Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

First turn action saw Denmark's top scorer Tommy Knudsen lead Rick Miller, 80 Petersen and Ronnie Correy. Denmark's John Jorgensen, USA's Kelly Moran and World Champion Hans Nielsen battle at the Diamond Jubilee Speedway Series. Diamond Jubilee Speedway Series Danes beat Yanks at Coventry By John Hipkiss COVENTRY, ENGLAND, APR. 27 America bowed out of th e Diamond Jubilee Series wh en they were decisively beaten by Denmark, 60 to 30, at Coventry. Having already lost to England in their first qualifying ro und the u.s. sen led the Da nish assau lt. Neither team needed to score over the D nes to have h nee of a . a ca. gettmg through to the Final, 40 but they n ever looked lik e succeeding. Lance King and Shawn Moran were the only American race winners and in only o ne of the 15 heats were th e Amer icans able to take major points. They were only eig h t points down at the halfway stage but th en Denmark moved into top gear to tak e . th e remain ing seven heats and stretch their winning margin to a massive 30 points. World Champion H an s Niel sen and Coventry-based Tommy Knud- was beaten by th e opposition and although ex-champ Enk Gundersen had a poor meeung the Danes had too much in re se rve for th e Americans. ' Shawn Moran and brother Kelly brought the only points su ccess in th e third heat when Sh awn made a gr eat stan and defied all the attempts of Jan Pedersen to get through, while Kell y made su re of third place ahe ad of Gundersen. Two heats lat er Kin g bl asted hi s wa y pa st Gundersen for his fir st race win, but with Pedersen tak in g third th e points were sha red, and again wh en King raced a way in heat eigh t the Danes fill ed the minor pl acings. . Denmark's Erik Gundersen (left) gets the advantage over USA's Lance King and Denmark's Rick Miller. King was U.S.'s top scorer. Shawn's threat faded , brother Kelly .was p la g u ed by machine problems, and Sam Ermolenko was . completely out of touch, leaving King to carry on alone battle as the Danes took control. King did not win another race , although he fought hard from behind, overtaking Gundersen again to snatch a second place to Pederse n . He then gave the unbeaten Nielsen a hard ride in his next outing, but he could not prevent the Da nes from widening the gap. . Prior to the meeting with the Danes the U.S . team defeated Sweden at Swindon, 47-30, with King playing the major scoring role with ' stronger support than he had against the Da nes coming from Mike Faria and the Moran brothers. Results DENMAR K: Tommy Knudsen (15); Hans Nielsan (14); Ja n Pedarsen (8); Patar Ravn (81: John 'J orgensen (7); Er ik Gun dersen (5): 80 Petersen (3). . USA: Lance King (131 Shawn M oran (6); Rick ; Miller (3): Kally Moran (31 Sam Ermolenko(21; M ike ; Faria (2); Ronnie Corr ey (1). World Championship Obserred Trials Series: Round 5 MkhaudedgesTarres in West Germany OSNABRUCK, WEST GERMANY, APR. 24 .Fren chman Thierry Michaud continued his domination of this year's World Championship trials as he scored his fourth win in five rounds after a battle with defending World Champion Jordi Tarres in West Germany. Fantic's Micha ud n ipped Be ta 's T arr es by one mark, 46 to 47. Tarres took the initia l lead after the first lap in which he dropped only II marks to Michaud's 20 , but Micha ud bounced back to a lOon the second lap while Tarres posted a 20. The duo tied at If marks each on the third and final lap and the trial victory belonged to the former champ. Michaud and Tarres were the class of the trial as third place finisher, Aprilia-mounted Italian Diego Bosis finished 20 marks down on Michaud with a to til of 66. Fantic-mounted Brit Steve Saunders finished fourth on th e day, but maintained his hold on second p lace in the point sta ndings, although Tarres is closing in on him. . A .large crowd gathered to watch the trial which was held just outside of Os nabruck at the P iesberg Quarry. Unlike earlier ro unds, the surface was dry and hot weather prevailed.. Tarres cleaned the first six sections on the opening lap and as mentioned earlier continued on to dominate the la p. The tables were turned on the second lap as Tarres suffered a flat rear tire and effecting the repairs seemed to tak e th e edge off the Spanish youngster. The third and final la p saw Michaud and Tarres match one a no ther point for point by the end a lt ho ug h at fir st it a p p ea red as ' though th e Spaniard would top the Frenchman. The I lth section proved to be th e downfall of T arres and

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