~
~
..
""
~
'-
t
I
I
00
00
~
,......;
..
~
>ro
~
• Top scoring British rider Chris Morton leads America 's Rick Miller and England 's Gary Havelock during round one of the Diamond Jubilee Series.
Diamond Jubilee International
Speedway Series
Brit speedway
team tops U.S.
By John Hipkiss
BRADFORD. ENGLAND, APR. 17
American Lance King and England 's Simon Cross battle during race three.
The Jubilee Series opener was held in Bradford, Eng land .
.
America ns Shawn Moran and Robert Pfetzing power aro und the outside
of Br itian's Simon Cross during heat fiv e.
14
American speedway stars made a disastrous
start in the Diamond Jubilee In terna tional
Series in the open in g m a tch at Bradford
wh en th ey went down by 24 p oin ts to a more
determined and better equipped British squad.
The mini-World series has
.
been introduced to celebrate
the launching of speedway in Britain
60 years ago and is backed by a
$100,OOO-plus sponsorship from the
National Coal Board. Four nations
- the U.S., England, Denmark and
Sweden - are taking part on a league
basis with the top two teams qualifying for a final co nfro n ta tion at
King's Lynn on June 26.
The test matches between England
and the U.S. have been canceled this
year to make way for the celebration
matches and the pressure is now on
the Americans if they are lO qualify
for ' the final stage. They cannot
, afford any more slips and wi ll need
lO beat the World Champion Danes
and Sweden in their remaining
matches if they are lO advance lO the
final.
. They were hardly fired up for the
occasion . at. Bradford. Sam Er~ole~ko, third I.n the W?rld <;:hampLOnship Invitational Final In Amsterdam. Holland. last year, was missing
from the squad, having returned to
the U.S. for the mandatory meetings
demanded by the American Iederation, the AMA, and team manager
John SCOll was relying heavily on
the scoring power of ' Shawn and
Kelly Moran, but the brothers did not
respond to the call.
' Less than 24 hours earlier, the
Mora?-s ~ad com~ine~ to s~ore ~7. of
Sheffield s 38 points In their Bri tish
League match at Cradley Heath, bu t
at Bradford they were sadly off key.
Shawn h~d ~ mixed bag, winning
three o~ his SIX ra<;es and laking ~mly
ont: pomt from hIS other three rides,
while elder br?ther Kelly fared. mU<;h
worse, co!lecung only two points In
four outmgs. He was not sharp
enough off the starting ga~e and
