Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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• World Speedway Champion Billy H (Left) Living a dream: Billy Hamill fulfilled a lifetime goal In 1996 with his ascension to the World Speedway Championship throne. With solid financial backing via a lucrative sponsorship deal, Hamill Is clearly at the top of his game. (Below) Hamill races Inside a Cradely Heath teammate at his first British League match since winning the championship. Unlike past champions, Hamill remains faithful to the league that gave him his start in world-elass speedway. By Julian Ryder hen Billy Hamill tells you that his father was a jockey, it doesn't come as a surprise. He looks like one himsel f, small and narrow-shoudered, but with an unmis'''' takable wiry toughness. And, as this conversation was taking place in a neat semi-detached house in a small village in the rural Midlands of England, you might reasonably expect that horses would be the reason that Hamill has pent most of the last seven year away from his native Southern California. ot so. The reason he endured years of homesickness, culture shock and precarious finances is speedway. First he rode in the British league, then he added a Swedish club and a Polish club. At one point he was riding in the Danish league as well. Speedway is not a sport for anyone who doesn't like traveling. This year things came right for Hamill, but not until the latest possible moment. For the .Iast two seasons, speedway's World Championship has 1;>een run on a Grand Prix system featuring the top 18 riders in the world racing for points in six countries, instead of the old knockout system culminating in a one-off world final. The final GP of 1996 was in Denmark, and going in two riders could win the title: Hamill and the defending champ Hans Neilsen. It was a wonder- ful contrast. Neilsen is the man the fans love to hate - the ice man, the nerveless winning machine and also the oldest man in the field with four world titles behind rum. He plays on his image by wearing black leathers. Up against the lanky Danish veteran was Hamill, a piece of pure California transplanted to what has become a drab orthern European sport. It was a scriptwriter's dream: The Man in Black versus Billy the Kid - with the dice loaded against The Kid, who went into the last rounds with nine points to make up. Amazingly, Neilsen only qualifed for the B final (for fourth to eighth places overall) but he duly won it. The arithmetic was now simple. Hamill had to win the A final not just to win the Grand Prix but the World title as well. There could be no greater pressure on a racer, and Hamill now.says he went to the line with one thought in his mind: "Don't (mess) up!" He didn't. It was the culmination of half-a-lifetime's racing for Hamill, who started racing at his local track 13 years ago. He first saw speedway when a neighbor used to take him along to spectate at