Editing Wembley Stadium (1923) (section)

===Speedway===
{{Main|Wembley Lions (speedway)|Speedway World Championship}}
[[Motorcycle speedway]] first took place at Wembley in 1929, and operated until the outbreak of [[World War II]] in 1939, a few days before the [[1939 Individual Speedway World Championship|1939 World Championship Final]] was due to be held, but it was cancelled as a result of the war. The [[Wembley Lions (speedway)|Wembley Lions]] returned in 1946 and operated in the top flight until the end of the 1956 season winning a number of League titles. A short lived revival saw the Lions in the [[Speedway British League|British League]] in the [[1970 British League season|1970]] and [[1971 British League season|1971 season]]s. [[Lionel Van Praag]] ([[1936 Individual Speedway World Championship|1936]]), [[Tommy Price]] ([[1949 Individual Speedway World Championship|1949]]), and [[Freddie Williams (speedway rider)|Freddie Williams]]  ([[1950 Individual Speedway World Championship|1950]] and [[1953 Individual Speedway World Championship|1953]]), all won World Championships whilst riding for Wembley. The ashes for the speedway track were supplied by Richard Biffa Ltd whose operating base at the time was in Wembley Hill Road. Richard Biffa later became Biffa Waste Services. The Lions were formed by the Wembley Stadium chairman [[Arthur Elvin|Sir Arthur Elvin]].<ref name="wpwy"/>

Between 1936 and 1960 Wembley hosted all of the first 15 finals of the [[Speedway World Championship]]. It hosted another nine World Finals before the last one at Wembley took place in [[1981 Individual Speedway World Championship|1981]] in front of 92,500 fans, just shy of the venue's record speedway attendance of 95,000 set at the [[1938 Individual Speedway World Championship|1938 World Final]].<ref>Bamford, R.; Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. Stroud: Tempus Publishing {{ISBN|0-7524-2210-3}}.</ref>

Riders who won the World Championship at Wembley include; inaugural champion Lionel Van Praag (Australia), [[Jack Milne (speedway rider)|Jack Milne]] (United States), [[Bluey Wilkinson]] (Australia), Tommy Price (England), Freddie Williams (Wales), [[Jack Young (speedway rider)|Jack Young]] (Australia – the first two-time winner, first back-to-back winner and the first [[Speedway National League Division Two|second division]] rider to win the title), [[Ronnie Moore]] (New Zealand), [[Ove Fundin]] (Sweden), [[Barry Briggs]] (New Zealand), [[Peter Craven]] (England), [[Björn Knutson]] (Sweden), [[Ole Olsen (speedway rider)|Ole Olsen]] (Denmark), [[Bruce Penhall]] (United States – the winner of the 1981 World Final), and legendary New Zealand rider [[Ivan Mauger]]. With four wins, Sweden's Ove Fundin won the most World Championships at Wembley, winning in [[1956 Individual Speedway World Championship|1956]], [[1960 Individual Speedway World Championship|1960]], [[1963 Individual Speedway World Championship|1963]] and [[1967 Individual Speedway World Championship|1967]].

Wembley also hosted the Final of the [[Speedway World Team Cup]] in [[1968 Speedway World Team Cup|1968]], [[1970 Speedway World Team Cup|1970]] and [[1973 Speedway World Team Cup|1973]] won by [[Great Britain national speedway team|Great Britain]] (1968 and 1973) and [[Sweden national speedway team|Sweden]] (1970).

The speedway track at Wembley Stadium was {{convert|345|m|yd|abbr=off}} in length and was notoriously difficult to ride for those not used to it. Despite regularly being used for World Championship and other British championship meetings, [[Wembley]] long had a reputation as a track that was difficult to pass on which often led to processional racing. Among those who never performed well there despite their credentials include [[1973 Individual Speedway World Championship|1973]] World Champion [[Jerzy Szczakiel]] (who won his title at home in Poland and two weeks later under difficult circumstances failed to score in the World Team Cup Final at Wembley), while others such as Ivan Mauger and Ole Olsen often seemed to find their best form at the stadium. The track itself was located inside of the greyhound racing track, but intersected the stadium's playing field at the corners. The pits were located in the tunnel at the eastern end of the stadium.

The track record at Wembley will forever be held by Denmark's World Champion of [[1984 Individual Speedway World Championship|1984]], [[1985 Individual Speedway World Championship|1985]] & [[1988 Individual Speedway World Championship|1988]] [[Erik Gundersen]]. In Heat 6 of the 1981 World Final, Gundersen set the 4-lap record (clutch start) of 66.8 seconds. As this was the last time the stadium was used for speedway racing, it remains the track record.