Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

eINTERVIEW ~ ~ ... r-, N H Q) ..0 " ... o u o 8 By Scott Rousseau Photos by John Hipkiss For the first time in hall a decade, American speedway ace "Sud d en " Sam Ermolenko returned to the United States to contest this year's U.s. Nati onal Speedway Cha mpionship. It was a long road back for the 32· yea r-old from Cypress, Califo rnia, who resides in Milton Keynes, England when riding for the British leag ue Wolverhampton Wolves - but it was made easier with the confid ence gai ned from having earned -a much deserved World Individual Speedway Championship just one month earlier. intemati:na~l~h:e:a~d:li~nes~~w;h:en:r-II:~ •~;-""IIliii"=-_-----------------------1 • he Ermolenko firs t World Individual Speednearly won the made way Championship at Coventry, England, in 1985 on his fir st attempt; th e upstart fini shed th ird in the th ree-man run-off for th e title. Thou gh expectations were hig h a fter th a t re s u It, Ermolenko fail ed to imp rove on his per formance until 1993, when he finally ea rned the World Championshi p in Pocking, Germany. In addition, Er molen ko h ad ca p ta in e d Tea m USA to two-s traig ht World Team Cup ti tles in 1992 and 1993. There were plenty of h ard tim e s along the way, most no tably a 1989 long-track crash in Ge rmany that nearly cos t Er molenko h is career. The yea r-long road to recovery required tha t his injured right leg be sho rtened so me tw o-and-a-h all in che s . Th rou gh it all, thou gh, Erm olenko persevered, co n tin ui ng to run th e hectic sc h e d ul e that sends h im to ov e r 100 races a yea r in five different countries. Er molenko returned home to California long enough to contest the U.S. National Ch ampionship in Costa Mesa, an d ju st h ours before adding that eve nt to his impressive win list for '93, he fou n d time to express his views on the cham p io ns hi ps, the spor t, a n d the inevita b le po litics that come wi th it all. It's been a long time s ince you rod e here on a regular ba s is . Wha t are ' y o u r t hou g hts going into the National? The last ti me I r od e the National I go t th ird . I made so m e good starts, b u t I wasn 't used to t urning so tig ht and I wasn ' t prepared for a lot of the action on the track. Today's practice should give me a lo t of help going into the meeting. I think I'm capable of winning this withou t any p roblem , bu t also on this small track there's an element of luck involved. If I can go out there, make five starts an d not do anything stupid, I think my cha nces are pre tty good. You were pretty disappointed after last year's World Final. It seems that every year expectations are high and you run into bad luck, What made 1993's World Final so different? Every tim e I've b een in the Wo rld Fi n a l, I've approached it differently based on my previo us experien ce. Obviously, when I di d n't win it I didn't know the righ t way to approach it. Men tally, what I figured w as that I race every day in the British league and I'm beating everybody regularly. All I've got to do is treat it as a normal meetin g, bu t rise to the occasion. .I sa id to moved a little bit to ta k e a "wi der li n e, and at t hat ti m e " h e came s t raigh t across. The back side o f h is frame just hit my front end and lifted it, and it just too k me right out. It wasn't like I w as goi ng in to the fence or an yth ing, I jus t fell stra ight down. He's done that in about three or four meetings and he's go tten away with it. But Nielsen blamed you for the incident. This is how I read it Hans was despera te to win. Last year he went to Jawa engines and he str uggled. He d idn 't even ma k e the World Final beca use he failed to get out of his firs t round. This year, he was d e te rm in ed , and I'm sure that he was on a lot of contingency from his sponsors to wi n. He ev en wen t to the extreme of having the tra ck for h ims elf on an open practice three weeks beforehand. He and Ger d Riss spen t the w ho le da y out th ere practicing a n d tuning their bikes up. On the practice day before the final, the rest of us were trying all these di fferent li nes a nd bike setups, but Hans was riding in the same p lace every la p b ecause he knew where to go. Basical ly , there was a lot of Danish press a t th e World Fi nal, and he just spilled his out so tha t his sponsors would feel so rry for him and say, "It was the referee th at screwed up, not yo u, Hans." But h e had already " drop p ed a point before h e me t m e . When we we re escorted across the track after the me eting to go to the press conference, he asked me w hat I though t. I said, "Well HansrI felt you coming and I moved over a bit. You just too k my front end out." He said "No, I'm sure you leaned in on me. " I saw the video tape the very next day, and su re enough, he took me right out. There was just so much bull crap in the press about how it was all Hans Nielsen, and no credit for me. Right after that Sunday, there was what they call a revenge meeting in Vojens, Denmark. I us ually get a good recep tion there, but this time it was really mixed. I won the meeting, but Hans beat me in a heat. So it still wasn' t settled. It was sa id that Nielsen went after you in the World guts m yself, " Lets just go there and prepare like we d o every meeting and just do it:' That's exactly what I d id. I didn't let anything get to me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do every time I went to the starting line. In the World Fin al there was a b it of controversy regarding th e race between you and Han s Nielsen because it ultimately decide d th e ch a m p ions h ip. What is yo ur side of the story? I made the start and led down the back straightaway. On the approach to the next corner there was a hole that I had hit earlier and actually lost my footing, so I made a wide approach to the tum. As I wen t in high , Nielsen had dived straight inside. I heard him coming up to me and then all of a sudden he was righ t there. I

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