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/126428
International Speedway (Above. left to right) Michael Lee. Kelly Moran. Ole Olsen and Billy Sande,. line up for the four...y run-off for third place before the crowd of 120.GOO spectIItors. (Below left) The winner: Ivan Mauger's unprecedented sixth title. (Below right) U.S. promoter Harry Oxley and Kely Moran in conference. Mauger takes record sixth, Moran 'places fourth By John Hipklss KATOWICE. POLAND. SEPT. 2 New Zealander Ivan Mauger set a new standard, for cumulative World Speedway Championships, scoring his record-setting sixth title before 120,000 cheering speedway fans in the huge Silesia Stadium at the 1979 World Final. " lee-cool Mauger showed no . f nervo sn h onSigns ~ U ess as e C 18 tested his 14th World Final appe~rance at the age of .59. I~an dropped his only poInt (to fimsh with a total of 14) to England's 20-year-old star Michael Lee in race number.14. Defending World Champion Ole Olsen of Denmark started strongly. scoring two heat wins. before losing to Polish star Zenon Piech in race number 12, He was later beaten by' England's Dave Jessup and Californian Kelly Moran. who was making his fIrSt World Final appearance. Moran rode in. fantastic style to record .two heat Wins. two seconds and a third. That gave him a total of II points. good enough to put him in a four-man run· off for third place against Ole Olsen. Australian Billy Sanders and Michael Lee. Moran, who was never really expected to finish so highly in such an event, rode in superb fashion. never scared to mix it up with the big guns. He finished second in the run-off behind Lee, fourth overall for the meet. Kelly made a poor start in the runoff and was last going into the first tum, Within four laps. he had pasaed both Oben and Sanders, only missing out on first place by a few yards, On returning to the pits, Kelly was congratulated by a very proud AMA representative, Costa Mesa speedway promoter Harry Oxley. Surprisingly. England's Peter Collins had a disastrous meeting, scoring only six points and not recording a single heat win. Muchfancied Polish rider Zenon Piech scored 15 points, much to the delight of the homec~untry audience, to earn second place behind the magnificent Mauger. Footnote: On Tuesday. September 4, Harry Oxley held a meeting in London with all the English-based Amen'can riders in the hope that an, probleons could be sorted out. Hi¥h on the list was the problem Of top American stars coming across the A t/antic to race in Europe, creating a threat to the future of speedwa, in the states. Oxley also f!!Oposed to run a World FinJin Ctllif0mi4. With the success rate of the ~land-btlsed Yankees. it will be onl, a sAort time before the Ameri~ are world beaters. One _}or drawbacll is the continued hassle between the AMA and Scott Autrey who finished third in last year's World Fintli. Scott refiued to ride in the '1ut11ifier at Santa Ana, CA, this ,ear because the meeting w«s not run under FIM regulations. Now WI~h Harry O:cky acting as representative of the AMA, with his understanding of how European speedwa, worlls, .common sense _ , come to the powers that be. An, hope of holding a World Final in the U.S.•would be VtlStl, improved if the' A merican circuits would adopt more to the FIM regulations and understand Autrey's views. • Results 1. lvon ~ (141; 2. Zenon PIech 1131; 3. Michool (111; 4. Kelly Mew... (11); 6. BiIy - . 1111: 6. Ole 0I00n (1 II; 7. Dow ~ till; 6. Z. Kudmo till; 9. E. .--zm: 10.P. CoIIinltIl; II. F. n - t s l ; 12. J. r _ (SI; 13. M. 5_131; 14. C. _ (2): 16. A. (2); 16. R. Slobon (1). W_ Lae