Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127397
Gad Kiss leads Hans Nielson. Sam Ennolenlr.o and Ronnie Correy at the start of th e con tro versial 17th heat, Kelly Moran (cen ter) and Gert Handbag (right) chase Ennolenlr.o. Moments la ter Moran's engine blew and Handbag crashed into him. mems to opera te, I nipped out of th e Ermolenko shrugs off injury By J ohn H ipkiss ABENSBERG, GERMANY AUG. 1 , 8 a m Erm olenko, Am eri ca 's number one hope for this 'year's . World Speedway Championsh ip, crashed th ro ugh the pain barrier of a fractured kneecap in Germ any to qual ify for the fin al in Swede n o n August 31. T he 30-year-old rider from Maybank, Californi a, who is captain of Wol ver ha mp to n, current lead ers . of the British- Leag ue's First Division , damag ed the knee wh en he clipped the rea r wheel of partner Ro n n ie Correy's machine and hit the safety fen ce in th e final heat of the ir lea gue m atch a t Ipswich on th e eve S 24 o f their departure fo r the semi -fina l in Germany. Alt ho ug h the knee was swo llen and pai n ful, Ermolenk o di d not rea lize the severi ty of the injury unti l he visited a hospital in Germ an y to have some of the fluid drained from the joint. X-rays then 'revealed tha t h is ri ght kn eecap was cracked in two p laces and the doc tors advised him tha t it sh ould be im mo bi lized in a p laster cast. "T here was no way I was going to have that do ne ," exp lained Ermolenko. " T he meeting was d ue to start in a coup le of hours, so while th e doc tors were trying to make arra nge - back door !" Errnolenko raced back to the track wh ere a doctor stra pped the knee and hel ped him into his leathers in tim e for hi s first race. H e ga ve an am azin g performa nce, easi ly winnin g his open ing heat from three Eastern Bloc qualifi ers, Zdenek Schneid erwind of Czech oslovakia , Woj ciech Zaluski o f Poland , and Mih ail Starostin of the Sovie t Union. Erm ol enko th en fin ish ed seco nd behind Tony Rickardsson of Sweden next tim e out befor e fini shing third to the Danish du o of J an Pedersen and Tommy Knudsen . " I kne w then that one mor e good result wou ld see me th rough ," said Ermolenko, who was g un ni ng for one of the eigh t top p laces to advance to the Wor ld Cha mpionship In di vidual Fin al. He go t it in the rerun of his fourth race after fellow American Kell y Mora n blew hi s motor, brin ging do wn another Dan e, Gert Handberg , and getting excl uded for causing the race to be stopped. Two mor e points fro m his final ou ting when he was second to three time World Ch ampion Han s Nielsen of Den mark saw Ermolenko safely through with II po ints and he celebrated with a series of daring wh eelies to delight the cro wd. H is Wolverhampton teammat e Cor rey al so mad e the cu t, alt hough lie had to be sati sfied wit h eig ht points on th e bo tto m qua lifying ru ns after being disquali fied and escorted off the track" in an exp losive and hi ghly controversia l heat 17. Co rrey fell wh en he coll ided with Ge rma n World Long T rac k C h amp io n G er d R iss a nd though it ap peared th at Riss was clearly at fault it was Correy wh o rece ived th e excl us io n light from Referee G rah am Brod ie. Correy, who was just ahead of R iss when th e collisio n occurred , refu sed to accep t the British referee's ruling. Even though the America n had the backing