The World Championship of Speedway is an international competition between the highest-ranked motorcycle speedway riders of the world, run under the auspices of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM).[1] The first official championships were held in 1936.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
Today, the championship is organised as a series of Speedway Grand Prix events, where points are awarded according to performance in the event and tallied up at the end of each season. However, up to 1994, it was usually run as a single-night event after qualifying rounds during the season, leading up to a final consisting of 20 heats, where points were awarded according to riders' heat placings and then tallied up at the end.
Before the World Championship received its formal recognition from the ACU and the FIM in 1936, other unofficial Speedway World Championships were staged between 1931 and 1935, in Europe, South America and Australasia, such as the Star Riders' Championship.
- ^ "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. pp. 97–98. ISBN 0-09-141751-1.
- ^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
- ^ "WORLD FINALS 1936-1994" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
- ^ Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results. Guinness Superlatives. pp. 289–290. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.