1981 Speedway World Team Cup
Introduction The '''1981 Speedway World Team Cup''' was the 22nd edition of the FIM Speedway World Team Cup to determine the team world champions.The final took place at the Olching Speedwaybahn in Olching, West Germany. Denmark won their second title. Ominously for the rest of the world the team contained a youthful Hans Nielsen and Erik Gundersen.
Qualification stage 1 Day Venue Winner   Stage 1 17 May  Reading  England 17 May  Brokstedt  West Germany 17 May  Debrecen  USSR 28 May  Tampere  Denmark 26 June  Badia Polesine  USSR===Commonwealth round===* 17 May*  Smallmead Stadium, Reading* Referee:  C. Ringstrom* Att: 7,000'''* England & USA to Intercontinental Final'''===Scandinavian round===* 28 May*  Eteläpuisto, Tampere1st2nd3rd4th''' - 37'''Hans Nielsen - 11Bo Petersen - 10Erik Gundersen - 8Tommy Knudsen - 8''' - 30'''Jan Andersson - 10Hans Danielsson - 8Richard Hellsen - 6Tommy Nilsson - 6''' - 19'''Ari Koponen - 5Kai Niemi - 5Olli Tyrväinen - 4Pekka Hautamaki - 3Veijo Tuoriniemi - 2''' - 10'''Rolf Gramstad - 8Dag Haaland - 2Jorn Haugvalstad - 0Yngve Madland  - 0Roy Otto - 0'''* Denmark & Sweden to Intercontinental Final'''===Continental round===* 17 May*  Holsteinring, Brokstedt'''* West Germany & Netherlands to Continental Semi-Final'''* 17 May*  Gázvezeték Street Sports Complex, Debrecen'''* Soviet Union & Hungary to Continental Semi-Final''''''Semifinal'''* 28 June 28*  Stadio Ottorino Verzaro, Badia Polesine1st2nd3rd4th''' - 33'''Mikhail Starostin - 10Viktor Kuznetsov - 9Anatoly Maksimov - 9Grigory Khlinovsky - 5''' - 32'''Karl Maier - 11Georg Hack - 10Frits Bauer - 4Georg Gilgenreiner - 3Egon Müller - 3''' - 18'''Istvan Sziraczki - 9Ferenc Farkash - 4Laszlo Meszaros - 2Janos Oresko - 2Zoltán Adorján - 1''' - 13'''Henny Kroeze - 5Frits Koppe - 4Rudi Muts - 2Henk Steman  - 2'''* Soviet Union & West Germany to Continental Final'''
Qualification stage 2 Day Venue Winner   Stage 2 26 June  King's Lynn  Denmark 7 July  Leningrad  West Germany===Continental Final===* 11 July*  Leningrad Speedway Stadium, Leningrad'''* West Germany & Soviet Union to World Final'''===Intercontinental Final===* 28 July*  Norfolk Arena, King's Lynn * Referee:  Sam Bass'''* Denmark & England to World Final'''
World Final * 16 August*  Olching Speedwaybahn, Olching* Referee:  C. Bergstrom
See also * 1981 Individual Speedway World Championship* 1981 Speedway World Pairs Championship
References