Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

International Speedway cbartered a plane to bring a panner and equipment over post haste. but he was rapidly running out of options. Dan McCormick. promoter of Cradley . Heath Speedway, would nOl allow Bobby Schwartz to miss out on team dury at such shon notice, and inept organization saw Steve Gresbam failing to make his airline connection. Eventually, the distrauglu Penhall took -to the traclr. with a non-scoring Danish junior as his panner. Isn't it time the AMA appointed someone who bas a sound knowledge of World Speedway and who could take care of any problems; such as occurred in this instance? After one rain-off night, the meeting eventually went ahead and Penball was seen in stupendous form. Alone, he OIlt5COred the much fancied New Zealand pair of Ivan Mauger and Larry Ross. The fight for the title, however, proved to be a three horse race between England, Denmark and Poland. Malcolm Simmons bas come back into form along with a cbange in machinery. He now rides an English G.R. engine, and along with jawa sponsored Micbael Lee, left lhe Danes needing five to ODe point score from their. last heat agaiDlt the Pole for victory. A lIIlilar total would aDo bave given Poland victory. and from the start it looked as if the Poles could do it. Zenon Piech aDd Edward jaJJCarz led from the gate. though World Champion Ole Olsen quickly fought his way through to the lead. His panDer. Hans NeiIIon. came through into third place on the last lap and in a terrific last bend effort appeared to just fall short of ovenalr.i~ Eddie jancarz on the run 10 the finish line. However, amid quite some controversy the decision went to the Danes and the panisan crowd went bananas as their pair were crowned 'World Pain Cbampions. Tony BrillRS q,ualified through to the semi-finals of the British Grasstrack Cbampionship in both the 550cc and 500cc classes. In the 550cc class, Tony blitzed all opposition with three sensational 250 yard victories to be crowned the British South Western 550cc Grasstrack Cbamp. However, things did not go quite so smoothly in the 500cc class, as he only just qualified as the 10th of 10 final qualifiers. With 12 in a race, you cannot afford to be left 20 yards behind at the stan as Tony did in his first race. Fonunately he managed to fight his way through to founh place, though in his second race he was knocked head over heels while disputing the lead in the very first corner. In his sixth race of the afternoon Tony was visibly fatigued and cruised in for third, which put him into a run-off for the last qualifying place. Dennis Sigalos ~ms to have recovered from his shoulder injury and scored a brilliant 12 point maximum in the-Final of the British Four Team Tournament held at Sheffield. Even without Ivan Mauger and Kelly Moran, Hull pulled off a startling victory; much of the credit. must go to Dennis, who hasn'l enjoyed the best of form throughoul the season. Ron Preston has been performing panicularly well of late. and while looking like he is going to do extremely well in the European Under 21 Championship. he's also had Malcolm Simmons the England Skipper commenting that he reckons Preston is going to be the best of the Americans yet. • a Tony Briggs. British aouthwestern 3&Occ glM8bKk ChlImp. (Inset) Brlgga end Penhel exchange pIeeunbiea. Triumph and tragedy for the swashbuckling Americans By' Barry Briggs Qualifications .for the World's Best Pair finals found Bruce Penhall as the meeting's second highest scorer with 14 points, 28 being abley backed by Kelly Moran with a solid nine point total. The Americans were led into the final by Poland with 26 points and New ZealaDd with 25. With his Individual World Cham· pionship hopes already dashed, Penball hoped for a comeback in the World Muter of 'Speedway Series; the first round was held at Kuvila in Sweden. A blistering score of 14 points from five rides saw Bruce in a runoff with England's Micbael Lee for first place in the first of three rounds in the competition. Lee, however, won the run·off and picked up the winners check for 5,000 pounds'as well as 15 points to take into the next round. Penhall picked up 12 premium points, third place Peter Collins 10, and fifth place Scott Autrey received a six point premium total. The next item on a· busy international agenda for Penhall was the Intercontinental Final of the World Team Cup which was held at Eskiltuna, Sweden. With Dennis Sigala. unfortunately baving broken his shoulder, Ronnie Preston moved into the American squad in the reserve benh. Ron came fresh from his success in the European Under 21 qualifier held in Brokstedt, West Germany. His motor blew up in practice and Ron was forced to borrow a bike from one of the Hungarian contingent. Despite wbat was "the softest engine" he'd ever ridden, Ron easily qualified through to the next round of the competition with an extremely impressive 12 point score from his five rides. The second 'tragedy' of 'the week saw the Americans exit from the World Team Cup, though it certainly wasn't without a fight! New Zealand marvelous throughout; looked however, for the other position in the final, .lal/t year's World Team Cup victors, Denmark, were made to really struggle by the Americans. Even after the youngsters bad gone into the balfway stage in last place. A gutsy eight point total by Kelly Moran was the inspiring factory in the U.S. team, thOugh in the end it was dogged bad luck which put down their chances. A Bruce Penhall exclusion for unfair riding (which really should bave been accredited to Larry Ross) and then a machine failure when he bad World Cbampion Ole Olsen well beaten in his ~ast race, proved the difference between success and failure for the Americans. By Heat 15 the Kiwis led by five points with Denmark and America equal with 19 apiece. Denmark eventually made it by five points from the Yanks, but if you take Penball's misbap into consideration, you can see how close the Danes cut it. As an American I would not be too disapp?inted with the performance, for WIth Steve Gresham 'the old man' of the team at 24 years of age, the boys still have a few years left in thc;m to collect the coveted award. Penhall rounded off an excellent week of racing with a victory in an open longtrack meeting held in Vetlanda, Sweden beating 1975 World Champion Anders Michanek and eight times World Champ Ivan Mauger. Yet another victory in a Best Pain event, held at his own Cradley Heath track, with fellow American Bobby Schwanz, gives indication tbat Penball must be fairly hopeful of doing well in the World's Best Pairs at Vojens, Denmark with panner Kelly Moran. Penhall partnerless at World Best Pairs Final By Barry Briggs VOJENS, DENMARK, JUNE 22 Bruce Penhall was right down in the dumps following what should have been the greatest moment of his career to date. Th moment in question was the World Best Pairs Final held at Vojens, Denmark, where the Americans looke4 a good odd's on bet for a rostrum placing. With just a little luck they could have finished.as champions. However, with in-form Kelly Moran unfonunately aggravating his year old pelvic injury. Penhall found himself partnerless. Bruce contacted the' British Speedway Control Board to see if Scott Autrey could step in as Moran's replacement. The BSCB said tbat Scott could certainly ride; just because he held a British license didn't mean he couldn't retain his own nationality. Bruce then contacted the United States and spoke to Bill Boyce, the AMA's controller of U.S. Speedway. Mr. Boyce didn't even know the meeting was on, but even so. his organization would not release Scott to ride, despite the fact that Bruce offered to pay for his license then and there. Bruce had already

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