1958 Individual Speedway World Championship Explained

The 1958 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 13th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^[1] ^[2] ^[3] ^[4] ^[5] ^[6]

In the World final New Zealander Barry Briggs successfully defended his title and was unbeaten after five heat wins. Ove Fundin took the silver medal but there was an incident filled ride off for the bronze medal. Aub Lawson won that ride off after both Peter Craven and Ken McKinlay fell, Craven remounted to take fourth place.^[7]

Qualifying

Qualification started in 1957.^[8] ^[9]

Stage 1

width=50% valign=top

Norwegian round

20 October 1957
Tønsberg Stadion, Tønsberg
Top 4 (+4 seeded) to Nordic qualification 1958

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1	Aage Hansen	15
2		12
3	Roger Steen	11
4	Roger Hansen	10
5	Egil Bratvold	10
6	Arne Kristiansen	10
7		7
8	Gunnar Hemsaeter	7
9	Erling Simonsen	7
10	Oddvar Wold	7
11	Thorbjorn Nygaard	5
12	Fred Carlsen	4
13	Jan Svaleng	4
14	Roald Kjolso	2
15	Havard Gulbjornrud	2
16	Kjell Berg	1
17	Oystein Mellerud	1

width=50% valign=top

Finnish round

27 October 1957
Helsinki Velodrome, Helsinki
Top 4 (+2 seeded) to Nordic qualification 1958

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		14+3
2	Aulis Tuominen	14+2
3	Turkka Silvan	12
4	Lasse Mylläri	9
5	Heikki Sorri	9
6	Valle Selivestov	8
7		7
8	Antero Salasto	7
9	Petti Mikkola	7
10	Kalevi Lahtinen	7
11	Pekka Tenko	6
12		6
13	Reino Niemi	5
14	Olle Helander	2
15	Esko Koponen	2
16	Timo Pirkkalanniemi	0

Swedish round

width=50% valign=top

1 May 1958
Gamla Speedway Track, Visby
Top 7 to Nordic qualification

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		15
2		13
3	Evert Andersson	12
4		12
5	Bernt Nilsson	11
6	Kjell Wårenius	10
7	Lars Pettersson	10
8		7
9		6
10	Olle Andersson IV	5
11	Hans Hallberg	5
12	Åke Andersson	4
13	Olle Andersson II	3
14	Per Sjöholm	3
15	Thorsten Carlsson	3
16	Curt Eldh	1
17	Sven-Gunnar Karlstén	0

width=50% valign=top

1 May 1958
Hammarby IP, Stockholm
Top 7 to Nordic qualification

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		13
2		12
3		12
4		12
5	Bengt Eriksson	10
6	Curt Nyqvist	8
7		8
8		7+3
9		7+2
10	Rune Claesson	7
11	Arne Carlsson	6
12		6
13		3
14		3
15	Roland Krantz	2
16	Georg Duneborn	1
17	Thorvald Karlsson	0
18		0

Stage 2

Nordic qualification

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25 May 1958
Grevby Motorstadion, Mariestad
Top 8 to Nordic final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		15
2		14
3		12
4		11
5	Bengt Eriksson	10
6		9
7		8+3
8	Curt Nyqvist	8+2
9		8+1
10		6
11		5
12	Kalevi Lahtinen	5
13	Lasse Mylläri	4
14	Timo Pirkalanniemi	3
15	Roger Hansen	1
16	Turkka Silvan	1

width=50% valign=top

5 June 1958
Dælenenga idrettspark, Oslo
Top 8 to Nordic final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		15
2		13
3		12
4		11
5	Kjell Wårenius	11
6		9
7	Bernt Nilsson	8
8		8
9	Evert Andersson	7
10		6
11	Arne Kristiansen	5
12	Lars Pettersson	4
13	Roger Steen	4
14		4
15	Svend Nissen	2
16	Poul Hansen	1

Continental semi-final

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18 May 1958
Abensberger Stadion, Abensberg
Top 8 to Continental final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		13
2		12
3		11
4		11
5		11
6		10
7		10
8		9
9
10
11
12
13	Albin Aberl
14	Nick van Gorcum
15	Albin Siegl
16	Thei Bischops

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18 May 1958
Wiener Stadion, Vienna
Top 8 to Continental final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		13
2		13
3		12
4		12
5		10
6	Jaroslav Volf	9
7		8
8		7
9	Valentin Unterköfler	7
10	Ligor Dusanek	7
11	Vladimir Uher	6
12	Otto Holoubek	4
13	Hans Sidlo	4
14	Alois Dürrenhammer	4
15	Erich Sidlo	2
16	Ernst Strasser	1

Stage 3

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Nordic Final

8 June 1958
Växjö Motorstadion, Växjö
First 8 to European final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		15
2		12
3		12
4		11
5		9
6		9
7		8
8		7
9		7
10		6
11		5
12		4
13		4
14		3
15		2
16		2
17		2
18		dnr

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Continental Final

1 June 1958
Niederrheinstadion, Oberhausen
First 8 to European Final

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		14
2		14
3		11
4		9
5		9
6		9
7		8
8		8
9		8
10		7
11		6
12		6
13		3
14	Jaroslav Volf	3
15		3
16		1
176	Valentin Unterköfler (res)	0

British & Commonwealth qualifying

Top 32 from 80 qualify for British & Commonwealth semi-finals.^[10]

width=100	Date	width=200	Venue	width=250	Winner
14 July		Jack Biggs
14 July		Ronnie Moore
15 July		Ronnie Genz
17 July		Peter Moore
17 July		Gordon McGregor
18 July		Ken McKinlay
19 July		Ron Johnston
19 July		Jack Young
19 July		Billy Bales
19 July		Ron How

Stage 4

British/Commonwealth semi-final

Barry Briggs seeded to World final
First 10 to World final + 1 reserve

width=100	Date	width=200	Venue	width=250	Winner
16 August		Ken McKinklay
18 August		Peter Craven
19 August		Jack Geran
22 August		Brian Crutcher

width=50% valign=top

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Points
1		27
2		27
3	Mike Broadbanks	25
4	Ron How	24
5	Peter Moore	24
6	Ronnie Moore	23
7		22
8		22
9		22
10		22
11		22
12		20
13	George White	17
14	Dick Bradley	15
15		14
16		14

width=50% valign=top

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=40px	Total pts
17		13
18		13
19		13
20		12
21		11
22		8
23	Harry Edwards	8
24	Ronnie Genz	7
25		6
26		6
27	Arthur Forrest	5
28	Eric Boothroyd	4
29		3
30		3
31	Ron Mountford	1

European Final

22 July 1958
Army Stadium, Warsaw
First 5 to World final plus 1 reserve^[11]

width=25px	Pos.	Rider	width=70px	Total
1		15
2		13
3		12
4	Olle Nygren	11
5		10
6		9
7		9
8		7
9		6
10		6
11		5
12		4
13		4
14		3
15		2
16		2

World final

20 September 1958
London, Wembley Stadium^[12]
Referee: E. G. Cope

width=25px	Pos.	width=200px	Rider	width=70px	Heat Scores	width=50px	Total
	1		(3,3,3,3,3)	15
	2		(3,3,2,3,2)	13
	3		(1,3,3,1,3)	11+3
4	Peter Craven	(2,3,0,3,3)	11+2
5		(2,2,3,2,2)	11+1
6		(3,2,0,1,3)	9
7		(3,2,2,2,0)	9
8		(1,1,1,3,2)	8
9		(2,0,2,2,1)	7
10		(1,1,2,2,1)	7
11		(0,1,3,1,0)	5
12		(2,0,1,0,2)	5
13		(0,2,1,0,1)	4
14		(0,1,1,0,1)	3
15		(1,0,0,1,0)	2
16		(0,0,0,0,0)	0
R1		did not ride	-
R2		did not ride	-

Classification

Notes and References

Book: Oakes, Peter. 1981 Speedway Yearbook. 1981. 20–21. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. 0-86215-017-5.
Web site: World Championship 1936-1994. Edinburgh Speedway. 5 July 2021.
Web site: WORLD FINALS 1936-1994. Speedway Researcher. 5 July 2021.
Web site: HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK. Speedway.org. 5 July 2021.
Web site: Speedway riders, history and results. wwosbackup. 5 July 2021.
Web site: WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX. British Speedway. 5 July 2021.
News: World Speedway, It's Briggs . Weekly Dispatch London . 21 September 1958 . 6 July 2021 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
Web site: 1958 World Championship . Metal Speedway . 18 January 2024.
Web site: 1958 World Championship . Speedway.org . 18 January 2024.
News: £650 for 25 miles . Sunday Mirror . 13 July 1958 . 13 January 2024 . British Newspaper Archive. subscription .
Web site: 1958. Speedway.org. 20 July 2021.
Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). A History of the World Speedway Championship. Stroud: Tempus Publishing.