Adolf "Adi" Funk (1 July 1951 – 27 January 2010) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

rider who won the Austrian Championship four times.

Biography

Born in

Klosterneuburg Klosterneuburg (; frequently abbreviated as Kloburg by locals) is a town in Tulln District in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. It has a population of about 27,500. The Klosterneuburg Monastery, which was established in 1114 and soon after giv ...

, Funk rose to prominence in the early 1970s, and by 1974 had the highest

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

in Austrian speedway.Oakes, Peter & Mauger, Ivan (1976) ''Who's Who of World Speedway'', Studio Publications, , p. 141 He finished in fourth place in the Austrian Championship in 1974 and won it for the first time the following year, also winning the Austrian Pairs Championship (with

Alex Taudtmann Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

). In 1976 he rode in Britain for

King's Lynn Stars King's Lynn Stars are a motorcycle speedway team who compete in the SGB Premiership. The nickname "Stars" comes from the defunct Norwich Stars team. The team was founded in 1965 and has been running continually since then, except for 1996 when ...

but struggled to score well, averaging only 2.8 over the season. The following year he rode for

Leicester Lions Leicester Lions are a speedway team which originally operated from 1968 until 1983.Bamford, R & Jarvis J.(2001). ''Homes of British Speedway''. The club returned to speedway for the 2011 Premier League season, moving up to the Elite League ...

, and while his average improved, it was still below three points per match. He went on to win the Austrian Championship for three successive seasons between 1980 and 1982. Funk also represented Austria several times.Jones, Alan (2010) ''Speedway in Leicester: The Lions Roar'', Automedia, p. 165 Funk died in January 2010. A memorial meeting in his honour was held in

Mureck Mureck ( sl, Cmurek, archaic: ''Cmürek'') is a municipality in the district of Südoststeiermark in the Austrian state of Styria. Administrative reforms in Styria led to the merging on 1 January 2015 of the formerly separate municipalities of Mu ...

the following year.Generalprobe in Mureck
, ''Kleine Zeitung'', 29 April 2011, retrieved 2012-03-17

World final appearances

World Pairs Championship

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Wrocław Wrocław (; , . german: Breslau, , also known by other names) is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, roughly ...

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

(with Herbert Szerecz) - 7th - 10pts (6)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funk, Adi 1951 births 2010 deaths Austrian speedway riders Leicester Lions riders King's Lynn Stars riders People from Klosterneuburg Sportspeople from Lower Austria