MotorSportWorld.TV

By: Marc Pétrier; Photo from John Chaplin

Source: http://www.fim-live.com

The first vehicles created at the end of the 19th century were immediately put to run on roads or – if they existed – tracks. The first motorcycles were not very fast, but within a few years started to reach very high speeds. The idea of using an oval track or an athletic track around a football ground or even a horse track, came very early. Mentions made in California in 1902, in South Africa in 1907 or around a football ground in Ipswich (GBR) in 1904 are just a few of them.

But the first event, with a real structure, is generally considered to be the one held in Australia in 1923. Australians took everything off the motorcycle which was not essential, in order to reduce weight, and put the bikes for racing on oval grounds. The first real record of a dirt track meeting was on Saturday 15 December 1923 in West Maitland. The event was organised by John Hoskins, who is generally considered as the “father” of speedway competition.

Success came very fast, and within a couple of years other tracks were built in various cities all over Australia. News was sent from Australia to Great Britain and the idea came up to hold such an event there. It was first scheduled in November 1927 but permission was refused by the authorities. The event was finally staged on Sunday 19 February 1928 in High Beech.

The discipline spread quickly over all Great Britain. Events were raced with a mixture of scratch and handicap racing until 1929 when a league system similar to football was introduced – which definitely turned speedway into a professional sport. That same year the discipline was introduced in New Zealand. The introduction of this sport in other countries was not really successful at first, and within a couple of years, it was only strong enough in Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain; then it started in Denmark and Sweden, later in Norway and other countries.

It was the ACU, in charge of the rules and control of this sport by the FIM since 1928, who proposed to organise a real World Championship in 1936, culminating with the first official World Final to be held in the Wembley Stadium in London on September 10. The FIM created a sub-committee under the aegis of the FIM International Sporting Commission, in charge of controlling Speedway.

Several finals had been staged in previous years, but were not officially recognised as World Finals. Participants were nominated by their own National Federation (or club): not surprisingly most of these riders were British. Sixteen riders qualified for the World Final. With the intention of rewarding the performances in qualifying events, riders had bonus points added to their Final points. Australian rider Lionel Van Praag won the first title, though he had lost the direct confrontation to his fellow countryman Bluey Wilkinson who won all his five races. American brothers Jack and Cordy Milne were also among the top riders, in 1937 both were on the final rostrum, Jack as World Champion and Cordy as third, while the runner-up was another American, Wilbur Lamoreaux.

In 1938, it was the turn of Bluey Wilkinson to clinch the title, in front of Jack Milne and Wilbur Lamoreaux. The 1939 final was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The best qualifier was Cordy Milne ahead of Eric Langton.

After the War

The following World Championship was held in 1949, but the qualifying bonus points were no longer added to the results of the Final.  After the first Champion, Tommy Price (1949), almost all the riders clinched more than one title: Fred Williams (1950, 1953), Australian Jack Young (1951, 1952), New Zealander Ronnie Moore (1954, then 1959) and Peter Craven (1955, then 1962). In 1956, came the first World champion from Sweden, Ove Fundin; after being runner-up for three years, he won again in 1960. In 1961 the World final was held for the first time out of Great Britain: it was in Malmoe, Sweden, where Ove Fundin won his third title (he then won again in 1963 and 1967). But another great Champion came up at the same time: New Zealander Barry Briggs, winner in 1957 and 1958, and then in 1964 and 1966. Swede Bjorn Knutsson won in 1965, making an exception (it would be his only title).

At that same time, riders came from Eastern bloc countries, in particular Poland (where Speedway quickly became the most popular sport after football) and the Soviet Union. The first ones to take part in a Final was Mieczislaw Polukard (12th with 5 points) and Florian Kapas (reserve), both from Poland, which already had four riders in the Final in 1960. Then came the Russian Igor Pletchanov in 1961, who would twice be runner-up, in 1964 and 1965.

After Ove Fundin’s last title in 1967, another rider emerged from New Zealand called Ivan Mauger. He would put his name at the top of Speedway being the first one to clinch three World titles consecutively (1968, 69 and 70). In 1971, the first Danish World Champion came up, Ole Olsen, beating Ivan Mauger in Gothenburg. Mauger took the title back in Wembley in 72, but in 1973’s final in Katowice, Poland, in front of a huge crowd, a Polish rider finally took the Speedway World title: Jerzy Szczakiel finished in front of Ivan Mauger and another Pole, Zenon Plech. In 1974, Mauger was second again, behind Swede Anders Michanek. Ole Olsen won again in 1975 and 1978, British rider Peter Collins in 1976, while Ivan Mauger added two more titles in 1977 and 1979, establishing a record of six titles.

In the eighties, after Michael Lee won in 1980, the 81 and 82 individual titles went to American rider Bruce Penhall – in 1981 the three Speedway titles, Individual, Team and Pairs, were won by the Americans. It was also in 1981 that the World Final was held for the last time in the Wembley stadium. In 1983, German rider Egon Muller won his only title in Speedway – he had already been three times Long Track Champion in the 70s. Then the period for Denmark started: Eric Gundersen and Hans Nielsen won three titles each between 1984 and 1989. Swede Per Jonsson won in 1990, Dane Jan-O. Pedersen in 1991, British rider Gary Havelock in 1992, American Sam Ermolenko in 1993, and Swede Tony Rickardsson his first title in the very last World Final, in Vojens in 1994. As from 1995, the Grand Prix system was introduced by the FIM. Hans Nielsen won the first Speedway Grand Prix title that year. Then followed American riders Billy Hammill (96) and Greg Hancock (97), then Tony Rickardsson (98, 99, 2001, 2002 and 2005, equalling Mauger’s record of six titles), British rider Mark Loram (2000), the Dane Nicki Pedersen (2003, 2007 and 2008) and the Australian Jason Crump (2004, 2006 and 2009).

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