Speedway Champions

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: p.NC2    AUSTRALASIA
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 AUSTRALIA

      With varying track lengths from ¼ mile to 1 mile or more dependent upon the original showground size, speedway races in Australia’s pioneering days from the 1920s onward were of differing duration, usually equating to 1 mile or 2 miles, e.g. 4 or 8 laps on a 440yd. circuit: 3 or 6 laps on a 1/3 mile track. (For 5-mile championships, see Long Track page.) Classes by engine size were also involved. Consequently a number of Australian National Championships resulted. (Predominant ones only are given in the ‘Nationals’ table of the previous page.) The first table of this page gives the full list of Aussie championships winners, 2-lap Champions to 2-mile Champions, from the first 1926 winner to the last before the lull of the late ‘fifties.

     This multiplicity of champions led in 1950 to the ASCB initiating an annual competition for those holders to race for the ultimate accolade of Australian “Champion of Champions.” Aub Lawson, (below table,) made this title his own !

                Ray Duckett                           Reg West, 1930 2-mile Aust. Champ                                Vic Duggan                 
        1929 3-lap Aust. Champ                                 & GH holder (Adelaide)                       1948 2-lap Aust. Champ (Sydney Show-),                                                                                                                                                & 3-lap (Sydney Sports-)
                                                                                                                                              & GH holder (Melbourne)

   
Aub Lawson, Champ of Champs,  1950, '52, '53, '54.                          
                         
Sydney 1927                              Brisbane 1948                      Melbourne 1960                                Adelaide 1992

 
NEW ZEALAND
          A full list of all NZ national champions is given on the preceding page of 'major speedway nations', included in which is Jack Hunt, (seen left,) the first post-war NZ champion, with successes in both 1945 and '48.

    Below are listed the winners of the NZ Grand Prix, (introduced in the '80s,) and the two islands' championships. On South Island Larry Ross dominated the event in the '70s/'80s with 12 wins, and in the North, where a wider range of venues has been used, Mich Shirra has the most wins with 5. Both have been multiple New Zealand national champions and had a NZ Long Track championship success each.

    New Zealand Golden Helmet holders, between 1929 and the present 21st century, are to be found in the GH Supplement , sheet 5.
                         

     Click thumbnail for full-size tables.                                                                                                                         
   

Aust. Lg.Trk GPs:

       Canberra 1995             Tamworth (NSW) 1998            Shepparton (Vic) 1999.      NZ Lg.Trk GP Ch'ch 1996