The 1936 Speedway World Final programme.

The 1936 Individual Speedway World Championship was the first ever Speedway World Championship and was won by Lionel Van Praag of Australia. The forerunner to the World Championship was generally regarded to be the Star Riders' Championship.^[1][2][3] The final was held at London's Wembley Stadium in front of 74,000. It was the first of a record 26 times that Wembley would host the World Final with the last being in 1981.^[4]

Summary

The World Championship would consist of qualifying heats and then a Championship round, where points would be carried forward to the final to determine the winner. One of the favourites Jack Parker had a broken hand injury and was unable to compete in the final.^[5] Joe Abbott was also unable to line up for the final due to injury, despite qualifying for the final. They were replaced by Arthur Atkinson and Bill Pitcher.^[3][6]

Despite being unbeaten in the Final, Australian Bluey Wilkinson only finished third as the Championship was decided by bonus points accumulated in previous rounds plus the score from the final. Van Praag defeated England's Eric Langton in a runoff to be declared the inaugural Speedway World Champion.^[7][8][9]

As they lined up at the tapes for the runoff, Langton broke them which would ordinarily lead to disqualification. However, Van Praag stated he did not want to win the title by default and insisted that a race should take place. At the restart Langton made it to the first bend in front and led until the final bend on the last lap when Van Praag darted through the smallest of gaps to win by less than wheel length.^[10]

Afterwards, controversial allegations were abound that the two riders had 'fixed' the match race, deciding between them that the first person to the first bend would win the race and the Championship and split the prize money; Langton led into the first bend but was overtaken by Van Praag.^[10] Van Praag reportedly paid Langton £50 "conscience money" after the race for going back on the agreement.^[10]

In the Championship round the top 16 riders over 7 rounds would qualify for the World final. Ron Johnson and Bill Pitcher qualified as first reserves.^[11]

Qualifying round

• Top 28 riders qualify for Championship round

Championship round

• The top 16 riders over the 7 qualifying rounds and 7 championship rounds would qualify for the World final.

Qualifying points (top 16 qualify, 2 reserves)

Pos. Rider Qual Points c/f 1 Eric Langton 66 13 2 Frank Charles 59 12 3 George Newton 59 12 4 Jack Parker 59 12 5 Lionel Van Praag 58 12 6 Morian Hansen 48 10 7 Bob Harrison 48 10 8 Vic Huxley 48 10 9 Bluey Wilkinson 48 10 10 Dicky Case 47 9 11 Jack Ormston 47 9 12 Jack Milne 45 9 13 Cordy Milne 43 9 14 Ginger Lees 37 7 15 Wal Phillips 37 7 16 Joe Abbott 36 7

Pos. Rider Qual Points c/f 17 Ron Johnson 34 7 18 Bill Pitcher 32 6 19 Arthur Atkinson 31 6 20 Bill Kitchen (res) 29 n/a 21 Norman Parker 28 6 22 Baltzer Hansen 27 23 Eric Chitty 24 24 Bill Clibbett 24 25 Broncho Dixon 22 26 Wally Kilmister 22 27 Mick Murphy 21 28 Wally Lloyd (res) 17 29 Gus Kuhn 15 30 Rol Stobbart 16 31 Gordon Byers (res) 9

World final

• 10 September 1936
• Wembley Stadium, London

Pos.	Rider	c/f	Final Points	Final Heats	Total Points
1	Lionel Van Praag	12	14	(3,3,3,2,3)	26+3
2	Eric Langton	13	13	(3,3,3,2,2)	26+2
3	Bluey Wilkinson	10	15	(3,3,3,3,3)	25
4	Cordy Milne	9	11	(2,2,1,3,3)	20
5	Frank Charles	12	8	(3,3,0,2,0)	20
6	Dicky Case	9	8	(2,0,3,1,2)	17
7	Jack Ormston	9	8	(1,1,2,3,1)	17
8	Vic Huxley	10	7	(1,2,0,2,2)	17
9	George Newton	12	4	(0,0,3,1,0)	16
10	Jack Milne	9	6	(1,2,1,0,2)	15
11	Morian Hansen	10	5	(2,1,2,0,0)	15
12	Bob Harrison	10	5	(0,0,2,0,3)	15
13	Wal Phillips	7	5	(1,1,0,2,1)	12
14	Jack Parker	12	-	-	12
15	Ginger Lees	7	4	(2,0,1,0,1)	11
16	Arthur Atkinson	6	3	(0,2,1,0,0)	9
17	Bill Pitcher	6	2	(0,1,X/-,0,1)	8
18	Norman Parker (res)	6	1	(1)	7
19	Joe Abbott	7	-	-	7

Podium

1. Lionel Van Praag
2. Eric Langton
3. Bluey Wilkinson

References