1959 Individual Speedway World Championship

The 1959 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 14th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}

The event was sponsored by the Sunday Pictorial.^[7] New Zealand continued their recent domination as Ronnie Moore won his second title with a 15 point maximum and New Zealand won their fourth title in six years. Ove Fundin finished second and defending champion Barry Briggs, returning from retirement won the bronze medal ride off.^[8]

First Round[]

• Scandinavian Qualifying - 16 to Scandinavian Final
• Continental Qualifying - 16 to Continental Final

Scandinavian Qualifying[]

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd place
Semi-Finals
3 May	Stockholm	Ulf Ericsson		Göran Norlén
3 May	Vetlanda	Arne Carlsson	Björn Knutsson	Joel Jansson
24 May	Hillerød	Rune Sörmander	Arne Carlsson	Aage Hansen
24 May	Helsinki		Ulf Ericsson	Olle Nygren

Continental Qualifying[]

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd place
Quarter-Finals
31 May	Ostrow	Joachim Maj		Mieczysław Połukard
31 May	Oberhausen	Björn Knutsson	Florian Kapała	Konstanty Pociejkewicz
31 May	Liberec	Stefan Kwoczala	Luboš Tomíček Sr.	Richard Janicek
31 May				Karel Průša
Semi-Finals
14 June	Slany	Luboš Tomíček Sr.	Mieczysław Połukard	Stanislav Svoboda
14 June	Wieden	Konstanty Pociejkewicz	Florian Kapała	Björn Knutsson

Second Round[]

• Ove Fundin - seeded to European Final
• British & Commonwealth Qualifying - 32 to British & Commonwealth semi-finals
• Nordic Final - 9 to European Final
• Continental Final - 6 to European Final

British & Commonwealth Qualifying[]

Top 32 riders based on points accumulated during round would progress

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd place
Preliminary Round
29 June	Wimbledon	Ron How	George White	Ronnie Moore
2 July	Oxford	Jack Geran	Neil Street
4 July	Norwich	Mike Broadbanks	Geoff Mardon	Bob Duckworth
4 July	Belle Vue	Ron Johnston	Ken McKinlay	Peter Craven
7 July	Southampton	Brian Crutcher	Peter Moore	Ron Mountford
10 July	Leicester	Ken McKinlay	Peter Craven	Ron Johnston
11 July	Swindon	Mike Broadbanks		Nigel Boocock
11 July	Coventry	Brian Crutcher	Ron Mountford	Geoff Mardon
23 July	Poole	Ronnie Moore	Ron How

Nordic Final[]

• May 31, 1959
• Turku
• First 9 to European Final

Pos.	Rider	Total
1	Rune Sörmander	14+3
2	Aage Hansen	14+2
3	Arne Carlsson	12
4	Ole Andersson	11
5	Olle Nygren	9
6		9
7		9
8	Ulf Ericsson	8
9		7
10	Timo Laine	6
11	Göran Norlén	6
12		4
13	Bernt Nilsson	4
14		3
15		2
16		1
17		0
18		dnr
19		dnr

Continental Final[]

• June 21, 1959
•  FRG Munich
• First 6 to European Final

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
1	(14) Josef Hofmeister	15				3		3					3		3							3	15	1
2	(2) Björn Knutsson	13	3					2				3				2				3			13	2
3	(13) Mieczysław Połukard	13				2	2							3		3					3		13	3
4	(9) Florian Kapała	11			3		3						E					3		2			11	4
5	(1) Konstanty Pociejkewicz	10	2				1				2				2				3				10	5
6	(5) Luboš Tomíček Sr.	9		3			0					1					3					2	9	6
7	(16) Joachim Maj	8				1				3	3						F			1			8	7
8	(15) Josef Bössner	8				0			2			2						2	2				8	8
9	(11) Jaroslav Machač	7			2				3		0					1						1	7	9
10	(3) Bohumír Bartoněk	7	1						1				2				2				1		7	10
11	(6)	5		0				1			1							1			2		5	11
12	(4)	4	0							2				2				0				0	4	12
13	(8)	4		2						1			1			0			0				4	13
14	(10) Richard Janicek	4			1			0						1			1		1				4	14
15	(7) Stanislav Svoboda	2		1					0					0	1					0			2	15
16	(12)	0			0					0		0			0						0		0	16
	(17)	0																					0
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

gate A - inside

gate B

gate C

gate D - outside

Third Round[]

• Barry Briggs - seeded to World Final
• British & Commonwealth semi-finals - 9 to World Final
• European Final - 6 to World Final

British & Commonwealth Semi finals[]

Top 9 riders based on points accumulated over two rides would progress

Date	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd place
Semi-Finals
10 August	Wimbledon	Brian Crutcher+	Ken McKinlay	Geoff Mardon+
11 August	Southampton	Ronnie Moore+	Cyril Roger+	Neil Street
15 August	Belle Vue	Ron How+	Peter Moore+	Nigel Boocock
15 August	Norwich	Peter Craven+	Brian Crutcher+	George White+

+ indicates qualifier for World Final (Aub Lawson was the ninth rider to qualify)

European Final[]

• July 17, 1959
• Göteborg
• First 6 to World final plus 1 reserve

Pos.	Rider	Total	Notes
1	Ove Fundin	14	Qualified for World final
2	Josef Hofmeister	13	Qualified for World final
3	Mieczysław Połukard	12	Qualified for World final
4	Rune Sörmander	11	Qualified for World final
5	Olle Nygren	10	Qualified for World final
6	Arne Carlsson	9	Qualified for World final
7	Florian Kapała	9	Reserve for World final
8	Björn Knutsson	7
9	Aage Hansen	7
10	Konstanty Pociejkewicz	6
11	Luboš Tomíček Sr.	6
12		5
13		4
14		3
15	Åke Andersson	2
16	Bohumír Bartoněk	1

World Final[]

• 19 September 1959
• London, Wembley Stadium^[9]

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
	(13) Ronnie Moore	15				3	3							3		3					3		15	1
	(14) Ove Fundin	13				2		2					3		3							3	13	2
	(10) Barry Briggs	11+3			3			1						1			3		3				11	3
4	(16) Olle Nygren	11+2				1				2	3						2			3			11	4
5	(6) Aub Lawson	11+1		3				3			2							2			1		11	5
6	(3) Brian Crutcher	10	3						2				2				1				2		10	6
7	(11) Arne Carlsson	8			2				3		1					1						1	8	7
8	(7) Peter Craven	7		0					1					2	2					2			7	8
9	(2) George White	7	1					0				3				2				1			7	9
10	(4) Geoff Mardon	6	2							3				0				1				E	6	10
11	(5) Rune Sörmander	6		2			1					1					0					2	6	11
12	(1) Mieczysław Połukard	5	0				2				0				1				2				5	12
13	(9) Josef Hofmeister	4			0		E						1					3		F			4	13
14	(8) Ron How	3		1						1			E			E			1				3	14
15	(12) Peter Moore	3			1					0		2			0						0		3	15
16	(15) Cyril Roger	0				0			0			0						0	0				0	16
R1	(R1) Ken McKinlay	0																					0	R1
R2	(R2) Florian Kapała	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

gate A - inside

gate B

gate C

gate D - outside

References[]