1973 Individual Speedway World Championship

The 1973 Individual Speedway World Championship was the 28th edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.

The 1973 World Final was won by Polish rider Jerzy Szczakiel following a run-off in with defending champion Ivan Mauger after both riders had finished on 13 points. On the second lap of the run-off, Mauger fell in turn 3 after trying a risky passing move leaving Szczakiel to win easily. Another Polish rider, Zenon Plech finished third. Rank outsider Szczakiel, who had finished last with no points scored in his only other World Final appearance in Sweden in 1971, rode the meeting of his life and was only beaten in his final two rides before defeating Mauger in the run-off.

The final, held at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów, Poland, is believed to have been held in front of the largest crowd in world speedway history, estimated to be around 130,000, though some reports put the size of the crowd as anywhere from 90,000 to 120,000. The previous record for a final was 95,000 during the 1938 Individual Speedway World Championship at Wembley.

Format changes
The format of the Championship changed for the 1973 event. This time the Polish riders were allowed five places in the World Final to be held in Poland. All other nations had to go through the European Final route to provide the remaining 11 riders for the World Final.

British/Commonwealth premilinaries

 * Riders progress to British/Commonwealth qualifiers

Second round
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Norwegian qualifying

 * 10 September 1972
 * 🇳🇴 Gamle Stadion, Sandefjord
 * Top 12 to Nordic qualification 1973
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Finnish qualifying (top 10)

 * 🇫🇮 (3 rounds) First (+1 seeded riders) to Nordic qualification 1973
 * R1 (? '72, Kärpänen Speedway, Lahti)
 * R2 (26 Aug '72, Kärpänen Speedway, Lahti)
 * R3 (? '72, Eteläpuisto, Tampere)
 * }

Swedish qualifying

 * Top 8 in each heat to Nordic qualification

Continental qualifying

 * Rider progress to Continental quarter-finals

British/Commonwealth qualifiers

 * Top riders progress to British/Commonwealth semi-finals

Continental quarter-finals

 * Top 32 to Continental semi-finals

Nordic qualification

 * Top 5 from each meeting to Nordic final

British/Commonwealth Final

 * 21 June 1973
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Owlerton Stadium, Sheffield
 * First 8 to British-Nordic Final

Nordic Final

 * 6 June 1973
 * 🇸🇪 Norrköping Motorstadion, Norrköping
 * First 8 to British-Nordic Final

British/Commonwealth/Nordic Final

 * 1 August 1973
 * 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Brandon Stadium, Coventry
 * First 8 to European Final

Continental Final

 * 23 June 1973
 * Leningrad Speedway Stadium, Leningrad
 * First 8 to European Final plus 1 reserve

Polish qualifiers

 * The top five finishers in the Golden Helmet, during the 1973 Polish speedway season gained nominations for the World final.

European Final

 * 19 August 1973
 * Abensberger Stadion, Abensberg
 * First 11 to World Final plus 1 reserve

Final Controversy
The Final was surrounded by controversy, with decisions made by Georg Traunspurger, the referee assigned to the meeting by the FIM, seeming to favour the Polish riders. One of his decisions was to have 2nd reserve Andrzej Wyglenda of Poland race in Heat 16 in front of 1st reserve Tommy Jansson of Sweden (after Bernt Persson of Sweden was unable to ride), making it four Polish riders in the race. In the race, second placed Edward Jancarz, who led for the first three laps, seemed to let Zenon Plech take the lead in the final turn, allowing Plech, who had more points at that stage of the meeting, to collect another three points for the win.

His most controversial decision was to exclude Soviet rider Grigory Khlinovsky from heat 19. Khlinovsky had attempted to pass on the inside of Zenon Plech for the lead going into the back straight of the last lap. As he was passed by the Russian, Plech lost control of his bike and fell. Despite protests from riders and the Soviet officials Khlinovsky was excluded and England's Peter Collins, who was in 3rd place at the time of the crash, was awarded the heat win, Plech, who didn't actually finish the race, was awarded 2nd. The result of the two points he gained for second place allowed Plech to finish a clear third in the championship. Had Khlinovsky been the winner of the heat, he would have ended on 13 points, which would have put him in the run-off for the title with Szczakiel and Mauger.

British television commentator Dave Lanning called the ruling "The craziest piece of speedway regulations in the history of World Championship racing", before adding that "It seems to me that the authorities here in Katowice are making up the rules to suit themselves to get their boys a world title."

Final result

 * 2 September 1973
 * 🇵🇱 Silesian Stadium, Chorzów
 * Referee: Georg Traunspurger