Intercontinental final

Intercontinental final
(World Championship qualifier)

Sport	Motorcycle speedway
Founded	1975

The Intercontinental final was a Motorcycle speedway final sanctioned by the FIM as the final qualifying round for the Speedway World Championship between 1975 and 2001. ^{[1] [2]}

After being introduced in 1975, it replaced the European final as the final qualifying round for Commonwealth, American and Nordic riders in 1976. ^[3]

The Intercontinental final was not run from 1991 to 1994 when it was replaced by the World Semi-finals. It returned to the World Championship calendar in 1995, though unlike from 1975 to 1991 riders would be vying for a place in the following years Speedway Grand Prix World Championship series and not for the current year World final. ^[4]

Peter Collins (1976), Ole Olsen (1978) and Bruce Penhall (1981) are the only riders who won the Intercontinental final to go on and win the World Championship in the same year. Collins (1977) and Erik Gundersen (1986) are the only reigning World Champions to win the Intercontinental final.

Editions

Year	Venue	Winner	Runner-up	3rd place
1975	Gothenburg Ullevi	Ivan Mauger	Anders Michanek	Bernt Persson
1976	London Wembley Stadium	Peter Collins	Ivan Mauger	Phil Crump
1977	London White City Stadium	Peter Collins	Ole Olsen	Billy Sanders
1978	Fredericia Fredericia Stadion	Ole Olsen	Ivan Mauger	Scott Autrey
1979	London White City Stadium	Michael Lee	Peter Collins	Finn Thomsen
1980	London White City Stadium	Chris Morton	Bruce Penhall	Billy Sanders
1981	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	Bruce Penhall	Erik Gundersen	Hans Nielsen
1982	Vetlanda Vetlanda Motorstadion	Les Collins	Kenny Carter	Dennis Sigalos
1983	London White City Stadium	Hans Nielsen	Michael Lee	Erik Gundersen
1984	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	Shawn Moran	Simon Wigg	Lance King
1985	Vetlanda Vetlanda Motorstadion	Shawn Moran	Lance King	Hans Nielsen
1986	Bradford Odsal Stadium	Erik Gundersen	Hans Nielsen	Tommy Knudsen
1987	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	Erik Gundersen	Jimmy Nilsen	Hans Nielsen
1988	Vetlanda Vetlanda Motorstadion	Jan O. Pedersen	Hans Nielsen	Erik Gundersen
1989	Bradford Odsal Stadium	Kelvin Tatum [5]	Erik Gundersen	Hans Nielsen
1990	Harndrup Fjelsted Speedway Stadium	Shawn Moran	Per Jonsson	Hans Nielsen
1991-94	not held because format changed to World Semi finals
1995	Varhaug Elgane Speedway	Brian Karger	Joe Screen	Leigh Adams
1996	Holsted Holsted Speedway Center	Jimmy Nilsen	Brian Andersen	Gerd Riss
1997	Västervik Ljungheden	Ryan Sullivan	Jason Crump	Craig Boyce
1998	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	Brian Karger	Peter Karlsson	Sam Ermolenko
1999	Poole Wimborne Road	Todd Wiltshire	Gary Havelock	Kai Laukkanen
2000	Holsted Holsted Speedway Center	Niklas Klingberg	Rune Holta	Nicki Pedersen
2001	Västervik Ljungheden	Kai Laukkanen	Scott Nicholls	Andreas Jonsson

Winners by country

Country	Wins	Winner(s)
Denmark	7	Erik Gundersen (2), Brian Karger (2), Ole Olsen (1), Hans Nielsen (1), Jan O. Pedersen (1)
England	6	Peter Collins (2), Michael Lee (1), Chris Morton (1), Les Collins (1), Kelvin Tatum (1)
United States	4	Shawn Moran (3), Bruce Penhall (1)
Sweden	2	Jimmy Nilsen (1), Niklas Klingberg (1)
Australia	2	Ryan Sullivan (1), Todd Wiltshire (1)
New Zealand	1	Ivan Mauger (1)
Finland	2	Kai Laukkanen (1)

See also

• Speedway World Championship
• Speedway Grand Prix
• Motorcycle speedway

References

1. "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
2. Bott, Richard (1980). The Peter Collins Speedway Book No.4. Stanley Paul & Co Ltd. p. 101. ISBN   0-09-141751-1.
3. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. p. 22. ISBN   0-86215-017-5.
4. "Intercontinental Final". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 4 July 2021.
5. Oakes, Peter (1990). Speedway Yearbook 1990. Front Page Books. pp. 7–9. ISBN   0-948882-15-8.