The 1990 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 45th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. The Final was held at the

Odsal Stadium Odsal Stadium in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, is the home of Bradford Bulls Rugby League team. It has also been used by the Bradford Dukes speedway team, BRISCA F1 and F2 stock cars, the football team Bradford City, following the Valley ...

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It would be the 28th and last time the World Final would be held in England under the traditional single meeting format. Sweden's

Per Jonsson Per Jonsson (born 21 March 1966 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a former speedway rider who won the Speedway World Championship in 1990, and finished runner-up in 1992. Career In 1985, his second season with the Reading Racers, the team won six major ...

won his only World Individual Championship to become the first Swedish World Champion since

Anders Michanek Anders Michanek (born 30 May 1943 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Speedway rider. In 1974 he won the Speedway World Championship in his Swedish homeland with a maximum score of 15 points. Career Michanek had a very successful career riding in the B ...

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

and became the first rider to win both the Under-21 and

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

World Championships having previously won the 1985 Under-21 World Championship. Jonsson defeated

Shawn Moran Shawn Moran (born November 19, 1961 in Lakewood, California) is an American former professional motorcycle speedway rider who was one of the most popular and talented riders ever to race for Sheffield Tigers who also represented the United State ...

from the United States in a run-off after both finished the meeting on 13 points. Moran was later stripped of his second place by the

FIM FIM may refer to: Organizations and companies * Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, the International Motorcycling Federation * Flint Institute of Music, in Michigan, United States * Fox Interactive Media, now News Corp. Digital Media * ...

for failing a drug test taken at the Overseas Final. After Moran's disqualification, the FIM did not upgrade the placings, thus records show no second place rider for the 1990 World Final. Australian youngster

Todd Wiltshire Todd Wiltshire (born 26 September 1968 in Bankstown, New South Wales) is a retired Australian motorcycle speedway rider who competed at the highest level of the sport, finishing a career best third in the 1990 Individual Speedway World Champ ...

, believed by many judges to be one who would be making up the numbers in his first World Final, finished third with 12 points after winning his first two rides. After having won each World Final since 1984, including five 1-2 finishes and taking all podium places in

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

, the 1990 World Final saw no

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

riders finishing on the podium for the first time since

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

. Defending champion Hans Nielsen, the only Dane in the field following an injury to

Jan O. Pedersen Jan Osvald Pedersen (born 9 November 1962 in Middelfart, Denmark) is a former Speedway rider who became Speedway World Champion in 1991 after finishing runner-up in 1986 and in third place in 1988 behind fellow Danes Erik ...

which kept him from riding, finished in 4th place with 11 points.

Overseas Series

New Zealand Qualification

*First 2 from New Zealand final to Commonwealth final

Australian Qualification

*First 4 from Australian final to Commonwealth final

North American Final

*June 2, 1990 *

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

, Veterans Memorial Stadium *First 4 to the Overseas Final plus 1 reserve

Nordic Final

*June 9, 1990 *

Linköping Linköping () is a city in southern Sweden, with around 105,000 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the seat of Linköping Municipality and the capital of Östergötland County. Linköping is also the episcopal see of the Diocese of Linköping (Church ...

, Motorstadium *First 7 to the Intercontinental Final plus 1 reserve

Commonwealth Final

*June 10, 1990 *

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Belle Vue Stadium Belle Vue Stadium was a greyhound racing track in Belle Vue, Manchester, England, where the first race around an oval track in Britain was held on 24 July 1926. It has also been used for motorcycle speedway, as the home ground of Elite League t ...

*First 12 to the Overseas Final plus 1 reserve ''*

replaced

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Au ...

qualifier Stephen Davies.

David Bargh David Andrew Bargh (born 14 March 1962) is a former speedway rider from New Zealand. Speedway career Bargh is a four times champion of New Zealand, winning the New Zealand Championship in 1986, 1987, 1991 and 2000. He was runner up in the E ...

and

Gary Allan Gary Allan Herzberg (born December 5, 1967) is an American country music singer. Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his country music debut with the release of his single " Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album '' U ...

replaced

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

qualifiers Larry Ross and

Craig Wilkie __NOTOC__ Craig may refer to: Geology *Craig (landform), a rocky hill or mountain often having large casims or sharp intentations. People (and fictional characters) * Craig (surname) * Craig (given name) Places Scotland * Craig, Angus, aka Baron ...

Overseas Final

*June 24, 1990 *

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

Brandon Stadium Brandon Stadium, also known as Coventry Stadium, is located 6 miles east of Coventry in Brandon, Warwickshire, England. It was the home of the Coventry Bees motorcycle speedway team. It also hosted BriSCA F1 Stock Car Racing on the 1st Satur ...

*First 9 to the Intercontinental Final plus 1 reserve ''*

Ronnie Correy Ronnie Dean Correy (born November 8, 1966 in Bellflower, California) is an American international motorcycle speedway rider. He is a former World Pairs Champion, winning the title in 1992. Career summary Correy first rode in the UK for the Wo ...

replaced

Greg Hancock Gregory Alan Hancock (born June 3, 1970 in Whittier, California) is an American former professional motorcycle speedway rider. As of 2023, he was one of only six riders to have won the individual World Championship four or more times. In addit ...

Intercontinental Final

*August 12, 1990 *

Fjelsted Fjelsted is a town located on the island of Funen in south Denmark, in Middelfart Municipality. Fjelsted is located next to the Funen Motorway three kilometers south of Harndrup, 20 kilometers east of Middelfart and 28 kilometers west of Odense. ...

, Hele Fyns Speedway Center *First 11 to the World Final plus 1 reserve ''* Richard Knight replaced injured qualifier

Simon Cross Simon James Cross (born 31 May 1965 in Hereford, England) is a former motorcycle speedway rider who spent most of his career with the Cradley Heathens. Career Simon Cross and Kelvin Tatum finished runner-up in Speedway World Pairs Championship ...

Continental Final

*August 12, 1990 *

Norden Norden is a Scandinavian and German word, directly translated as "the North". It may refer to: Places England * Norden, Basingstoke, a ward of Basingstoke and Deane * Norden, Dorset, a hamlet near Corfe Castle * Norden, Greater Manchester, a vi ...

, Motodrom Halbemond *First 5 to the World Final plus 1 reserve

World final

*September 1, 1990 *

Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway Championship''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing.

Classification

''*

Henrik Gustafsson Henrik Anders (Henka) Gustafsson (born 14 August 1970 in Sköllersta, Sweden) is an international Motorcycle speedway rider who won the 1993 World Pairs Championship with Tony Rickardsson and the Speedway World Team Cup with Sweden in 1994 and 2 ...

and Antonín Kasper Jr. replaced injured qualifiers

and

Gerd Riss Gerd Riss (born 17 March 1965) is a German former professional motorcycle speedway rider. Speedway career He was a member of Germany team at 2001 Speedway World Cup and who was started in Speedway Grand Prix of Germany. Riss won the title a r ...

Notes:

:a.

scored 13 points and lost the run-off to

. However, Moran had failed a random drug and alcohol test taken three months earlier at the Overseas Final, and was subsequently disqualified from second place. The

did not upgrade the standings and the official records show no second place rider.

References

;Books *

External links

The event at SVT's open archive
{{Speedway Grand Prix seasons

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

Individual Speedway Individual Speedway 1990 in British motorsport Speedway competitions in the United Kingdom