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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/125829
Page 6 October 9, 1973 the fashion which usually earns speedway riders a broken collarbone. Mauger._dejected and disconsolate at losing his title...can now only await next year - and dwell on what might ha\le been. At least he had the satisfaction of knowing he was the only rider on parade who was capable of coming from the back on this ultra-slick Polish track. That Szczakiel won the world title was the shock of the year. He was a rank outsider, lucky to even get a start in the meeting. He didn't begin riding until 1968 - the year of Mauger's first World Championship success after some 15 years apprenticeship racing in all countries of the world. He soon rose to_ prominence in Polish speedway circles but even then he was not considered one of theil: most likely riders. For this year's world final he was lucky to get seeded in the fifth and final spot after a somewhat quie t year in Polish league racing. Much more favoured was the younger Zenon Piech, who is tipped to give the title a big shake in Sweden next year. Piech, who finished third, is being groomed as a World Champion. And he is really Poland's most talented rider. Crazy Refereeing Decisions . They sure wear some strange things to ride speedway in Poland. By Peter White Goth~nh_urg, J erzy Szczakiel, 24, of Poland became the first rider from behind the Iron Curtain to win the Speedway Championship of the World at the Slaski stadium in Chorzow, Poland on Sunday, September 2. Szczakiel, a rank outsider, caused a boilover when he lifted the crown from defending champion, Ivan Mauger (New Zealand), in a fiercely controversial run-off. Both riders scored 13 points and in the two man decider, Mauger fell heavily when attempting an inside pass. As he crashed so did his world title and the hopes of the western world. Third with 12 points was bright new Polish wonder-boy and the rider tipped as most likely to succeed - apart from Mauger: 20-year-old Zenon Piech. In a sensa tional World Championship Final, only the second ever to be held behind the Iron Curtain, speedway history was set on two counts. Poland wrote her first-ever Champion into the sport's record books...and he (Szczakiel) did it without first spending a season in the tough competition of the Br.itish League. The latter fact is a blow for the self-opinionated British who consider their particular sphere of the international speedway scene as \he beginning and end of the sport. The only blight on this gathering of the world's dirt track supremos was the absence' of super-star, Barry Briggs, and any American riders. All were denied the oppprtqnity of qualifying. But for the Poles - riders, officials and spectators - the meeting saw a dream come true. For a decade the country has worked towards this end and at long last Poland and' the Iron Curtain combined have produced a World Champion. How worthy a World Champion he will be, remains to be seen. There are problems. It is possible he will appear seldom outside the Socialist bloc. It is almost certain he will not be allowed to compete in the British League - where the public (some million odd fans weekly) are accustomed to the regular appearance of the World Champion. However, there is a glimmer of hope. Australian speedway authorities have made overtures to the Poles to have Szczakiel included in a three·man squad to tour Down Under in November. And initial reaction has been encouraging. Apparently the Polish Motor Federation does recognize the opportunity to spread their cause through their new Champion. But whether the boy actually gets out of the country is another thing. Szczakiel won on home territory after a fair amount of practice on this particular track. He took advantage of several diabolical refereeing decisions and routed even the migh ty Mauger to win the biggest meeting of his relatively short career. But as English rider Ray Wilson said afterwards: "He was the bloke who did it all on the day and you cannot take 'that away from him". Szczakiel, a bachelor at 24, intends to marry soon. And then, ins~ead of the usual round of glamour engagements that accompany a win in the sport's premier even t, he will help his club Kolejarz Opole fight to avoid relegation to the Polish second division. Just now, however, Szczakiel is tom between celebrating his triumph and privately mourning the death of his mother, who was ill and passed away only a month earlier while he was riding for his country in the World Lea!'JIe in Great Britain. A little of the World Champion's background: He has made only one other World Final appearance - at Sweden in 1971 when he scraped around the fence all night and failed to score a solitary point. What a hell of a difference! From ignominity to World Champion! That Swedish final taught him a: vital lesson though, and one which was instrumen tal in making him World Champion. That is, in company such as this a rider cannot afford to move too far off the inside groove. World super·stars are capable of cutting back in a flash ...as Mauger tried to do in the run-off. But SzczalUel was there...right on the job. He shut the gate on Ivan; the Kiwi picked' up the Pole's back wheel and in 'a split-second the defending Champ was on the track, wrong side up. Mauger was lucky to escape injury as he fell on the righ t-hand side of the bike in Old Olsen: perhaps the best. , Riding aspects' apart, the most outstanding feature of the me,eting was some absurd refereeing by West Gennan official, Georg Transpurge,r.' The starts were diabolical, with riders ,breaking the tapes on many occasions without suffering exclusions and then others, particularly the poles, gaining flyers at the tapes. Szczakiel defeated Mauger when they clashed during the meeting by getting a five·yard roller in heat eigh t. Mauger was the only visiting rider to master the controversial conditions and sO it was he versu~ East Europe. Dane, Ole Olsen, rode well without ever looking like 'winning. But poor Ole; pOSSIbly the best rider in the world today despite this demise to fourth place overall, was still suffering considerably from that injured shoulder which has pla~ed him for so many weeks. • How they scored: Jerzy Szezaklel tvan Mauger Zenon Piech Ole Olsen Grlgory Chllnovsky Vladimir Paznik'ov Pawel Waloszek Valeri Gorddev Jan Mucha Anders Miehanek Edward Jancarz Peter Collins John Boulger Ray Wilson Vladimir Zaplechny Bernt Persson Mauger just missed. Pol_nCl N.Z. Pol_nCl Oenmark USSR USSR Poland USSR Poland Sweden Pol_nCl EnglanCl 3332213 31 33313 2323212 1 2 3 2 3 11 2 3 2 3ex10 3121 1 8 1 2 1 1 3 8 20131 7 1 1 1 2 2 0 3ex 1 2 7 6 Au.t. 2 2 1 0 1 6 EnglanCl USSR Sweden 3 1 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 3 f 2 3 0 f 0001 1 6 6 5 2 f 0 rns ns 0