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The 1938 Individual Speedway World Championship was the third edition of the official World Championship to determine the world champion rider.

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.

Qualifying round

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

Championship round

Points

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

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

1. Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
2. "World Championship 1936-1994". Edinburgh Speedway. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
3. "WORLD FINALS 1936-1994" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
4. "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
5. "WORLD INDIVIDUAL FINAL - RIDER INDEX". British Speedway. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
6. "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved 5 July 2021.
7. Oakes, Peter (1990). Speedway Yearbook 1990. Front Page Books. p. 13. ISBN 0-948882-15-8.
8. "World Speedway Championship". Dundee Evening Telegraph. 2 September 1938. Retrieved 5 July 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
9. "1938 season results". Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 1 January 2024.

v t e Individual Speedway World Championship and Speedway Grand Prix seasons
Speedway World Championship	1936 1937 1938 1939 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
Speedway Grand Prix (SGP)	1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
See also	Medalists Medal Classification Grands Prix SGP riders Super Prix SGP Statistics

• Individual Speedway World Championship
• 1938 in speedway
• 1938 sports events in London
• 1938 in British motorsport
• Speedway competitions in the United Kingdom