Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

W ith six of the next eight races drawn 3·3 , ma king the sco re 50-52. in favor of th e USA. the last rac e was vital to both teams. In th e line up for Engla nd was J oh n Louis a nd Peter Collins. For th e USA. Ron Pr eston an d Den nis Sigal os. England needed a 5-1 to win or a 4-2 to draw , the Am ericans would ha ve settled for a 3-3 to give the m a win . From the start , 38-yea r-o ld John Louis shot into the lead wit h Ronnie Preston ho ldi ng second position a nd Peter Collins chasi ng ha rd on his heels . T he race was between Preston and Collins with the Englishma n passing Presto n , look ing as though victory was th eirs. T hat was until Preston though t ot herwise and d rove arou nd th e outside of the form er World Champion to take second position on the finishing line, four po ints to England and two points to the USA resulting in a 54-54 draw. o 00 0') ~ Resu lts USA Bruce Penhall 13 8 Bobby Schwartz SconAutrey 15 3 Steve Gresham Dennis Sigalos IAbove. left to rightJ Phil Collins. Bruce Penhall. Bobby Schwartz and Mike Lee. IBelowl Collins and Dennis Sigalos at Cradley Heath. -- Yanks in Great Britain By John Hipkiss England has accepted the challenge of eight vastly-improved American speedway riders in a five match test series, the first of its kind in the history of speedway between the two nations. British riders have never feared any other nation until now as most of the American , h ~acers ave spe~t a year or so raemg on the English tracks. .12 The American team consists of the English-based riders who are mainly from th e U.S. west coast where most have been riding on tiny circuits like Costa Mesa and San Bernardino. Favorites like Bruce Penhall, Bobby Schwartz, Ron Preston and Dennis Sigalos have become virtual superstars of the slide -tern-sideways sport in Eng: land and are frequently making trips to Germany and Denmark . These racers along with "veter a ns" SCOll Autrey and Steve Gresham . with the new faces of Shawn Moran. John Cook and Larry Kosta make a formidable team for the experienced English na tional team to beat. a team who has former World Champion Peter Collins and Mike Lee , third in last year's World Final. T he first ever tests between these two nations takes the form of eight- man teams, rid ing in pairs to beat the opposing team's pairings, meeting ea ch pair twice . Riders number seven and eight do not ge t a sched uled ride . T here are five meetings staged with 18 heats in each, and west coas t promoter Harry Ox ley has flown to Eng land to be team manager for the first three meetings. Since the arrival last year of Schwartz and Preston the popularity of the "Yanks" has been tremendous , they have injected into the sport the entertainment value which was sadly lacking in the British League before their arrival. One th ing is for sure, th e "Yankeedoodle -dandies," as they are known here . are in for th e big time reg a rdi ng world status. They ha ve amongst th eir riders the talent not only to beat the Engl ish in these test meets, but to go on and take World Best Pa irs (last year only one American turned up for the meet. Bruce Penhall, a nd he scored 15 po ints out of 18), W orld Team Cup. (The Americans take th eir qualifying round in Engl and on Ma y 18th), and I'll put my bottom dolla r or sh ould I say my last pound - on an American winning the Individual World Title in Sweden on September 5. 54-54 at Wimbledon WIMBLEDON ,ENGLAND,MAYI All the pre-meeting feelings that those test meets were going to be something special turned out to be justified as England and the USA fought for 18 heats to end this meet in a draw . a filling end as nei ther team deserved to lose. The W imbledon circui t - the smal lest in English speedway a t 307 ya rds - has always suited t he styles of the American racers ; this was ind ica ted with no less than half the 18 heats ending in a draw. three points to each team. With points scored three for a win . two for second place and one point for third, it took the Americans until heat seven to take the lead. when they gained a 5-I through Bruce Penhall and Bobby Schwartz. Heat eight saw a repeat of this when team captain SCOll Autrey and Steve Gresham gained another 5-1 to increase that lead to six points, making the score line 21 to England and 27 to the USA . However by the interval stage, heat nine, England had pulled back four points through Peter Collins and John Louis making the score 26 -28 to the USA . 7 Ronn ie Preston John Cook Larry Kosta 8 o o 54 ENGLAND 9 7 Mike l ee John Davis John Louis Peter Collins CtisMorton 11 11 12 M~mSimmons 4 o o KennyCartor Les~lins 54 Redcoats roust Cradler Heath CRADLEY HEATH , ENGLAND. MAY3 As the score line shows, this meeting came as a disappointment to the American team. Althoughhometrack favorite Bruce Pen hall top-scored with 15 points from six rides, and Dennis Sigalos chipped in 12 po ints . the rest of th e team seem ed to struggle against an England team who were intent on keeping their hornepride . Bobby Schw artz. who spent last year rid ing at this tra ck was more than a little d isappointed with his return of j ust four po ints. while Scott Autrey could have been expected to score more than his return of eight points. Unt il the halfway stage, the Arne ri ca ns were very mu ch alive in this mee t, with the scoreline at 28-26 in favor of England. Then things seemed to go all England's way, soon bu ilding a lead of 10 points and finally taking the second test 62-46 . One rider named in the original squ ad of rid ers for the Ame ricans was sensational teenager Shawn Moran. but he has been unable to ride in th e first two test meets due to injuries sustai ne d on his home track , Hull , where he had an argument with a solid safety fence and ca me off worse. However, he is expected to ride in the remaining three test meets . • Resul ts ENGLAND Mit

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