INTERVIEW
P44
2011 CYCLE NEWS RIDER OF THE YEAR GREG HANCOCK
Hancock leads rival Jason Crump, the Australian three-time World Champion.
BY PAUL CARRUTHERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAREK PABIJAN
AND JOHN HIPKISS
I
n 1997, Bill Clinton was president. Al Gore was vice president and busy perfecting the
Internet. Princess Diana and
Mother Theresa both passed.
"The English Patient" won the
Academy Award for Best Picture.
A gallon of gas averaged $1.32.
Ellen DeGeneres outed herself,
becoming the first openly gay
woman to have her own sitcom.
And Greg Hancock won the
42-51 Hancock Interview.indd 44
World Speedway Championship.
In 2011, Barack Obama is president. Joe Biden is vice president. Elizabeth Taylor and Steve
Jobs both passed. "The King's
Speech" won the Academy
Award for Best Picture. A gallon
of gas averaged $3.36. And Ellen DeGeneres is doing just fine,
thank you very much, and in the
eighth season of her highly-rated
talk show.
And Greg Hancock won the
World Speedway Championship.
Yes, much has changed in the
world since Hancock won that
first World Championship in 1997
– eight years after the 18-year-old
Californian first set foot on British soil to start a career of British League Speedway racing. He
went there to follow in the footsteps of his hero Bruce Penhall,
even riding for the same team
on which Penhall made a name
for himself – Cradley Heath. In
1993, he started to combine the
British League races with the
World Championship and four
years later he was World Champion for the first time. Now, another 14 years down the road,
12/12/11 7:25 AM
