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1989 Individual Speedway World Championship

Motorcycle speedway world championship season

The 1989 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 44th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider. It was the second time the championship was held in West Germany after previously being held in Norden in 1983.

The World Final was held at the Olympic Stadium in Munich. Hans Nielsen made up for his 1988 run-off defeat to Erik Gundersen by scoring a 15-point maximum to take his third World Championship. Nielsen joined fellow Danes Ole Olsen and Erik Gundersen as a three time speedway world champion.

Simon Wigg from England finished second with the slick, 400 m track suiting his long track style. Wigg defeated fellow Englishman Jeremy Doncaster in a run-off for second and third places. In what would prove to be his last World Final before his career ending crash in the World Team Cup Final at the Odsal Stadium in England just two weeks later, Erik Gundersen finished in fourth place. His chances of an outright second-place finish (after having finished second behind Nielsen in Heat 4) ended when his bike's engine seized while leading heat 9 causing him to not finish the race. In a sad twist, it was also seized engine in Heat 1 of the World Team Cup Final that would cause Gundersen's career ending crash.

Australian rider Troy Butler had a lucky passage to the World Final. After being seeded to the Commonwealth Final, he finished eighth to qualify for the Overseas Final. He then finished tenth in the Overseas Final to be the first reserve for the Intercontinental Final. He then got a start in the Intercontinental Final at Bradford when Overseas champion Sam Ermolenko injured his back in a horrific Long track motorcycle racing crash and was forced to withdraw (the American would be out for over 6 months). Butler would finish twelfth in the IC Final to become a reserve for the World Final where he once again came in as an injury replacement when Dane Jan O. Pedersen was forced to pull out. The 1986 Australian Champion ultimately finished twelfth in Munich, finishing with 4 points (two second places) from his 5 rides.

First round

British qualification

Top 32 riders to British semi-finals

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
8 April	Arena Essex Raceway, Purfleet	Andy Buck	Martin Goodwin	Neville Tatum
8 April	Loomer Road Stadium, Chesterton	Louis Carr	Nigel Crabtree	Graham Jones
13 April	Cleveland Park Stadium, Middlesbrough	Les Collins	Sean Wilson	Mark Courtney

Second Round

Austrian Final

AUT Riders progress to Continental qualification 1989
3 rounds

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West German Final

2 October 1988
FRG Holsteinring, Brokstedt
Riders progress to Continental qualification 1989

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R1

Hungarian Final

HUN
5 rounds, riders progress to Continental qualification 1989

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Yugoslavian Final

YUG
8 rounds, riders progress to Continental qualification 1989

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19

Czechoslovak Final

Riders progress to Continental qualification 1989
6 rounds

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Soviet Union Final

2 October 1988
USSR Rivne Speedway Stadium, Rivne
Rriders progress to Continental Qualification 1989

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Scores		width=50px	Total
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Nederlands/Belgium Final

NED BEL
4 rounds, riders progress to Continental Qualification

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Scores		width=50px	Total
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31

Australian qualification

Date	Championship	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
26 Nov '88	Northern Territory	Tennant Creek Speedway	Jamie Fagg	Glen Baxter	Robbie War
26 Dec '88	Victorian	Olympic Park, Mildura	Leigh Adams	Phil Crump	Nigel Alderton
21 Dec '88	New South Wales	Liverpool City Raceway, Green Valley	Stephen Davies	Craig Boyce	Tony Primmer
23 Dec '88	South Australian	North Arm Speedway, Gillman	Craig Hodgson	Mark Fiora	Shane Parker
12 Nov '88	Queensland		Rockhampton Showground	Troy Butler	Steve Regeling	Mark Pearce
25 Nov '88	Western Australian	Claremont Speedway, Perth	Glenn Doyle	Andy Smith+	Glyn Taylor

Rode as a guest

British semi-finals

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8 May
ENG Monmore Green Stadium, Wolverhampton
Top 8 to British final

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=40px	Points
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Third round

Continental preliminary round

Riders progress to Continental quarter-finals

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
22 April	POL Polonia Bydgoszcz Stadium	POL Piotr Świst	POL Jacek Gomólski	TCH Václav Milík Sr.
23 April	TCH Slaný Speedway Stadium, Slaný	CSK Stanislav Urban	POL Andrzej Marynowski	CSK Bohumil Brhel
22 April	HUN Borsod Volán Stadion, Miskolc	HUN Jozsef Petrikovics	HUN Robert Csillik	HUN Janos Seres
7 May	YUG Matija Gubec Stadium, Krško	POL Antoni Skupień	TCH Zdenek Tesar	TCH Jan Schinagl

Swedish qualification

Top 8 in each heat to Swedish final

(30 April, Målilla Motorbana, Målilla)	Pos	Rider
1	Conny Ivarsson	12
2	Peter Nahlin	12
3	Mikael Ritterwall	10
4	Niklas Karlsson	9
5	Dennis Löfqvist	9
6	Tommy Nilsson	9
7	Jimmy Nilsen	9
8	Erik Stenlund	9
9	Kenneth Lindby	9
10	Christer Jonsson	9
11	Stefan Andersson	7
12	Tony Gudbrand	6
13	Lars Andersson	4
14	Tomas Karlsson	2
15	Tony Samuelsson	1
16	Kent Danielsson	1
17	Tony Zetterström (res)	1
18	Christer Johansson Esk (res)	1

(1 May, Gamla Galgberget, Visby)	Pos	Rider
1	Tony Olsson	13
2	Per Jonsson	13
3	Jan Andersson	12
4	Mikael Teurnberg	11
5	Christer Rohlén	10
6	Peter Karlsson	8
7	Mikael Blixt	8
8	Tommy Lindgren	7
9	Kenneth Nyström	6
10	Claes Ivarsson	6
11	Tony Rickardsson	6
12	Mikael Löfqvist	5
13	Jörgen Johansson	4
14	Kristian Hultgren	4
15	Patrik Karlsson	3
16	Bo Arrhén	2
17	Patric Eriksson (res)	2
18	Jan Bergqvist (res)	1

British Final

21 May
ENG Brandon Stadium, Coventry
First 10 to Commonwealth final plus 1 reserve

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=40px	Points		width=70px	Details



4
5
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Australian Final

AUS 15 January, Newcastle Motordrome
Winner (+ Stephen Davies & Troy Butler seeded) to Commonwealth final

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New Zealand Final

First 2 (+ Mitch Shirra seeded) to Commonwealth final
NZL 28 January, Western Springs Stadium

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Fourth Round

Continental quarter-finals

To 32 to Continental semi-finals

Date	Venue	Winner	2nd	3rd
14 May	AUT Stadion Wiener Neustadt	HUN Sandor Tihanyi	HUN Zoltán Adorján	ITA Armando Castagna
3 June	POL Zielona Góra Speedway Stadium	HUN Antal Kocso	POL Ryszard Franczyszyn	POL Andrzej Huszcza
4 June	TCH Svítkov Stadium, Pardubice	CSK Pavel Karnas	HUN Jozsef Petrikovics	CSK Roman Matoušek
3 June	FRG Anton Treffer Stadion, Neustadt Donau	FRG Karl Maier	HUN Zoltan Hajdu	FRG Gerd Riss

American Final

3 June, Top 4 to Overseas final plus 1 reserve
USA Veterans Memorial Stadium, Long Beach

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20

Commonwealth Final

4 June
ENG Belle Vue Stadium, Manchester
First 12 to Overseas final plus 1 reserve

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16

*Darren Wilson replaced Larry Ross.

Swedish Final

R1 (16 May, Nässjö Motorstadion, Nässjö)
R2 (17 May, Nyköpings Motorstadion, Nyköping)
R3 (18 May, Kalvholmen Motorstadion, Karlstad)
First 6 to Nordic Final

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Scores		width=50px	Total
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17

Norway Final

NOR Vinsvollbanen, Drammen
30 August 1987, top 1 (+1 seeded) to Nordic final 1988

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=40px	Points
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9

Finland Final

28 August 1988, top 1 (+1 seeded) to Nordic Final 1989
FIN Kotkan Motor Center, Karhula

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Heat Scores		width=50px	Total
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R1
R2
R3
R4

Danish Final

19 May
DEN Speedway Center, Vojens
First 6 to Nordic final

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Fifth Round

Continental semi-finals

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25 June
USSR Rivne Speedway Stadium, Rivne
Top 8 to Continental final

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Nordic Final

4 June
FIN Eteläpuisto, Tampere
First 7 to Intercontinental final plus 1 reserve

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Overseas Final

25 June
ENG Brandon Stadium, Coventry
First 9 to Intercontinental final plus 1 reserve

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16

** Rick Miller replaced Shawn Moran. Bobby Schwartz came in as the reserve rider*

Sixth Round

Continental Final

12 August
HUN Debrecen Speedway, Debrecen
First 5 to World final plus 1 reserve

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Total
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Intercontinental Final

13 August
ENG Odsal Stadium, Bradford
First 11 to World final plus 1 reserve

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Total
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R1
R2

*Troy Butler replaced the injured Sam Ermolenko. Martin Dugard came in as the reserve rider.

World Final

2 September 1989
FRG Olympic Stadium, Munich
Referee: (NED) Henry van den Boomen

Pos.		width=200px	Rider		width=70px	Heat Scores		width=50px	Total
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R1
R2

** Troy Butler replaced the injured Jan O. Pedersen. Andy Grahame came in as the reserve rider.*

Classification

References

"World Championship 1936-1994".
"HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK".
"WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX".
"Speedway riders, history and results".
Oakes, Peter. (1990). "Speedway Yearbook 1990". Front Page Books.
"WORLD FINALS 1936-1994".
(4 September 1989). "Nielsen topples King Eric". Sandwell Evening Mail.
Oakes, Peter. (1990). "Speedway Yearbook 1990". Front Page Books.
Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). ''A History of the World Speedway Championship''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. {{ISBN. 0-7524-2402-5

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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