Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

9:45 a.m . : Penhall is a bit miffed as he searches for a box containing the decals for the tea m's lates t s ponsor, American Racing Equipme nt. Unfortunately, the stickers are nowhere to be found, and his face tightens. I get it now - even though this is just a p ractice run in Long Beach Ha rbo r, it sta nds to reaso n that someone might see the boa t as it flashes past. And being the consummate pro fes sional, Pe n ha ll wants all of h is sponsors well represented. In the meantime, Dennis Siga los - the other half of the dynamic duo - arrives a nd begins work on the boa t eve n before e xchanging hellos with the rest o f th e crew. Penhall asks his partner about the missing stickers, a nd Sigalos ha s no clu e e it he r . As if to add insult to injury, Sigalos also in forms Penhall, "You r helmet's not done being paint ed either." Soon, it's Sigalos' tum to disappear in to the bowels of the hull and g et crack ing on one of the numer ous projects necessa ry to m ake the tes t run a reality. crushed with a disappointing fifth -place finish. "I was devastated," Penhall said. "I was having a great season and 1 had decided to stay w ith the sidemou ni -carb moto rcycles that 1 had used all season because 1 didn 't want to make any radical changes just before the World Final, even though everyone else had gone to the cen ter-curb bikes. Tha t's really what lost it for me. 1 didn 't hav e enough motorcycle at the end of the straightaways. That, and the fact that 1 was young, and 1 really wasn't ready for the atmosphere of the World Final yet ." Penhal1 refused to g ive up, and he . returned even more determined during the 1981 season, boldly predicting that he would win the World Champion ship tha t year. When the 1981 World Final rolled around , Penhall's popularity was soaring. Even CBS Sports jumped on the Penhall bandwagon as he went on to make speedway history , first teaming up with Bobby Schwartz to win the 1981 World Best Pairs tit le in Katowice, Poland. Then, in early Sept em ber, with cameras rolling and media exposure for speedway racing at an all-time high, Penhall kept his promise to his parents by becoming the first American World Speedway Champion in 44 years, before 90,000 fans at London's Wembley Stadium . 1/ is touted as one of th e most electrify ing World Cha mp ionship performances in sports history . "I had a great season," Penhall recalled. "I didn't lose very many races that year, but we were going into Wembley and it was a really stacked field. 1 won two of the races by less than an inch. It was an unbelievably emotional night." With the title in hand, Penhall went on to captain Team USA to it s fir st World Team Cup Championship at Vojens, Denmark, as well , thus winning all that there was to win on the World Champianship trail that year. Sigalos is the thro t tl eman o n t he tea m. T he jo b requires a steady hand, making him an easy choice. Sigalos and Penhall have been pals for longer than either can remember, and unfortuna tely Sigalos shared in Penhall's tragedy . Sigalos' mother was a passenger in tire Penhall aircraft on that fateful day in 1975. He began his professional racing career on the Southern California speedway circuit in 1976, at age 16. Only two years later he would pack his suitcases and move to England to join Penhall in the British League. Sigalos spent his first two seasons with the Hull Lada Vikings. "1/ was a hell of an experience," Sigalos said of his time spent with Hull. "I was rid- ing number three (in the heat order) so that paired me with (nine-time World Champion) Ivan Mauger. At first , 1 did n't even know how to gel to some of the race tracks, but riding with him and pitting with him , seeing what he was doing, that was all a big help. "T hen 1 started beating him , and he started hammering on me because he didn' t want to gel beat by some snot-nosed kid. But it never really turned into a grudge. 1/ was a great opportunity to ride with him." Sigalos then left Hu ll and moved to the Ipswich Witches. There he beca'me the team captain and quickly aroseas one of the club's most popular riders. "( Bei ng captain) was reall y a lot of responsibility ," Sigalos said. "You 're always in the firs t race and everyone looks for you to wi n and start the race clean. You were expected to get at least 12 points a night and "carry" the team. If you didn't, you had to talk to everyone (media, fans) and explain why. 1 was only 21 at the time, but all the Americans were young. That's why we did as well as we did. We were all so stoked on . it.Sigalos spent his next five summers racing in th e USA , England and all across Europe. In the winters, he ventured Down Under to race in the sunny climates of Australia and New Z ealand. Along the way, "Siggy" - as he came to be affectionately called by his fans and competitors alike becameone of the primary forces in the golden era of American speedway racing. Though he didn 't command the same attention as Penhall, Sigalos ' steady, dogged riding style still made him one of the most recogn izable riders in the sport at the time. "My riding style was always diffe rent than Bruce's or Kel1y Moran's," Sigalos said. "I never put my foot up on the footpeg like those guys. 1 always hu ng my leg back behind the bike, which is a real terrible looking style anyway. 1 was alway s tearing up leathers. "When 1 was captain, 1 would alw ay s let my team mate (in the heat> have first choice at the starting gate, and then 1 would usually choose to the ou tside of him," Sig alos said. "If things were going well, 1 was more content to hang back, team ride and take second place. 1 wasn ' t as flamboyant as the other guys , but 1 wanted result s . I was always up there with the top scorers." 10 a.m. : The first of the four seats is being ins talled now, and it looks like progress has ac tually been made. By 10:30 a.m. all four are locked in place. I ask Sigalos if the workload is always this hectic and he tactfully sidesteps the query. "The tw o h app iest days in a boat owner's life are the day he buys it and the day he sells it:' Sigalos says with a smi le. I haven ' t eaten all morning, a nd I decide that it wou ld be better if I took the ride with a full stoma ch rather than a n em p ty on e . Besides, Bonnello ha s arrived, making sure to say '1 told you so" about the tim etable. If anything happens w h ile I'm gone, a t least he 'll be able to tell me , so I head out. Penhall had a glorious World Championship reign in England dur ing the 1982 season and remained the primary force that kept speedway racing in the public eye. Realizing the popularity that Penhall and other top Americans like Sigalos were generating among American motor racing fan s, CBS elected to continue its coverage of international speedway racing in 1982. When he was seeded through the American Championship round, Penhall himself even got the opportunity to hone his media skills by act- 25

• Cover