Speedway World Championship

''' Star Riders' Championship ''' From 1929 until 1935, the Star Riders' Championship was considered the unofficial World Championships, featuring riders from Great Britain, Australia and the United States. The event was arguably the closest format to the first World Championship in 1936 because it was at the same venue (Wembley) and contained the majority of the world's leading riders, including two of the first three official world champions. Additionally in 1931, the Promoters Association initiated a match race competition for the ‘Individual World Championship’ matching first the top Australian rider against the best Englishman over a 'best of three' series. A month later that winner next met another challenger for his world title. After the event was raced however, the SCB refused to recognise the title, and it subsequently became the 'British Individual Championship', but the season's winner held still the trophy inscribed "World Champion". World Championship Series During the 1930/31 season A.J.Hunting's International Speedway Ltd staged a World's Championship Series in Argentina, at one of their Buenos Aires tracks during the second season of Dirt Track racing in Argentina. Culminating in February 1931, it was run as a series of eliminating match races between local and visiting British, USA and Australian riders. Dirt Track Championnat du Monde An Anglo-French promotion syndicate ran an annual Dirt Track Championnat du Monde for five years from 1931 until 1935. It was held at the Stade Buffalo in Paris. The format comprised eight to twelve riders drawn from Europe, United Kingdom, Australia and USA, competing initially in 2-man Match Races, (1931 -1933); then later, nine 3-man races. Details of these French staged unofficial World Championships, - "Dirt Track Championnat du Monde" - are as follows: • 1931 October 11th - 1. Billy Lamont (Australia), 2. Ray Tauser (USA), 3. Charles Bellisent (France). • 1932 August 28th - 1. Bluey Wilkinson (Australia), 2. Charles Bellisent (France), 3. Leopold Killmeyer (Austria). • 1933 October 8th - 1. Fernand Meynier (France), 2. Bluey Wilkinson (Australia), 3. Billy Lamont (Australia). • 1934 September 30th - 1. Claude Rye (England), 2. Dicky Case (Australia), 3. Leopold Killmeyer (Austria). • 1935 September 1st - 1. Claude Rye (England), 2. Mick Murphy (Australia), 3. Charles Bellisent (France). ''' Australia's World's Championship ''' A Johnnie Hoskins' Anglo/Australian promotion staged a 'World's Championship Final' at the Sydney Showground Speedway (Speedway Royal) on 4 March 1933 following qualifying rounds in Perth (Claremont Speedway) on 2 December 1932, Adelaide (Wayville Showground) on 2 January, Melbourne (Exhibition Speedway) on 28 January, and Sydney (Royal) on 18 February. A squad of 7 riders, 5 Australian and 2 English, competed over 7 races (3 riders per race,) the top point scorer, English rider Harry Whitfield, becoming World Champion. The riders who qualified for the Final were Lionel Van Praag, Bluey Wilkinson, Dicky Smythe, Billy Lamont and Jack Chapman (Australia), with Harry Whitfield and Jack Ormston from England. The 1934 event was cancelled after the initial qualifying meeting was rained off. == Official World Championship ==

1936 to 1954 – ACU (FICM) Championships Wembley, London. With minor modifications, the general system stayed the same from the first official championship. There were initial qualifying rounds, where the riders raced in heats of four to score points against each other (3 for first place, 2 for second place, 1 for third place). The final qualifying round was called the Championship Round, and it consisted of seven to ten meetings, though no one participated in all of them. The 16 who scored the most points then qualified for the World Championship Final at Wembley, where the heat system was again used - this time with a total of 20 heats of four riders, each rider racing five heats, and every rider meeting each other at some point during the competition. The same points system was used, and the rider with the most points won. From 1936 to 1938 bonus points were carried over from the Championship Round. This was scrapped when the World Championship resumed after the War in 1949. The old system with everyone racing each other was still used, however, except that the four best riders qualified for a final heat which would determine who won the individual event (and score maximum points). Points were awarded as follows: • 25 for the winner, then 20, 18, 16, 14, 13, 12, 11, 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 for 16th This system was used until 1998, when FIM invented another system. Instead of 16 riders racing for points and trying to qualify for a final, there would now be 24 riders, divided into two classes. The eight best directly qualified for the so-called Main Event, while the sixteen others would be knocked out if they finished out of the top two in 4-rider 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 riders proceeded to the Main Event, where exactly the same system was applied to get eight riders to a semi-final. The semi-finals were then two heats of four, where the top two qualified for a final and the others raced off in a consolation final. This system meant that the point system had to be revised, with 5th place getting 15 points, 6th 14, 8th 10, and after that 8, 8, 7, 7, etc. Places after 8th place were awarded according to the time a rider was knocked out and, secondly, according to position in the last heat he rode in. This system went largely unchanged until 2004 (with the consolation final having been abolished in 2002), although the number of GP events was increased to ten in 2002 and then changed back to 9 in 2003 and 2004. However, the system was viewed by many as too complicated, and for the 2005 Speedway Grand Prix season the system used from 1995 to 1997 was back, but with one minor modification; points gained in the heats would now count for the aggregate standings, and the top eight riders would qualify for two semi-final heats, just like the 1998–2004 system. In 2020, the points system was again changed with overall positions deciding total championship points scored and points scored in individual heats again deciding overall positions in Grands Prix. == History ==

Dirt track pioneers Businessman A.J. Hunting was a dirt track speedway pioneer, promoting first in Australia in 1926, then Great Britain in 1928, but it was in his second season in Argentina, at the Huracan Stadium, Buenos Aires in 1930/31, that he ran his first, and the world's first, World Championship competition. Arranged over a season-long series of eliminating Match Races, America's Sprouts Elder was the first Championship winner. In the following European season of the same year Australian Billy Lamont took the “Championnat du Monde” in Paris, followed by fellow countryman Arthur "Bluey" Wilkinson the next year. But these two stars of the Dirt Track could only manage podium places behind Brit Harry Whitfield when a 'World's Championship' was staged on their home soil in 1933. Meanwhile, in the UK Jack Parker had replaced Aussie Vic Huxley as the 'Individual World Champion' but after the event the Speedway Control Board refused to honour the title put up by the promotion. Englishman Claude Rye took the Paris title twice before the Wembley event subsequently emerged in 1936. Humble beginnings The British pride themselves on organising the official World Championship, having hosted the first fifteen ACU/FIM-sanctioned events, all in Wembley Stadium. These were from 1936, when Australian Lionel Van Praag won the title, to 1938 and from 1949 to 1960. 1937 saw Americans Jack Milne, Wilbur Lamoreaux and Cordy Milne sweep the podium for the first win for America and the first time riders from one country took all 3 top positions. It was also the last American victory until 1981. Commonwealth countries dominated, with the UK, Australia and New Zealand taking four titles each up to 1959, including the first two time and back to back winner, Australia's Jack Young who won in 1951 and 1952. The first non-English-speaking victor came in 1956, when the Swede Ove Fundin won the first of his five titles. The late 1950s and 1960s were dominated by Fundin along with the two New Zealanders Ronnie Moore (two titles) and Barry Briggs (four titles), and Englishman Peter Craven (two titles). == Table of winners ==