Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

World Speedway Champion Billy Hamill (Lett) Hamill and daughter Margaret pose in front of the champ's hardware. Marga apparently prefers to show off dad's World Individual cup. (Below) Behind every good man... Christina Hamill has endured the transition from Southern California to the British way of life. "She is the backbone of everything I do," Hamill says. (Bottom) Dos amigos: Hamill and CradelyfTeam Exide teammate Greg Hancock (right) have come through the ranks together. The world number-one and number-three have been racing each other since their junior days in America. ( speedway - as you can judge from the fact that Hamill is the first World Champion for three years to bother riding in the British League. Financially, it probably would make sense for Hamill to base himself in Germany, but during his introductory stay in the UK in 1990, Hamill fell totally in love with English village life. After nearly six years, he and Christina have gotten to the point where they feel a if they have some roots in the U.K. Baby Margaret was born in the U.K. just over a year ago, and they talk about their English house as "home" nearly as often as they refer to CaWornia in that context. Christina Hamill actively avoids the publicity that Hamill attracts, but there's no doubt she's been a major factor in her husband's uccess. In a TV interview right after he'd won the title, he described her as "the backbone of everything 1 do." If anything, Christina suffered a worse dose of culture shock than Hamill. Helle Gundersen kept her busy, usually with jobs around the farm. Christina recalls being seconded to paint a fence in temperatures a California girl never thought possible. Later, she learned that Helle was from a part of Denmark where they have rows of pine trees eight deep around the houses as windbreaks against the prevailing gales off the North Sea. She coped with that, she coped with being on her own for large chunks of time while Hamill was away racing, and she coped with the very un-American attitude to service that still prevails in a lot of Britain and Europe. You get the impression that Hamill coped because she could cope. Christina brushes aside any question on the subject with the comment that her dad was big into old cars so she's used to being around engines. The Hamills certainly have absorbed some of the characteristics of their adopted home, but at the same time have stayed - to British eyes - 100 percent Californian. They have, for instance, introduced the totally American ritual of a "haunted house" (actually the garage cum workshop) on Halloween. "1 never knew there were so many kids in this village," says Hamill, who had to escort a few of them home after they were lightly traumatized by various American speedway riders doing the haunting. In a very American turn of phrase, baby Margaret is referred to as "Marge," which British ears have only heard in "The Simpsons," rather than the "Maggie" that they're used to. But then Hamill will gleefully tell you that the horrible old Nissan he drives only cost him 800 "quid" before answering the phone with a totally Californian "Yo!" If the Hamills' vocabulary can be a little mixed up, there is no mistaking the affection in which they are held by British fans. Speedway has always been a predominantly working-class family sport but with surprisingly few motorcycles parked outside the tracks on race days. Hamill's first race at his home track after winning the title was pure British speedway. Cradley's stadium has been closed for redevelopment, so the team runs out of Stoke on a decrepit track carved out of abandoned industrial land. But there were Hamill and Greg Hancock in the bar for an hour before racing started, having their photos taken with every kid and granny in the place and being handed congratulations cards and teddies for young Margaret. There's something very down-home about speedway - and it's none the worse for that. In front of maybe 2,000 people, the two Americans helped their team to a comprehensive win in the rain and rounded off the evening with synchronized wheelies. Hamill and Hancock made a brave attempt to bring a modern look to speedway this year, forming themselves into Team Exide with sponsorship from the battery manufacturer. They don't race as a team, but turn out in corporate colors and publicize themselves jointly. Look for other top-flight riders to follow their example next season. Hamill is first and foremost a racer. He dares to go around the outside, up against the ironically named safety fence, if he has to. When the elbows start flying in a tight first corner, he doesn't back off; he rides to win, not to get a safe place and a couple of points. He also is America's only motorcycle sport World Champion of 1996. Americans might want to think of it as quality, not quantity, and take comfort from the fact that there couldn't be a better ambassador, either for speedway, or the USA, than Billy Hamill. ~

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