be adopted with 24 riders, divided into two classes.

The eight best would be directly qualified for the "Main Event", while the sixteen others would be knocked out if they finished out of the top two in 4-man heats on two occasions – while they would go through if they finished inside the top two on two occasions.

This resulted in 10 heats, where eight proceeded to the Main Event, where exactly the same system was applied to give eight riders to a semi-final.

The 2004 season had 22 permanent riders and two wild cards at each event.