o sen,Kenn
WorldSp
By John Hipkiss
LONDON , ENGLAND , SEPT. 2
(Above left) Autrey.lAbove right! Olsen. (Above far right! From left to right
in action: Olsen. Autrey (leading) and Kennett. IBelow) Former World
Champ Ivan Mauger leads an event.
Scott Autrey of the United States of America
became the first American to finish in the top
three of a world final for 41 years, when he
finished third in the World Speedway Championship at Wembley, England.
Before a capacity 92 ,000
crowd in the famous Empire
Stadium in London , Autrey
proved that he is truly world
20
class. Autrey, the onl y U.S. rider with
real European and world class form ,
finis hed with 11 po in ts, equal with
England's Da ve Jessup and Poland's
J erz y Rembas . Autre y, based in
England for severa l yea rs with the
Exeter Falcons team, of which he is
now ca ptai n, was equal to the mighty
task in th e run off, winning with ease
to cla im t he third spot. It was
America's best pla cing in the sport 's
p remier event since Jack Miln e won
t he second ever final - also on the
Wembley track in 19~7 .
World Champion for 1978 is
Denmark's Ole Olsen , who won the
title for the third time . Second was
England's Gordon Kennett.
Autrey was appearing in his second
world final and was one of the pre ·
meeting favorites to maybe win the
final , following sparkling form in
British lea gu e and open meeting
competitions during the year.
The bearded , deep ·thinking
Californian started well. He won race
one from England's Malcolm Simmons
and Sweden's Anders Mi chanek ,
himself a former champion, in record
time for the ~44 ·meter Wembley track
of 67 .4 seconds. And in th is race, th e
Weslake·mounted Autrey looked every
inch a winner of the meeting.
In Autrey's second race he met
British cha m pion Michael Lee , still
only 19 years old , who had also won
his first race, and five time world
speedway champion Ivan Mauger,
