1956 Individual Speedway World Championship

The 1956 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 11th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.

The World final was sponsored by the Sunday Dispatch and was televised live. Despite being televised a crowd of 65,000 saw the first Scandinavian winner in 23 year old Ove Fundin from Sweden.

Qualification

Qualification started in 1955.

Stage 1

Norwegian qualification

The October 1955 Norwegian final was cancelled due to bad weather, resulting in riders being seeded to Nordic round

Finnish round

• 23 October 1955
• Helsinki Velodrome, Helsinki
• First 7 (+seeded riders) to 1956 Nordic round

Swedish round

Stage 2

Nordic round

Continental round

Stage 3

British & Commonwealth round

• Top 21 qualify for Championship round.

Nordic Final

• 8 June 1956
• Ryd Motorstadion, Linköping
• First 7 to European final

Continental Final

Fritz Dirtl was tragically killed competing in the Continental final. He was involved in a crash with fellow Austrian rider Josef Kamper and the fell into the path of Mieczysław Połukard.

• 10 June 1956
• Niederrheinstadion, Oberhausen
• First 7 to European Final

Stage 4

Championship Round

• Top 11 qualify, 1 reserve for World final

• (Peter Craven seeded to World final)

Scores<br> First 11 to World final + 1 reserve

European Final

• 8 July 1956
• Bislett Stadium, Oslo
• First 4 to World final plus 1 reserve

World final

• 22 September 1956
• Wembley Stadium, London

Classification

References