Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Randy Green' takes the inside line under Italian Armando Castagna. as Englishman Je~emy Doncaster goes wide at Ascot South Bay Stadium. Californian Doug Nicol (left) and Dane Prebin Eriksen (center) douse the trophy girl with champagne as Ermolenko hoists the American flag. around the world and come ride one of these tracks, it 's hard." When Mauger was asked about how his World team would do on the half mile, he replied, " Oh, we'll win l" Before a record setting crowd of 7180 screaming fans , the U.S. team dominated the scoring on the half mile, winning by a score of 117-63. The event got underway with th e ' riders taking a few practice laps. Kell y ' Mora n , who opted not to practice, said, " I think whoever' s got the horsepower is going to win, and whoever stays ou t of everyone else's roost!" The roost proved to be a big factor as many rid ers were stuffing the front of th eir leathers wi th foam , and some with cardboard to protect th emselves from th e flying rocks and dirt £lung up by the o ther riders' rear wh eels. The half mile trac k was a bi t overwa tered. Crump said, " It 's a bit gri ppy going into the comers, but quite a lot of trac ks in Au stra lia are big like thi s." Mauger said, "T he track's got abou t o ne tan ker of wat er too much on it; it's go ne tacky. I thi nk our gu ys ar e spooked by it at the momen t." Six rid ers started each heat wi th th e scoring giving five points for a win, four for second, three for third, two for fourth, o ne for fifth, and zero for last. Ra ce one got underway with Shawn Moran out front , brother Kell y in seco nd and Doncaster th ird . On lap two Green m ov ed p ast Doncaster giv ing the U.S. team a top three sweep at , the finish. The U.S. led 12-3. Correy moved out in front in event two with Ermolenko in seco n d taking the high line. Crump held third making a last lap charge at Errnolenko, but fell short by a few bik e lengths at the fin ish. The second round began with Kai Niemi breaking the tapes at th e start of race three and thus being excluded from the h eat. The restart sa w Crump take the lead with Shawn Moran getting the driv e off of turn two and making an inside pass past Crump. Green in third 'dove past Crump en tering turn three on the next lap, with Kell y Moran . foll ow ing. " H e (Crump) was screwing us aro und a bit, and I was gettin g fed up because those rocks hurt like a son of a gun," said Green abo u t his pass on Crump. T he U.S. team held on to th e top three places and swept the World team 'with th eir seco nd 12 po int maximum ride. The U.S. now had a com fortable lead, 35-10. The World team scored their first win of th e evening in event four , when Doncaster led from start 'to finish , beating Ermo len ko, Correy, and In gels. "I had trouble in the first rid e because my clutch was slipping, and I was way undergeared as well , so I geared up and tool ed the clu tch. I don't know if the clutch is go ing to hold out," said Doncaster about his improvement over hi s first ride: Round three brough t ou t Doncaster against Shawn Moran, who was undefeated for th e evening. Doncaster came off the line in front of Kelly Moran leads Au stralian Phil Crump thro ugh turn four at Ascot. Phil Collins was top scorer on the short track for the World Team. . Shawn a nd Kelly Moran, and Green. The Mo rans worked inside and ou t, making up the ground that separa ted th em from leader Donaster, but tim e ran o u t and Doncaster ' wo n with Sh awn seco n d, Kell y thi rd , an d Gr een fourth. T he team totals were U.S. 53, World 22. In the sixth race, Crump led into the first comer, but Correy soon pu t himsel f ah ead of Crump, w h ile Er m olen ko was ca u g h t m idpack w ith G lyn T aylor, replacing the reinjured Kai Niemi. But that didn't last long as Er molen ko made a da ri ng pass on th e ou tside of Crump ente ring turn three. The two Americans p ulled away in the remainder of th e heat and wheel ied th e length of th e fron t strai g h t to ta ke the popular win befor e the now ecsta tic cro wd. Correy scored his second win of the evening. "I can' t beli eve that first turn," said Correy. " I came in third and came out first. I don 't know how the heck I did it !" The Morans jumped out first and seco nd in the seventh heat with Shawn leading on th e inside and Kelly second on the o utside. Green moved out of Crump's roost and past the World rider to capture third: The Morans battled for the lead until the final com er, with the elder Moran, Kelly, taking the win. With Shawn Moran second and Green third, the team had scored its third points maximum for the even ing. The USA team had walked away to a 75-30 lead. Race ei g h t pitted Ermolenko against Doncat er. The two gated even ly with Ermolenko pulling out to win his only race of the evenin~. Doncaster maintained second until the fin ish while Correy wh eelied his way past both Cas tagna and Collins to fin ish thi rd. " I just want to win, because I wa nt to keep sha rp until the World Final ," sai d Ermo len ko. Wit h on ly four ra ces left, the U.S. team dom in at ed th e scoring wit h an 83-37.tally. Ivan Mauger com mented o n hi s tea m ' s p er formance, " No t h in g' s goi ng ri ght a t th e moment, we've go t bloody clu tch sli pping and th e wrong gea rs, and Kai Niem i's da ma ged ribs." The World team sco re d n ine valuab le points in heat nine as Doncaster and Collins jumped into the lead with Kell y Moran closing fast on Coliins to take over seco nd. Moran moved up to cha llenge Doncaster on the last lap, bu t Doncaster held Moran at bay to take th e win, Moran was second, Collins th ird, Green fourth , Castagna fifth and Doug Nicol sixth, replacing Shawn Moran. Ra ce I0 belonged to Correy as he led start to finish, while teammate Erm ol enko didn 't have it so easy. Erm ol enko was last off th e line, but quickly went to th e ou tside and by th e end of lap two was in th ird. On the last lap Ermolenko passed T aylor in a wh eelie o n the back straight, and p ulled behind lead er Correy for second at th e finish , as th e two once again wheeli ed th e length of the front stra ig h t. The USA a dded another 10 points, bringing th e score to 99-51. The fi n a l round began with reserve Nicol jumping into the lead in race I I, but he faded fast as they en tered the back stretch. Kelly Moran took over th e lead and .T aylor followed in seco nd, while Green was th ird. Taylor cou ld hold Green off for only one lap as Green powered by him exiting tum four to capture second. On th e final lap Crump also moved past Taylor to take third. Green finished second and Moran cruised home to win his second race of the night. The final race of the night, event 12 saw Doncaster tak e the lead, with Correy second, and Errnolenko third. Ermolenko and Correy finished the first lap even , with Ermolenko diving deeper into turn one, and then starting his run at leader Doncaster. Ermolenko moved to the outside and pulled even with Doncaster entering turn three on the second lap. Doncaster then pulled ahead as the riders took the white flag and entered turn one with Ermolenko outside. Don" caster held off the last lap attacks by Ermolenko to win by a few bike lengths. . Ermolenko was second, Correy third and Castanaga fourth. The U.S . had won , 117-63. The battles on the short track and the long track were over and th e war was settled when th e Am eri can Cup Chall enge points were tallied, gi ving the U.S. team 174 and the .World te am 114 for th e two da ys of com petitio n. , Errnolenko reflected on the two days of racin g , " We all jus t cam e out here and tried our hearts o u t because last tim e we th ou gh t we were going to get a really big lead and it didn't work out so we kn ew we had to keep it up here. We got th e advantage at the beginning and it j ust carried on. I'm really happy and I th ink th e wh ole team 's happy." World team ca p ta i n Collins summed up th e event by saying, " T he Americans were just riding reall y good, the track was in pretty good -shape, and all the American lads rode great. We can 't tak e anything away from th em . Our boys were going well , but th e American lads were just going a lot better, that's all there is to it. It was a great m eeting. Next year, we 'll try again!" •

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