Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.S E D A P E W Y·· .W C orld hampionship Q ualifierSeries Overseas Final (Left) Mike Faria was the only other American to . possibly qualify from Coventry. Faria, who has shunned the laydown eng ine configuration, finished s ixth. (Below) American and rookie World Championsh ip contender Bobby Hedden (right) received counseling from Grand Prix conte nder Greg Hancock (left) at Coventry. Hedde n scored one point In the meeting. -28 who edged ou t David Norris w ith Mike Faria looking d own on p ower at th e back. Yo ung Am erican Bob b y H ed d en , . mak ing his first racing visit to the U.K., made a start that he would ra ther forget, although hi s la ck o f p oints is u nderstandable against su ch a quality field . Lyons was an ea sy wi n ne r of heat three ahead of Mick Poole, who is now retired and based b ack in Austra lia. Ch arli e Venegas, w ho ha s sc. far stru ggle d for point s d uring his time in the Brit ish Premier League, fin ishe d th ird w ith Hed den at the ba ck. Hedden w as never expected to pull up an y tree s and make big headlin es, but he w as di sappoint ed with his performan ce as he is a very de term ined young man who could make it with the best one day. Au tra lia ' s Ryan Su llivan, the reigning O ver seas Champion, sig naled his intentions to the rest or the field with a comfortable win in heat fou r to prove to eve ryo ne just why he is affectiona te ly kno w n as "Flying Ryan" at his British club, the Peterborou gh Panthers . Venegas was involved in an exciting and tense battl e wi th you ng Engl is h prospect Ben Howe in heat five, and this time th e American missed out on the line. Manchester missed allthe action as he was in front and on his way to another three points, which placed some pressu re on his rivals back in the pits. Despite a ll the uncertainty over whether this result would stand, all the riders gave it their best, and there were plenty of nerv ous looks in the pits mainly toward Manchester, who looked brilliant. Hed d en w as out again in heat si x, and he did well to dive underneath Norris for a confi dence-boosti ng third place af ter Norris appeared to lose co ntrol. Tatum was a clear winner of th e race with fellow English man David Wa lsh second . Lyons matched Ma nchester's w in in h e at seven to join h im on the earl y leaderboar d, and Sullivan soon followed in an ev entful heat eight with another win. Faria got off the mar k wi th a strong challenge on Poole to gra b second p lace an d in doing so Poole w en t so wi de tow ard the fence that Carl Ston ehewe ch a rg ed t~ou gh or-apoliit. It was a hard move by .Faria, but exactly what is need ed in this type of meeting wh en every point is vital - if the result stands . N orris was a surprise winner of heat n ine, bu t more im p orta ntly ch arged through to pass Sullivan for a cruci al se co n d place, and this result ha nded Man ch es te r a go lden oppo rtu n ity to make the lead his own. H e m ade no m istakes with a third successive victory in heat 10 ahead of Poole and Tatum, and again it was done from the start . Faria produced a fine ride from the gate in heat 11 to edge ou t Wal sh , but Venegas looked upset with last place in a race where he should have done better . Stonehewer made light work of winning heat 12, while Hedd en a g a in trailed off at the back as he took time to try and adapt to the wide-open sp aces of the Coventry bends. At the in terval Manchester was a comfortable leader with a m aximum nine points, but Lyons was breathing down his neck. There was a real showdwn in heat 15 when Manchester wa s up against Sullivan . Manches ter knew that his start had to be spo t on , and he flew from the gate and left Sullivan trailing while Hedden once again finished last. It was a vita l win for Manchester as it gave him maxim um poi nts fro m four rides, and from th at stage he never looked likely to let his lead slip. Hedden completed his debut British meet ing with last place in hea t 17 as Far ia pu lled off another su perb win to finish on nin e points - and in doing so it gave him a top-eight placing for the FlM to consi der their hearing . Lemo n w as excluded wh en trying to pass Poole in heat 14, an d Poole sho wed gr eat character to go ou t an d w in the reru n. By this stage Sulli van had secured 12 points ; an d it was all down to heat 20 to decide the t itle. Ma nc hester was up against gre at rival Lyons, who was jus t a point behind the American, b u t it was Stonehewer who surprised the form book by winning the race, and it was left to Manchester to take the title with second place ahead of Lyons. Not surprisingly there were great celebrations in the Manchester camp after the event, bu t it remains to be seen if th ose celebrations are justified as the FIM must consider whether or not to make Manchester's win official. Lyons beat Sullivan for a runoff for second place. After the meeting, Ma nchester was predictably subdued about the event despite the fact that he had won. " I know I am the cha mpion, but champion of w ha t?" Ma nchester said. "It's a very stra nge situa tion, because I don 't know if I am Overseas Champion or whether I am effectively the winner of an Eng lish open meet in g. The re was no way the meetin g could h ave gone ahead with the new tires becau se of the strengt h of feeling in the riders' camp. There w ere so me a ngry g uys wh o refused to give way in this situation . "This whole th ing sho uld have been sorted ou t earlier," Manchest er sa id . :' Every one w as aware th at' th er e wer e problems, b ut n ob od y seemed to be ta ki ng any no tice of th e rid ers. After all, th ey are the gu y s w h o put th eir necks on th e line every tim e they ride a bike. "The fan s wer e brilliant an d I wo uld like to say thanks to them all for staying with us," Mancheste r sa id. "As far as th e resu lt is concemedv.I can' t do anv mo re than win the thing, and I suppose now it's a case of sit and wait to see what's going to h appen." . Speedway Control Board manager Graham Reeve exp lai ned the situ ation in full to some reporters as soon as the meetin g beg an . "At 7:30 p.m. the meeting w as effec- ' tively canceled becau se th e rid er s refused to race on solid block tires, and the FIM decided it had no alternative but to postpon e the event," Reeve said. "It was at th is stage tha t we stepped in, a lo ng with th e British Speed way Promoters Association, and took over the meeting and 'ran it as a do me stic even t. We appointed o ur own officials, and there was no way we were going to let th e fans go h ome with out seeing any racing. "Bu t I have to say that whilst I have so me sympathy with the riders, I believe their actions were ba dly mistimed and a very nasty situation cam e abo ut because o f it," Reeve said. "From m y point of view, I will be doin g everythi ng possible to ge t the resul t pus hed throu gh in the hope tha t we can all learn from this situation and make some d ecisions for the future." Bill Boyce of the AMA had to file a re port through to th e FIM aft er. th e event, but he had little alternative than to pull out of the meeting. Runner -up Lyons said, "It's a shame what happened becau se the sup porters were let down, but we are looking at a ' safety first' me asure through all of this, and we have had enough serious accidents in th e sport already. Somebody had to listen to the riders, and I appreciat e there are rul es for eve ry situation, but th is could not go on." Tatum clai med he w ou ld have ridlien on solid block tires because he did not want to face a fine and, more significan tly, a ban fro m FIM even ts as he is the reigning World Lon g Track Champion. Clearl y Tatum, Lemon and Sullivan believe a ban is likely for those riders who refused to take part, and all three ' ensured their views w ere on record, which caused bad feeli ng a mong th e riders. The iden tity of the three riders wh o said they would have ridden w as revealed by Brit ish Speedway's Pr ess officer the day after the event, and all three look set to progress to the Intercontinental Final. Speculatio n .from FIM Headqu art ers in Geneva is that all but three riders will be th rown out of the Worl d Championship, bu t at the time of this writing that is pure speculation. f:\ Brandon Stadium Coventry, England Results: J une 9, 1996 QUALIFI ERS: 1. Chris Manchester (14 points); 2. Ry a n Su lliva n (12); 3. Jason' Lyon s (1 2 ); 4. Ca r l Sto neh ewer (11); 5. Kelvin Tatu m (10); 6. Mike Faria (9); . 7. Tony Langdon (9); 8. David No rris (8): N ON-QUALIF IERS : 9. Mick Po ol e (7); 10. Rav Mo rton (7); 11. Ben H owe (6); 12. Simo n Cross (5); 13, D a v id Wal sh (4) ; 14. Mark Lemon (4); 15. Bobbv Hedden (1); l b. Ch arlie Venegas (1). . Upcoming Rounds: Continental Final- Abensberg, Germany, July 28 Intercontinental Final· Hoisted Denmark. July 28 . Grand Prix Challenge .: Prague, Czech Republic. October 6

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