The 1936 Individual Speedway World Championship was the first ever Speedway World Championship and was won by

Lionel Van Praag Lionel Maurice Van Praag, GM (17 December 1908 – 15 May 1987) was an Australian motorcycle speedway champion, who won the inaugural Speedway World Championship in London on 10 September 1936. Van Praag's victory saw him established as Austra ...

of Australia. The forerunner to the World Championship was generally regarded to be the

Star Riders' Championship The Star Riders' Championship was the forerunner of the Speedway World Championship and was inaugurated in 1929. The competition was sponsored by ''The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already m ...

. The final was held at

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 200 ...

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.

Summary

The World Championship would consist of a semi final round, where points would be added 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. Joe Abbott was also unable to line up for the final due to injury, despite qualifying for the final. They were replaced by Norman Parker and Bill Pitcher. Despite being unbeaten in the Final, Australian

Bluey Wilkinson Arthur George "Bluey" Wilkinson (27 August 1911 – 27 July 1940) was an international speedway rider. Wilkinson was Speedway World Champion in 1938 after narrowly missing out on winning the inaugural Championship in 1936 Individual Speed ...

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 Eric Kemp Langton (27 September 1907 – 1999) was an English motorcycle speedway who won the Star Riders' Championship in 1932, the forerunner to the Speedway World Championship. League career Born in Leeds, England in 1907, Langton began hi ...

in a runoff to be declared the inaugural Speedway World Champion. 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.Chaplin, John (1990) ''Speedway Special'', , p. 109–114 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. Van Praag reportedly paid Langton £50 "conscience money" after the race for going back on the agreement.

Qualifying

The top 16 riders over 7 rounds would qualify for the World final. Ron Johnson and Bill Pitcher qualified as first reserves.

Podium

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Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

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Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

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World final

*10 September 1936 *

References

{{Speedway Grand Prix seasons

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

Individual World Championship

Individual Speedway World Championship 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). The first official championsh ...

Speedway competitions in the United Kingdom