Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Americen Bobby Schwertz holds off the chellenges of Sweden's Jen Andersson, England's Chris Morton end Denmerk's Tommy Knudsen. Americen Sem Ermolenko end World Chempion Erik Gundersen of Denmerk went et it in one of the heets. Gundersen led the Denes to victory. World Team Cup Speedway Championship: Final round Danes complete sweep in England By John Hipkiss ODSAL, ENGLAND, AUG. 17 Denmark completed a clean sweep of the three-round World Team Cup Speedway Championship when they coasted through the final round at Odsal to finish 12 points ahead of the runner-up American team. Th D h dId d e ane~ .a a rea y rna e sure of retaining the utle by winning the two previous meeting in Sweden and Denmark, and with such a high-powered team as World Champion Erik Gundersen, Hans Nielsen, Tommy Knudsen and Jan-Oswald Pedersen the result was a formality. The third meeting was really about the placings of the other three competing nations - U.S.A., England and Sweden. After the first two rounds they were level on two points each and whoever ended up at the bottom of the list here would be relegated to Group B and become second class CItizenS of the speedway world. Just as surely as Denmark was going LO head the list, Sweden was going LO finish atlhefoOl of the table, and that was exactly how it worked OUl. They could not come up with a winner in any of the 20 heats, aithough team captain Jan Anders on led his team well, scoring consistently with second place in each of his (iv races. The scrap was between America and England for the second spot behind Denmark and they were evenly balanced all the way. With five races LO ride the two teams were even on The Denish teem: (left to right) meneger Herdy Jensen, Tommy Knudsen, Jen Pedersen, Erik Gundersen, John Jorgensen end Hans Nielsen. points but England had edged into a two-point lead when the riders lined up for the final heal. h looked like England's race when Nielsen's machine sputtered on the (inallap leaving Simon Wigg to take the lead, but then the England captain's motor seized and America's Lance King shot through to collect the three points which clinched runner-up honors for the U.S.A. King, who was riding his British League home track, was at the top of the American charts with II hardearned points and he had good support from Sam Ermolenko who thrilled the crowd with a fence-scraping tussle with ielsen in his fourth ride when he notched hi only win. Shawn Moran, whose brother Kelly was (orced out of the match by injury, was troubled by machine problems and had twO no-scores sandwiched between his two vicLOries. His engine seized solid in his founh race when he was wheel-ta-wheel with England's Kelvin Tatum. But the most disappointing member of the American squad was skipper Bobby Schwartz who has had a poor season in the British League. Schwanz failed again at tOP level and after picking up only one point in three rides and fading from first to last in one race, he pulled out of the meeting. • Results 1. Denmark (Tommy Knudsen. Hans Nielsen, Jan Pedersen. Erik Gundersenl 42; 2. U.S.A. (Lance King. Sam Ermolenko. Shawn Moran, Bobby Schwortz. Rick Miller-reservel 30; 3. Englond IKelvin Tetum. Simon Wigg, Chris Morton. Jeremy Doncaster. Marvyn COlC-reservet 29; 4. Sweden tJan Andersson. Jimmy Nilsen. Per Jonsson. eric Stenlund. Tony Olsson·rnerve) 19. Brits crush Americans in England By John Hipkiss OXFORD, ENGLAND, AUG. 13 IPSWICH, ENGLAND, AUG. 14 The American team suffered their first defeat in three year.s in the Speedway Test Series in England, losing all three matches to the British team who had too !'1uch strength in depth for the AmerICans. John Cook, who quit the British League earlier in the season after a cash dispute with his club. was recalled for the series, but even his emergency call-up could not compensate for the American's loss of Kelly Moran through injury and the shortage of American riders in Britain. The U.S.A. had hoped to make a comeback after their 60-48 defeat in the opening match at Sheffield on August 10, but they lost their chance of saying the series when they were beaten 60-47 at Oxford and then England made a clean sweep by taking the third match atlp wich, 62-43. It was a big disappointment particularly for out-of-form American skipper Bobby Schwanz who just could not find his LOuch and finished at the bOllom of the charts in all three tests with scores of four, three and three again, a LOLaI of only 10 points from 18 rides, not good enough for Bobby. America was always struggling at Oxford where they made too many basic mistakes after England had taken the lead in the second heal. The match ended in disaster when England captain Simon Wigg was disqualified for doing a celebration wheelie in the 17th heat, and Sam Ermolenko was excluded for bringing down Cook in the final race. There was worse LO come when Cook had to retire with machine failure in the rerun. Wigg's disqualification had repercussions at Ipswich where Ermolenko and Sbawn Moran were the only Americans to shine. With the series already won by England, the riders agreed to stage a protest about the wheelie rule in the final race. The idea was for all four riders to get themselves excluded, but while Ermolenko and Cook did their wheelies, Jeremy Doncaster and Chris Monon could not get their. front wheels LO lift. The Americans were disqualified and England was awarded a 5-0 win. "The rule is crazy," complained Ermolenko. "How does the referee decide when a wheelie is accidenral or premeditated?" • Results OXFORD ENGLAND: S. Wigg (151. K. Totum (131. J. Doncos••r(12). M. Cox(12). A. Silver (31. N. Evins(31. C. Morton (21. R. Knight (01. AMERICA: R. Miller (11 I. S. Moron (101. J. Cook (1 Ol.~· King (71. S. Ermolenko(61. B. Schwortz(31. S. Oiiullo-reserve (01. IPSWICH ENGLAND: J. Doncoster (lSI. S. Wigg (91. R. Knigh. (8). C. Monon (8). A. Silver (7). M. Cox (6). C. Blackbird (5). N. Evins (4). AMERICA: S. Moron (14). S. Ermolenko(ll). L. King R. Miller (41. J. Cook (41. 8. Schwartz (3). m.

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