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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126313
Yankees in King
~rthu r's round tracks:
A British
speedway report
By Mike Curoso
"l'U
This is the first in a series of newslette rs that will come to you
periodically throughout the season
to"keep you up to date with the
news here in England.
The British Speedway Leagu e
incl udes riders from a ll over t he world.
There are five Am eri can rid ers here
th is yea r: Scott Autre y (E xe ter), Steve
Gr esham (Bristol) , m yself (Poo le).
Kelly Moran (H u ll), a nd Bruce
Penh a ll (Cra d ley). That is in order of
sen iority in terms of Britich ra cin g and
the teams th ey ride fo r.
Naturall y we a ll wa nt to be the top
Kinerican rid er in Europe a nd our
ulti m a te goa l is to follow in the
footsteps of J a ck Miln e and win th e
W orld Championship Final, whic h
th is year is in the world fa m ous
Emp ire S ta d iu m a t W emb ley in
London .
( T h e las t qu alifying even t before
Wem b ley is t he Inter-Cont inen t a l
Final wh ich will be held in Fredericia ,
Den m ark and like last year America
has two seats. You can imagine we a re
all keen to get into this one , and the
proposa l is to select the two American
riders with the bes t Bri tish averages,
With Pen ha ll's arrival . we have just
enough riders to make the four-man
team. Since Kelly Moran is just 17 it is
said that he is too you ng to hold an
F:I.M. license for major international
even ts. It 's unfortunate for Kelly, for
there ha ve been under-IS riders given
licenses in specia l circ ums ta nces like
this. W e'lI need him at Read in g too as
our fifth man. th e reserve. in case one
of us takes a knock or ha s mechanica l
problems . Let's hope his p ro b lem gets
sorted out soo n 1
Scott Autrey has sta rted the Bri tish
season in great syle: he won the first
big indivi d ua l meetin g of th e season the Sp rin g Classic at W im b ledo n. a nd
seem s to be enjoying the ca p tain cy and
n umber one spot at Exe ter how th a t
Ivan Mauger has go ne to H u ll.
, Steve G resh a m has been scoring a
lot .of points but is h ard .riding tactics
go,i him excl uded twice at Poole in ou r
rriarch with Bristol. In on e of the
instances a Poo le rider suffered a
broken sholder and will be out for th e
rest of the season, ,
:I Kelly Moran has had a lot of engine
problems , but is showing lots of
prom ise and th e Hull management
seem to be happy with him .
" Bruce Penhall has just arrived , and
his first meeting was ra ined off. H e got
on e po int in his first m a tch and n ine in
his next meeting at home. It seems he
is holding his own and should fare well
with Cradley.
Fo r m yself, it seems that last yea r's
prob lems are still around . and in a
ha rid fu l of meetin gs , over hal f them,
I:ve had engi ne failu res , I m ust admit
some have been my fa ult . I had a new
engi ne flown in from home and am
sure it will cure all my problems.
The Poole team h as a very young
$Ide . with perhaps the best team spirit
in the league . Our ca p tain , Ma lcolm
Sim mons reall y works with all the
members .
So for now . m a ny th a nks to our
iamilies, spo nsors a nd all co nc erned
f