1961 Individual Speedway World Championship

The 1961 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 16th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]

The final was held outside of Wembley and England for the first time when on the 15 September Ove Fundin retained his title in his home country of Sweden. It was the first time a rider had won three titles and Sweden produced a clean sweep of podium places with Björn Knutson and Göte Nordin finishing second and third.^[7]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
30 April	Vetlanda Motorstadion, Vetlanda	Ove Fundin	Rune Sörmander	Göran Norlen
1 May	Gamla Speedway Track, Visby	Ove Fundin	Björn Knutson	Arne Carlsson
4 May	Nya Ullevi, Gothenburg	Sören Sjösten	Rune Sörmander	Evert Andersson

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
22 May	County Ground, Exeter	Eric Hockaday	Jim Lightfoot	Pete Lansdale
24 May	Wimborne Road, Poole	Maury Mattingley	Tony Lewis	Ken Middleditch
25 May	Cleveland Park Stadium, Middlesbrough	Dick Campbell	Peter Vandenberg	Geoff Mudge
26 May	Monmore Green Stadium, Wolverhampton	Graham Warren	Harry Edwards	Eric Hockaday
26 May	Rayleigh Weir Stadium, Rayleigh	Johnny Fitzpatrick	Gil Goldfinch	Ken Adams
26 May	Pennycross Stadium, Plymouth	Jack Scott	Tony Lewis	Chris Julian
27 May	Old Meadowbank, Edinburgh	Jim Lightfoot	Doug Templeton	Dick Campbell
27 May	Dudley Wood Stadium, Dudley	Harry Bastable	Ivor Brown	Peter Vandenberg
1 June	Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield	Clive Featherby	Clive Cox	George Hunter
3 June	Hanley Greyhound Stadium, Hanley	Maury Mattingley	Ken Adams	Stan Stevens

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
28 May	Gwardia Sports Club Stadium, Poznań	Bohumír Bartoněk	Bedřich Slaný	Stanisław Tkocz
28 May	Pavlovičky Stadion, Liberec	Bronislaw Idzikowski	Farid Szajnurov	Igor Plekhanov
28 May	Matija Gubec Stadium, Krško	Konstanty Pociejkewicz	Bohumil Rednek	Henryk Żyto
28 May	Abensberger Stadion, Abensberg	Josef Hofmeister	Marian Kaiser	Antonín Kasper Sr.

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
3 July	Wimbledon Stadium, London	Ronnie Moore	Ron How	Jim Tebby
4 July	Banister Court Stadium, Southampton	Peter Craven	Barry Briggs	Ray Cresp
5 July	New Cross Stadium, London	Bob Andrews	Split Waterman	Ken McKinlay
6 July	Oxford Stadium, Oxford	Jack Young	Ronnie Genz	Mike Broadbanks
6 July	Foxhall Stadium, Ipswich	Peter Moore	Johnny Chamberlain	Ray Cresp
7 July	Leicester Stadium, Leicester	Ronnie Moore	Ken McKinlay	Danny Dunton
8 July	Abbey Stadium, Swindon	Cyril Maidment	Tadeusz Teodorowicz	Neil Street
8 July	Brandon Stadium, Coventry	Peter Moore	Bob Duckworth	Bob Andrews
8 July	The Firs Stadium, Norwich	Billy Bales	Mike Broadbanks	Split Waterman
8 July	Hyde Road, Manchester	Peter Craven	Gerald Jackson	Eric Williams

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
31 July	Wimbledon Stadium, London	Ronnie Moore	Barry Briggs	Bob Andrews
1 August	Banister Court Stadium, Southampton	Ron How	Peter Craven	Cyril Maidment
5 August	Hyde Road, Manchester	Ronnie Moore	Doug Davies	Nigel Boocock
5 August	The Firs Stadium, Norwich	Barry Briggs	Peter Craven	Billy Bales

1961 Individual Speedway World Championship

First round

Norwegian qualifying

Finnish qualifying

Swedish qualifying

British & Commonwealth qualifying

Continental qualifying

Second round

British & Commonwealth 2nd round

Nordic Qualifying

Continental semi-finals

Third round

British & Commonwealth Semi finals

Nordic Final

Continental Final

Fourth round

European Final

British Final

World Final

References

Related Articles

Pos.	Rider	Total
1	Ove Fundin	14
2	Arne Pander	13
3	Björn Knutson	13
4	Per Tage Svensson	12
5	Evert Andersson	10
6	Göte Nordin	10
7	Leif Larsson	8
8	Rune Sörmander	8
9	Göran Norlén	7
10	Arne Carlsson	7
11	Soren Sjosten	6
12	Joel Jansson	5
13	Bernt Nilsson	3
14	Timo Laine	2
15	Rolf Westerberg	1
16	Curt Eldh	2
R1	Aage Hansen	dnr
R1	Kalevi Lahtinen	dnr

Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21
	(2) Florian Kapała	14	3					3				3				2				3			14	1
	(1) Igor Plekhanov	14	2				3				3				3				3				14	2
	(6) Stanisław Tkocz	12		2				2			2							3			3		12	3
4	(8) Henryk Żyto	10		3						1			3			1			2				10	4
5	(7) Josef Hofmeister	9		1					3					3	0					2			9	5
6	(12) Konstanty Pociejkewicz	9			2					2		1			2						2		9	6
7	(4) Kaziemirz Bentke	8	1							X				2				2				3	8	7
8	(15) Marian Kaiser	7				3			2			2						X	-				7	8
9	(11) Mieczysław Połukard	7			X				1		1					3						2	7	9
10	(14) Joachim Maj	7				2		1					2		1							1	7	10
11	(16) Antonín Kasper Sr.	7				1				3	0						2			1			7	11
12	(10) Bedřich Slaný	6			3			0						1			1		1				6	12
13	(9) Stanislaw Rurarz	5			1		2						1					1		0			5	13
14	(3) Bronislaw Idzikowski	3	0						0				0				3				0		3	14
15	(13) Bohumír Bartoněk	1				X	0							0		E					1		1	15
16	(5) Bernard Kacperak	1		0			1					E					0					0	1	16
R1	(R1) Stefan Kepa	0																					0	R1
Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21

Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21
	(8) Ove Fundin	15		3						3			3			3			3				15	1
	(11) Björn Knutson	14			3				3		3					2						3	14	2
	(3) Igor Plekhanov	11	3						2				1				3				2		11	3
4	(4) Rune Sörmander	10	2							1				3				3				1	10	4
5	(6) Florian Kapała	10		2				3			2							2			1		10	5
6	(12) Stanisław Tkocz	10			1					0		3			3						3		10	6
7	(15) Göte Nordin	9				3			1			2						1	2				9	7
8	(16) Josef Hofmeister	9				2				2	1						1			3			9	8
9	(5) Leif Larsson	8		1			2					1					2					2	8	9
10	(9) Henryk Żyto	7			2		3						2					F		-			7	10
11	(2) Evert Andersson	6	1					2				0				1				2			6	11
12	(10) Per Tage Svensson	3			0			1						2			0		0				3	12
13	(14) Göran Norlén	2				0		0					0		2							0	2	13
14	(7) Mieczysław Połukard	1		0					0					1	-					-			1	14
15	(13) Marian Kaiser	1				1	F							E		E					0		1	15
16	(1) Kaziemirz Bentke	0	NS				NS				NS				NS				NS				0	16
R1	(R1) Josef Bössner	3					1								1					1			3	R1
R2	(R2) Johan Hartl	0	0																				0	R2
Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21

Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21
	(7) Barry Briggs	15		3					3					3	3					3			15	1
	(3) Peter Craven	14	3						2				3				3				3		14	2
	(12) Ronnie Moore	12			3					3		3			2						1		12	3
4	(5) Ken McKinlay	9		0			3					2					1					3	9	4
5	(1) Ron How	9	2				2				2				0				3				9	5
6	(4) Bob Andrews	9	1							2				2				3				1	9	6
7	(16) Ray Cresp	8				1				1	3						2			1			8	7
8	(15) Mike Broadbanks	7				3			1			1						0	2				7	8
9	(14) Cyril Maidment	7				2		3					1		1							0	7	9
10	(9) Ronnie Genz	7			1		1						2					1		2			7	10
11	(6) Jack Young	7		1				1			1							2			2		7	11
12	(11) Doug Davies	5			0				0		0					3						2	5	12
13	(8) Neil Street	5		2						0			0			2			1				5	13
14	(2) Peter Moore	3	0					2				1				0				0			3	14
15	(10) Jack Scott	2			2			0						0			0		0				2	15
16	(13) Nigel Boocock	1				0	0							1		0					0		1	16
R1	(R1) Chum Taylor	0																					0	R1
R2	(R2) Split Waterman	0																					0	R2
Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21

Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21
	(6) Ove Fundin	14		3				3			3							3			2		14	1
	(4) Björn Knutson	12	3							3				3				F				3	12	2	3
	(13) Göte Nordin	12				2	2							2		3					3		12	3	2
4	(15) Barry Briggs	12				1			3			3						2	3				12	4	1
5	(2) Bob Andrews	10	2					2				2				1				3			10	5
6	(16) Ronnie Moore	10				3				1	2						2			2			10	6
7	(3) Florian Kapała	8	0						2				2				3				1		8	7
8	(7) Rune Sörmander	7		2					1					0	3					1			7	8
9	(9) Ron How	7			2		3						1					1		0			7	9
10	(8) Peter Craven	6		F						2			3			0			1				6	10
11	(10) Ken McKinlay	5			3			F						1			1		E				5	11
12	(12) Cyril Maidment	4			1					0		1			2						0		4	12
13	(1) Igor Plekhanov	4	1				0				1				0				2				4	13
14	(5) Ray Cresp	3		F			1					0					F					2	3	14
15	(11) Stanisław Tkocz	3			0				0		0					2						1	3	15
16	(14) Mike Broadbank	2				0		1					0		1							0	2	16
R1	(R1) Jack Young	0																					0	R1
R2	(R2) Leif Larsson	0																					0	R2
Placing	Rider	Total	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Pts	Pos	21