1983 Australian Individual Speedway Championship

The 1983 Australian Individual Speedway Championship was held at Speedway Park in Adelaide, South Australia on 21 January 1983. Sydney rider Billy Sanders won his fifth Australian Championship and his record fourth in a row.

Sanders caused a stir when he famously told the unruly crowd that after the reception he got he might consider changing nationalities. He then told the crowd to "Get Stuffed" at the end of his victory speech while being unfairly booed following the unpopular decision by Adelaide based meeting referee Sam Bass to exclude crowd favourite Phil Crump from their heat clash which ultimately Crump the title. Sanders had won the start, but Crump had moved under him in turn 2 and sent the Sydney rider crashing into the concrete wall. To that point of the meeting, Crump had easily won his previous heats as well as breaking the 3 lap track record, while Sanders, who was also undefeated, had only just won his opening race after trailing Gary Guglielmi until finally passing him in the final turn. Ironically, in the re-run of the heat after Crump's exclusion Sanders would lower Crump's new track record by 5/100th's of a second.

The leading local rider was Steve Baker who finished 8th with 7 points. Later in the year Baker would win the 1983 European (World) Under-21 Championship in Italy.

1983 Australian Solo Championship

• Australian Championship
• 21 January 1983
• Virginia, South Australia - Speedway Park
• Referee: Sam Bass
• Qualification: The top two riders go through to the Overseas Final in Manchester, England.

Pos.	Rider	Points	Details
	Billy Sanders ()	15	(3,3,3,3,3)
	Glyn Taylor ()	13	(3,2,2,3,3)
	Phil Crump ()	12	(3,3,3,X,3)
4	Gary Guglielmi ()	11+3	(2,1,3,2,3+3)
5	Rod Hunter ()	11+2	(2,2,2,3,2+2)
6	Danny Kennedy ()	8	(1,1,3,3,0)
7	Les Sawyer ()	8	(1,3,1,2,1)
8	Steve Baker ()	7	(3,0,2,0,2)
9	Mark Fiora ()	7	(2,2,0,1,2)
10	John Titman ()	7	(X,2,1,2,2)
11	Steve Regeling ()	6	(0,3,0,2,1)
12	David Jackson ()	4	(1,2,0,1,0)
13	Dean Johnson ()	4	(0,1,1,2,1)
14	Rob Ashton ()	4	(2,0,1,1,0)
15	Kevin O'Connell () (Res)	2	(-,-,2,-,-)
16	Wayne Baxter ()	1	(0,0,0,0,1)
17	Tony Boyle () (Res)	1	(1,-,-,-,-)
18	Chris Higgs ()	0	(0,0,0,0,0)

References

See also

• Australia national speedway team
• Sport in Australia
• Motorcycle Speedway