1938 Individual Speedway World Championship

Third edition of the World motorcycle speedway championship

The 1938 Individual Speedway World Championship was the third edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.^[1]^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

The Championship was won by the 28 year-old Australian Arthur 'Bluey' Wilkinson, in front of a new record crowd for speedway of 95,000. The newspapers reported that despite extra police one of the worst traffic jams of the year resulted after the meeting was over and that the air was thick with petrol fumes.^[8]

Qualifying round

The top 28 riders over the 13 qualifying rounds would qualify for the Championship round.

Date	Venue	Winner
11 May	Perry Barry Stadium	Tiger Hart
18 May	Banister Court Stadium	Frank Goulden
24 May	White City Nottingham	Tiger Hart
26 May	Owlerton Stadium	Billy Lamont & Tommy Allott
4 June	The Firs Stadium	Wal Morton
7 June	Brough Park Stadium	Doug Wells
11 June	Hackney Wick Stadium	Doug Wells
21 June	West Ham Stadium	Bluey Wilkinson
23 June	Knowle Stadium	Cordy Milne
9 July	Harringay Stadium	Tommy Croombs
16 July	Hyde Road	Jack Milne
18 July	Wimbledon Stadium	Wilbur Lamoreaux
20 July	New Cross Stadium	Jack Milne

Championship round

Date	Venue	Winner
30 July	Hyde Road	Wilbur Lamoreaux
5 August	Knowle Stadium	Cordy Milne
8 August	Wimbledon Stadium	Geoff Pymar
17 August	New Cross Stadium	Bluey Wilkinson
18 August	Wembley Stadium	Jack Milne & Wilbur Lamoreaux
20 August	Harringay Stadium	Lionel Van Praag
23 August	West Ham Stadium	Bluey Wilkinson & Jack Milne

Points

The top 16 riders and 1 reserve, over the 7 Championship rounds would qualify for the World final.^[9]

Pos.	Rider	Qual Points	c/f
1	Bluey Wilkinson	53	8
2	Wilbur Lamoreaux	52	7
3	Cordy Milne	50	7
4	Jack Milne	49	7
5	Lionel Van Praag	49	7
6	Bill Kitchen	40	6
7	Eric Langton	37	5
8	Alec Statham	37	5
9	Benny Kaufman	36	5
10	Geoff Pymar	35	5
11	Arthur Atkinson	34	5
12	George Newton	34	5
13	Jack Parker	31	4
14	Tommy Croombs	29	4
15	Frank Varey	29	4
16	Tommy Price	27	4

Pos.	Rider	Qual Points	c/f
17	Jack Ormston	26	4
18	Vic Duggan	25
19	Ron Johnson	25
20	Jimmie Gibb	24
21	Les Wotton	17
22	Wally Lloyd	16
23	Eric Gregory	16
24	Morian Hansen	13
25	Clem Mitchell	12
26	George Wilks	12
27	Bert Spencer	7
28	Charlie Spinks	4

World final

1 September 1938
Wembley Stadium, London
Attendance: 95,000 (all-time Wembley speedway attendance record)

Pos.	Rider	c/f	Final Points	Final Heats	Total Points
1	Bluey Wilkinson	8	14	(3,3,3,3,2)	22
2	Jack Milne	7	14	(3,3,2,3,3)	21
3	Wilbur Lamoreaux	7	13	(3,1,3,3,3)	20
4	Lionel Van Praag	7	11	(3,2,2,1,3)	18
5	Bill Kitchen	6	9	2,2,1,2,2)	15
6	Cordy Milne	7	8	(1,3,3,0,1)	15
7	Alec Statham	5	8	(2,3,0,0,3)	13
8	Eric Langton	5	8	(1,2,2,3,0)	13
9	Benny Kaufman	5	7	(2,1,0,2,2)	12
10	Jack Parker	4	6	(2,2,2,0,0)	10
11	Arthur Atkinson	5	5	(1,0,2,1,1)	10
12	Jack Ormston (res)	4	5	(3,2)	9
13	Tommy Price	4	4	(1,0,1,2,0)	8
14	Tommy Croombs	4	4	(0,1,1,1,1)	8
15	George Newton	5	2	(0,1,0,1,0)	7
16	Geoff Pymar	5	2	(0,0,1,0,1)	7
17	Frank Varey	4	0	(0,0,0,-,-)	4

References

^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
^ "World Championship 1936-1994". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
^ "WORLD FINALS 1936-1994" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
^ "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
^ "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
^ Oakes, Peter (1990). Speedway Yearbook 1990. Front Page Books. p. 13. ISBN 0-948882-15-8.
^ "World Speedway Championship". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 2 September 1938. Retrieved 5 July 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
^ "1938 season results". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 1 January 2024.