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An Old Chestnut
By Steve Haire
Following on from Tracy Holmes 'best rider not to be World Champ' and with Bartosz Zmarzlik equaling Ivan Mauger and Tony Rickardsson's six Speedway World titles with a record breaking four on the trot it's about time to resurrect the 'old chestnut', 'Who is the Best?'
Ignoring the vagueries of riders who retired early such as Bruce Penhall and with riders whose careers were cut short by serious injury with the likes of Erik Gundersen I will give a statistical analysis of the best.
It's done as race points, 3 points for Gold, 2 points for silver and 1 for Bronze. I will only include riders winning more than one world speedway title with an exception of Tomasz Gollob.
So here goes with lowest scorers first;
Peter Craven 10pts (2 World Titles)
Erik Gundersen 11pts (3)
Tomasz Gollob 11pts (1)
Ronnie Moore 12pts (2)
Ole Olsen 12pts (3)
Nicki Pedersen 14pts (3)
Tai Woffinden 15pts (3)
Greg Hancock 19pts (4)
Barry Briggs 21pts (4)
Jason Crump 21pts (3)
Ove Fundin 24pts (5)
Tony Rickardsson 24pts (6)
Bartosz Zmarzlik 24pts (6)
Ivan Mauger 25pts (6)
Hans Nielsen 26pts (4)
Interestingly enough Jack Young, Freddie Williams and Bruce Penhall won 2 world titles but didn't get any other medals.
Hans Nielsen has the most medals with 12, Fundin 11 and Mauger, Crump and Zmarzlik with 10. Sweden heads the medal table with 14G, 15S & 13B.
So statistics suggest that although Rickardsson, Mauger, Zmarzlik and Fundin have more golds, that Nielsen is the best.
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Of course stats are not the only indicator as to who is the best, there are other factors that contribute to who is considered the best and whilst you cannot compare riders from different eras everybody will have their reasons for who they think is the best.
'Briggo' was my favourite, he was exciting to watch and would never give up even if fighting for the odd point. Mr.Holmes, Tracy not Sherlock will no doubt argue the merits of Mauger. He was riding at a time when you were allowed to touch the tapes and he was the master of psyching out his apponents at the starting gate and rarely had to pass anyone, add in the fact he was the first recognised commercially sponsored rider plus his 3 Longtrack World titles makes him a strong contender.
Another perhaps is Nicki Pedersen, the bad boy of speedway never afraid to barge his way pass and like Marmite, hate him or love him, he made speedway fun for us supporters.
As of today it would be hard to say Zmarzlik is not the best, not the best gater, having to overcome adversary of being excluded from a penultimate GP, able to pull miracle passes out of the hat plus he has years ahead of him and the will to win more titles.
What do we think?
This article was first published on 5th October 2025
"Interesting way of calculating "The Best" Steve, but I cannot agree about Zmarzlik, even though he won 4 on the trot. The unforeseen (and in my view unjust) ban on the Russians from the GP's has not only devalued the series but made it easier for the opposition. I cannot believe that the likes of Laguta and Sayfutdinov wouldn't have at least beat Zmarzlik at various GP's over the years. Also the number of GP's held in Poland is all out of proportion in any case, giving some sort of home track advantage (to a point).
Your mention of Ivan's gating abilities (or tape pushing) leads to another thread, in that in my opinion the whole spectacle of the start was far more exciting in those days, than the clinical aspect of it now (equality anyone?). At the risk of sounding old-fashioned (yes I'm pretty old now), unless the organisers of the GP's spread the wings a bit, less in Poland and one or two events outside of Europe, I'd prefer to go back to the old "on the night" as we used to enjoy. I don't suppose we ever will though. "
"Well done, great fun. I used to enjoy compiling lists but age has caught up with me. So now, I look at the best of their time and marvel at their exploits. Vic Huxley, Jack Parker, Vic Duggan, Freddie Williams ... As for Mauger, well he certainly deserves his place with the medals to prove it. Zmarzlik may very well go on to way higher heights but it's a totally different era and I cannot compare the two. I am very much enjoying watching what he does and hope to be doing so for quite some time. Cheers. "