Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

co 0") Bruce Penhall America's slideways ambassador By Dale Brown Photos bY.J9hn Hipkiss and Charles Morey 28 They call me The Fox. But good looks' don't count when you put on a full face helmet, throw a leg over an alcohol burning 500cc speedway bike and face the world's best riders, week after week. And that's what Bruce Penhall does. As team captain of Cradley Heath in the Bn'tish League, Penhall forsakes the sun and surf of his Balboa, CA, home to race several times a week in England and on the Continent. And Penhall does it well. In only three years of international competition, he's captured the '79 World Masters Championship, helped the United States team to second in the '80 World Team Cup, placed a disappointing-for.himfifth in the '80 World Finals, and then returned !fome and captured the U. S. National Championship with a jla.wless sen'es offive rides on the tiny Orange County Fairgrounds track. We talked to Bruce shortly after the U. S. Nationals. He w.as planning on return· ing to England to wrap up his season there, then return to the U.S. for The Super. bikers and the Ascot long track races. From there he planned to enter the hospItal for surgery to mend a should problem incurred in a trail riding accident in Baja. Then it would be a short vacation and back to the races. What's your reaction to winning the I feel a little bit concerned because I Nationals? want to be a good National champion, It's fantastic because I just came off a but I'm going back to England. I hope big, disappointing World Finals ap' it doesn't affect the sport to be taking pearance and I was really bummed out number one back to England because about that. I'd been working for about I hope I can do something for the sport six years, before I went to England, to over here. I will be coming back to the become the National champion and States about five or six times. If Alan never did it. So I decided to' go back, Christian was to win he'd be here and then go for the World Championship. he could represent the U.S. as number Now just to come bacl<, having only one; I feel a little bit concerned about raced Costa Mesa once this whole sea· that, but I'm going to do the best I can son, go back and win it, 1 was pretty to be a good National champion for speedway in the States; all over the jazzed about that. world really. It's very important to be a good champion, public relations and all that. Going back to the races, one question, in your second heat with Christian, did you feel that was going to be make or.break the night? I felt after my first heat when I beat Scott'(Autrey) and the bike was work· ing very well, pulling very well to the flTSt comer, after that first heat I had quite a bit of pressure on me. I was probably more nervous on the Nationals night than on the World Final's night because I figured I had gotten to the World Final, I was happy to be there and I knew I could lose, but I was going out to win. The odds on the first World Cup appearance are very slim to win it, nobody's ever done it, but that didn't work against me at all. I went out there and I was going for the win and I just didn't have that much pressure on me like them old boys. I just really keyed up for that second race with Alan and I thought this might just be it and after I beat him, well he had dropped a point, so my third heat was the make or break. I had Dubb Ferrell, who hadn't dropped a point, Dave Sims hadn't dropped a point, and Brad Oxley was on the inside and he can upset it. I was on the outside of all three of those guys, so I definitely had to get a good start and go. After that heat was finished I was pretty confident because that was my hardest heat after Alan, I had two pretty easy heats left and I had pretty good gate draws, I guess you could say that my third heat was my main race. I hadn't dropped any points at all and I really drove myself through. The World Final must be something with that big crowd. There's over 100,000 people there and it's pretty electric. At Costa Mesa it's probably the same because it's such a small stadium'. where the World Finals track is so big. It's just about the same, I'd say Costa Mesa is even a little more electrified because it's so small and so packed. There's so many people there, and they've had a few beers and, they're getting crazy. I think this year they were even a lot more keyed up be· cause there was going to be a new champion, They were thinking of a new champion. they were seeing a few different riders, Scott and myself, and we'd hardly been there all season. I think they wanted to match us against their guys - there's sort of a little rivalry thing this year - and we did all right, we handled it very well. Scotty had a little trouble with his bike, and I think he came in fourth. I felt a little bit sorry for him because he's worked so hard for the States, he's paved the way for all of us Americans over there, and he's put in his time. I was really happy to see him come back to the Nationals here, he tried really hard, his bike just let him down more than anything. I know he can win. / It was my morning. When I woke up it was just like that - I was National champion. Like the World Final when you wake up in the morning you're the World Champion or you're not going to, be. There's five to pen different guys that can win Ion the night, whoever has it on th~t night is going to win, and I didn't on the World Final night. I just happened to have it to· gether on the National night. It could have heen just the opposite. I could have come sixth or seventh the National night, Oxley or DeTemple could have won it, there's about six or seven guys that can do it. About how many times do you race a year? Usually at the end of the season I have about at least 175 meetings, It's an average of five a week and that's not counting me going to Germany, Den· mark or Poland every weekend because I race in the long tracle That's a grind, I've got to race my home track on Saturday night and I go home, I wake up at four in the morning and catch a plane, I make three connections, sometimes four, and get there just in time for the first race in the long track on Sunday. Then I race Sunday and then I get hack in the car, go back to the airport and leave and have to race back in England on Monday. In England alone I travel about 1000 miles a week easy by car, that's not counting my air time. Up to now, since last December, I think I have at least 400 hours in the air - you know how many days that is? I mean that's up and down, back and forth; it works on you, it's hard on you. You have to be in good shape, you have to be or· ganized and everything has to be right. To be successful in speedway you have to have a combination of things together, your travel arrangements, your business manager. your mechanics. I've got four mechanics and 12 bikes scattered all over the country, Half the time I don't know which one I'm getting on, so they've all got to be the same. Most of the time I don't know whether I'm coming or going, How do you keep up? Just trying to become the World Cham· pion; that's everything to me. I never used to think about that much when I first started racing in the States, then I just became more and more involved with it and then when I moved to Eng· land, I saw how much more"professional it was over there and how great it really is. It's just a good feeling to go over there and race with all those top speedway riders in the world, just try· ing to climb the ladder slowly but surely. It's really satisfying to me. Finally I made it to my first World Final and my goal is to win the World Final. I'm just going to keep on riding and racing until I do it. It might be another six years, but like I said, I'll wake up in the morning some morning and I'll be the World Champion. I'll have to go out there and put five races together but I mean when you wake up, you're the World Champion. Looking towards next year's World Final, has the AMA set up the qualifying procedure yet? I think we'll probably get another rider this year, 1 think we'll have three. 1 think that's really a bad system. It has nothing to do with the AMA, the FIM only gives us three spots. In Ameri· can speedway there's Bobby Schwartz, Dennis Sigalos. Ronnie Preston, Shawn Moran, Kelly Moran, Scott Autrey, Steve Gresham, not counting Christian, and all the riders over here.. We can only take three American rid· ers. into the Intercontinental Final. That's not fair at all - we deserve at least five riders. That qualifying round last year was the hardest race I've had to race in, because the top two win and were going for a World Championship quali· fying round. If I was to get third place there, I'd be going back to a whole season long, like I did the year before, not looking forward to a World Cham· piOliship because I'd be out already. That demoralizes you right from the start of the season, it's really a poor system. I think they're really being generous and giving us one more, but jeez I could lose that one and be out of the World Championship again. Like I said, there's at least six or seven Ameri· cans who can do it. Bobby Schwartz is flying over in England right now, he's doing great, Dennis Sigalos, Autrey, those guys ,are really hard to beat. I just wish we could change the system but 1 don't think it's going to be changed for quite awhile yet. I think we've never had a team really in the

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