Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kelvin Tatum won the Commonwealth round of the World Championship Speedway Qualifiers. held in Bellevue. England. Loudon Vintage ' (Continued from page 43) "My friend Pete was going fast. He had it dialed in . His bike is a couple of generations ahead of th is one. (Johnson 's Honda is a 1969, the Liebmann BMW is a 1954.) We just put it together and we co uld only get 9: I co m pressio n out of it, It should have eleven. Plus m y Honda brok e a cam ch ain in practi ce so we couldn't ride th e F-70." Third-place finish er Wood, who also runs th e Penguin Road Racing Sch ool here a nd has for th e last 10 years, said th at sin ce he lost th e brak es in th e fir st race, he had noth in g left for th e 500. Results F-750: 1. Pete J ohn son (Tri); 2. Oave Roper (BSA); 3. Lynford (Garland) . SPRTSM N 650; 1. Pete Koqut (Nor]: 2. Chuck Chirco (BMW) ; 3. Robert Smith (Tri ). 250 GP; I .: Todd Henning (Yam I; 2 . Stan Nicholson (Yam) . PREMIER 500: 1. Pete Johnson (Hon); 2. Kurt Liebmann (BMW) ; 3. Jerry Wood (Tri). SPRTSMN 500 : 1. Jerry Gillen (BSA); 2. John Tow ery (Tri); 3. Lyn n Garland (Tri ). L/W ONE: 1. Stan Nico lso n (Gre); 2 . Jim McAllister (Duel; 3. John Ruffo (Due). LIW TWO: 1. Peter Quintiliani (Ouc); 2 . Edward Sens enig (Ouc) . Tatum wins Commonwealth Speedway Final By John Hipkiss BELLE VUE, ENGLAND, J UNE 14 Kelvin Tatum continued h is winning ways in World Champ ionship Speedway qualifying rou nds, addinl? the Commonwealth titl e to th e British Final trophy he won a couple of weeks ba ck. For the young Englishman, winning this meeti ng means he can now challenge some of the world's best overseas riders, including qualifiers from the American Final, at the next stage of the 'S7 Individ ual Worl d Championship chase· th e Overseas Final at Bradford, England, o n July 5. Ma ny big meetin gs throw up some unexpected resu lts but none greater than the shock eliminatio n of England tea m captain Simon Wigg. He had a disastrous day, failing to get out of the starts and being down on the horsepower that the demanding Belle Vue long track demands. His tale of woe didn't end there for he was excluded for dangerous riding when he "fenced" last year's winner, J eremy Doncaster during a run-off for th e last qualifying place aft er th ey both managed just six points eac h. Amazingly, Wigg, who is arguabl y England's number one rider, has failed to reach a ny of th e three previous Individual World Finals: last year he went out at th e British Final stage a nd the previous year to th at he was suspended. T o th e hopefuls from th e American Final Wigg's failing to qualify ca n o n ly add to th ei r hopes of co ntin ued success. The Commonwealth Final brings together th e qu alifi ers from th e Bri tish Final and those from th e Australian Final. The top II from th e Commonwealth Final th en co mpete against th e qualifi ers from th e Am erican Final and from there nine lu cky rid ers face the top seven from th e Nordic round, whi ch wa s run on the same da y as th e Commonwealth Fin al and wa s topped b y Erik Gundersen. Tatum won th e meeting wi th 14 points with Simon Cross. wh o topped Tatum in race eight, finishing seco nd with 13 po ints. Rounding o ut th e I I qualifiers were Marv yn Cox, iel Evitts, Chris Monon, Dave Bargh, Mitch Shirra (all with 10 points ea ch ), Steve Regelin g. Andrew Silver (Regeling and Silv er finished with eight points eac h). Paul Thorp (7) and J eremy Doncaster (6). Of the seven qualifiers from New Zealand and Australia, Shirra and Bargh from New Zeal a nd and Regeling from Austra lia advanced. In the Nordic Final. Gu ndersen topped current World Champion Hans Nie lson. Gundersen finis hed with 14 points. whi le Nielson earned second with a run-off victory over Peter Ra vn. Both Nielsen and Ravn scored 12 points. Results 1. Kelvin Tatum (14); 2. Simon Cross (13); 3. Marvy'; Cox (10); 4 . Niel Evitts (10); 5. Chris Morton (10); 6. Dave Bargh (10); 7. Mi tch Shirra (10); B. Steve Regeling (B); 9. Andrew Silver (B); 10 . Paul Thorp (7); 11. Jeremy Doncaster(6). RIDE AWAREI ~

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