Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125819
_. World Speedway .. Ii!' M "The starting area was a vast run<»ff area, full of gullies and washouts and more gullies. Rocks lined the bottoms of the washes and lurked behind bushes and many riders thought seriously about not bothering to sign up if the rest of the course was that bad." At the 100's M.e. Hare Scrambles Doug Winchell, entered his "250 Su'taco and won his second~Yer, First Overall win. ButtaCD truly is a tough competitor. Q. M .... en M > 3 .., Ul ~ w by Peter White Z W RUSSIANS THROW OUT CH.ALLENGE IN WORLD SPEEDWAY FINAL Russia is assured of at least three places in the World _Speedway Championship Final in Poland on September 2. Soviet riders completely dominated the Continental Final at Leningrad last week and occupied all eight qualifying places for the European Final in West Germany next month. There they will meet the top eigh t qualifiers from the BritISh/Nordic Final at Coventry, England on August 1. Eleven of the sixteen, riders in the European Final will qualify to meet five Poles in the World Final...and three of them must be Russians. The Con tinen tal Final was an all-Soviet affair and only youthful Czechoslovakian former World Finalist, Jiri Stanel, looked like he was breaking the Russian dominance. As it was, Stanel could not match the power and questionable team riding tactics of the hammer and sickle boys completely and goes on to Germany only as reserve. The Continental Final was won by Valeri Gordiev, younger of two speedway riding brothers, with 13 points. The blonde-haired, good-looking Russian will be remembered for his sensational high-flying act at last year's Wembley World Final. when he hit the fallen Barry Briggs and catapulted high across the Wembley track into the safety fence. . The accident was the most spectacular ever seen at the famous London sporting stadium and earned Gordeev high praise for his tenacious, undaun ted spiri t. Other qualifiers from the Continental Final are Chlinovsky, Zaplechny, Vladimir Gordeev, Trofunov, Pavlov, Kuzmin and paznikov (all USSR). WORLD LEAGUE COMMENCES IN BRITAIN Meanwhile, it is all happening in Britain with the commencement of the first-ever genuine World Speedway Le ague, incorporating teams' from England, Sweden, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Poland and Denmark/Norway. And the shock announcement by Kiwi great, Bany Briggs, that he will return to the saddle to ride for his country (N ew Zealand) for the last time in European speedway competition. Briggs had earlier refused to ride after the British Speedway Promoters' Association had banned him from competing in the World Individual Championship this year. Thm arose from Briggs' decision to retire from the rigours of league speedway in Britain. After hectic hassles, Briggs eventually decided to join New Zealand's other world championship winners, Ivan Mauger and Ronnie Moore, in the Kiwi 'side to figh t out the World League. This mainly came abou t because of the insistence of devoted fans who plagued Briggo with petitions demanding that he ride! Unfortunately Barry's terms weren't met in their entirety and it was a somewhat unwilling BB who eventually took to the track. RAIN CAUSES MENT DISAPPOINT· The series got off to a bad start when rain washed out the first two matches between England and New Zealand and Australia and Denmark/Norway. Because of the limited time in which to stage the tournament, the organizers decided not to re-run the machines but to award each team one poin t and abandon the fix tures completely. So the first match to actually get underway was at Sheffield where England met Sweden. Both countries were highly favoured to. win the tournament and the outcome of this intense encounter was eagerly an ticipated. ..J U > U Pawel Walosek (Poland) leads Terry Betts (Englandl at Oxford. In the final reckoning the Poms topped the Swedes to win by the narrow margin of 40-37. A t the final heat the scores were level at 36-36 and a great last race resulted when teenage British star, Peter Collins held off world class Swede, Anders Michanek to win. The Swedes, highly self-opinionated, were sick at their defeat...but they had done wonderfully well when it is considered that England had a wealth of home track talent from which to choose her sides. It is this 'horses for courses' basis that made the Chooms favoutites for the league. Some of the early shocks in the toumamen t were prOvided by Australia. The Kangaroos were generally considered outside.rs this year due to a lack of strength-in-depth bu t the boys rallied around new skipper, John Boulger, and hammered the highly vaun ted Poles by 54 poin ts to 23 at Oxford. Poland is one of the world's migh tier speedway nations and the win gave a great deal of confidence to the Aussies. Actually the Iron Curtain teams, Poland and Russia, failed to make any great impression in the initial stages of the league and lost all their matches. Sweden walloped Russia by 49 poin ts to 29 at Hackney Wick, London; then Australia annihilated Russia at Coventry. One of· the most exci ling mee tings was the e1ash of the Communists at Halifax: Russia vs. Poland. With little love lost between the two countries, the score see-sawed throughoot the match until the e10sing races when Polish veteran, Henryk Zyto, and brigh t hope, Edward J ancarz, combined to shut out the Russkies and put their team in the lead. Poland won by 42 poin ts to 36. Up-and-down team when the league kicked off was New Zealand: With the magical spearhead of Mauger-Moore-Briggs, the Kiwis were expected to race everyone but when it came to the crunch they proved real enigmas. The onl}' time they really got it all together was at Wimhledon when they gave Australia'a hiding to nothing. Otherwise, Briggo was beset bymachine trouble, Ivan was victimized by tape-breaking and poor starting precedures, and poor Ronnje, the most popular speedway rider in the world, had trouble getting to grips with the opposition after almost 12 months out of British speedway. They were defeated 40-37 by Denmark/Norway at Wolverhampton, and defeated 42-35 by Sweden at Swindon. AVAILABLE AT ALL FINE.BULTACO SHOPS WHITT• • HONDA Complete stock 01 parts and accessories for street and eftrt