The Australasian Individual Speedway Championship was a

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that use only ...

Final sanctioned 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 * ...

as a qualifying round for the

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 ...

between 1976 and 1981.Speedway History
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History

The Championship was introduced in

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

as a qualifying round for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n and

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 ...

based

riders. Previously, the top place getters from the

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 ...

and

championships had then gone on to qualify through the British qualifying rounds. An Australasian Championship had been run once previously in 1960, though it was not a World Championship qualifying round. The 1960 Championship, held at the

Western Springs Stadium Western Springs Stadium is a stadium in Auckland, New Zealand. Built within a natural amphitheatre, it is primarily used for rugby union matches during the winter and for speedway during the summer. It is also occasionally used for large concer ...

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, was won by Maury Dunn. In the years 1970, 1971 and 1972, an Australasian Grand Prix meeting was held at the

Liverpool Speedway Liverpool Speedway (also known during its life as Liverpool International Speedway and Liverpool City Raceway) was located in Green Valley, Western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Liverpool was officially opened by Frank Oliveri and the O ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

on the original "D" shaped track and not the bike track that was built on the infield in 1974 when the Liverpool track surface was changed to asphalt. All three Australasian GP's were won by New Zealand's Ivan Mauger. The first Australasian Final qualifier was held at the Western Springs Stadium on 21 February 1976 with dual Australian Champion John Boulger emerging as the winner. The last Final was held at the Liverpool City Raceway on 28 February 1981. The Final winner was six time World Champion Ivan Mauger. The championship alternated between New Zealand and Australia each year. To qualify for the Australasian Final, NZ riders had to finish in the top 8 of their national championship while the Australian riders qualified through a series of Zone Finals held throughout the country. Only one rider was ever allowed to skip the Australasian Final and still be part of the World Championship - as the reigning World Champion, Ivan Mauger was seeded straight to the

Intercontinental Final The Intercontinental Final was a Motorcycle speedway Final sanctioned by the FIM as the final qualifying round for the Speedway World Championship between 1975 and 2001. After being introduced in 1975, it replaced the European Final as the final qu ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

and the Commonwealth Final in

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning System time epoch begins at 00:00 UTC. * January 9 – ...

Demise

There was to be an Australasian Final scheduled for 27 February 1982 to be held in Wellington, NZ. However, by December 1981 it became known that the Wellington promoter could not raise the necessary financial backing to run the meeting. From there the New Zealand Speedway Control Board (NZSCB) tried to reduce the costs by cutting the number of places for Australian riders from 8 to 4, which the Australian Speedway Control Council (ASCC) strongly opposed. Eventually a deal was struck where 6 Australian riders would have a place in the Final which would now be staged at the

Brisbane Exhibition Ground Brisbane Showgrounds (formerly known as the Brisbane Exhibition Ground) is located at 600 Gregory Terrace, Bowen Hills, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia and was established in 1875. It hosts more than 250 events each year, with the largest bein ...

in Australia because the original Wellington promoter Tony Nesbitt sold his interest in the track and the new promoter did not want to stage the meeting. The promoters in Brisbane requested a change of date to two weeks later (13 March), but this was knocked back by the

(despite the next qualifying round for Australasian riders being the Overseas Final to be held 4 months later in June) and the promoters decided not to continue. The Te Marua Speedway near Wellington then looked like staging the venue but wanted the NZSCB and the New Zealand Auto Cycle Union (NZACU) to underwrite the meeting. When this was refused and no Australian track was willing to stage the meeting on short notice, the Australasian Final was cancelled by the FIM and would never return to the speedway calendar.

Winners

References

{{Reflist *

History

Demise

Winners

See also

References