Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128332
Out of the Wilderness e n Jack Milne stood atop the World Championsh ip Speedway Final podium, ahead of fellow Americans Wilbur Lamoreaux and brother Cordy Milne in London's Wembley Stadium on September 2, 1937, becom ing the country's first World Champion in motor sports, who could have known that he would also be speedway's last American World Champion for the next 44 years? But that's how it went down. For over four decades afte r that histo ric and as yet unmatched Ame rican sweep in the World Championship , Ame ricans were off-kilter in the World Speedway scene. It wou ld not be until the dawn of the I980s that a new breed of Americans - Californ ia surfers , no less - would come along and restore Amer ica's pres ence in the sport. The seeds for the rena issance were actually sown back in 1969, when former World Champ ion Milne himself and an employee of his, an entrepre ne urial lad named Harry O xley, decided to start holding week ly speedway races at the O range County Fairgrounds in Co sta Mesa, California. Set on a gritty, groovy track not much bigger than an Olympicsized swim ming pool, a stone's throw away from the PacificOcean, Co sta Mesa was light years fro m the prim and proper European sce ne re plete with its high-dollar professional leagues and groo medfrom -yout h World Cham pions-elect . Yet, like the fabled astronaut movie of the same name, Cost a Mesa so me how attracted the guys with "the right stu ff." Maybe it was the close proximity to the beach, maybe it was the sheer excitement of taming an unr idable 50-horsepower, 180-pound, alco hol-burning missile of a motorcycle with no brakes, maybe it was the lure of the kind of money that you cou ldn't even make with a real day job back then , but the surfers started tradi ng in their wetstuits for leathers when the summer sun went down, and a new era of professional American speedway racers was born . For the first seven years Ame rica had not hing for the world , but then along came Scott Autr ey's brilliant third-place performance in the 1978 World Final, followed by Kelly Moran's fourth place in '79. Th e man wh o wo uld bec ome America n speedwa y's golden boy of the e ra, Bruce Pen hall, suffered a disappointing fifth in 1980, a season that held high hopes for an American victory. But 1981 was to be Penhall's year - and not just his alo ne. as he and fellow American Bobby "Boogaloo" Schwartz rea lly got the ball rolling in Katowice , Poland, on June 21 of that year. Before 70,000 fans at the World Best Pairs Final, the pair o ut- pointed the best in the worl d. The Ame ricans thoroughly dom i- W nated the event, altho ugh their score , 23 points against 22 by New Zealand and 2 1 by Poland, doesn't reflect it. "We had never ridde n the track befo re, and when we got there, it was raining, and we never got to practice," Schwartz, now 47, reme mbers. "The n what happened was that we were getting a 5-1 while we were leading the Germans when Bruce's bike blew up. I went ahead and won the race to make it 3-3." In their next heat, Schwartz remembers, the unthinkable happe ned to Germany. "In their next race both the Germans got taken out in the same crash , and they had to bring in two reserves, and basically everybody that raced the Germ ans after that got a 5-1 automatically, while we had only gotten a 3-3 against them. The score shows that we only won by one point, but it shou ld have been mo re ." Especially when the Americans found out that the cards we re unscrupulously stacked against them . "I don't even know that I shou ld be saying this now. but I re member that was also a year that the Danes we re going to try and help the Poles win it as re paymen t for giving the Danes so me help at a race the year befo re," Schwartz said. "I found o ut abo ut it, and I went to Hans Nielse n and told him, 'Whateve r they're giving you, we'll double it.' Of course, we neve r inte nded to pay him anything, but the po int was that I was telling Nielsen to do the right thing. In their heat against the Poles. Ole Olsen came off the start last and he neve r did that - but Nielsen led it, 106 JUL 14, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS Y and I kept waiting for him to pull off. But he did do the right thing, and we won it." Pe nhall wou ld go on to win the World Final before 90 ,000 screaming fans at Wembley that year, his e xploits well chronicled in a national televsio n broadcast by CBS. In 1982, Team USA built on that succe ss by going on to win all there was to win, taking the World Best Pairs and the World Team Cup , with Penhall repeating as World Cham pion in a cont rove rsial World Final at the Los Angeles Col iseum. Schwartz was the top performer in the two team events, running unbeaten in the World Best Pairs and the World Team Cup (though he unselfishly passed up a chance for a maximum score by giving teammate Autrey a substitute ride in his final event after the title was in the bag). "It was such a time for us, and it has never been like that since," Schwartz says. "We were all just virgins, digging it and believing that we could do it because we didn't know any better. It was like we came from this tight little track wit h a ton of dirt on it, and then when we went ove r to those big tra cks, we ll, you co uld have a cheese sandwich because the re was so much room. It was n't easy, though, and half the time we struggled just to find ou r way to the tracks . There were like three McDo nalds over there. "But it was just a special time , not just for Bruce and me, but for all I3 members of Team USA. We were into it. and we we re having fun. It was a fantastic thing." Scott Rousseau 30 YEARS AGO••• July IG. 1974 ,.. '/ .1 I.- '. " II!-I J " w~ ~~ - O n the cover was AMA District 38 • 125 Junio r points leade r and women's motocross con- tender Nancy T homas. In this issue the National Powder Puff Championship was covered. It was a motocross race for women that was held every year... In the voices section the re was a letter from President Ron al d Reag an. At the time he was the governor of California. And he wr ote a letter in response to legislation that concerned motorcycle riders... There was a story about the Mammoth Mo untain Motocross. This year the 37th annual Mammoth Motocross took place, and thou sands of racers and spectators drove up the mountain to witness wha t could possibly be the last one ever. ii!0 YEARS AGD... July te. 19B4 Road race r ~*~~~9'0 Freddie Spencer ~I;lo;;,", ,l,j.;;!.~ appeared on the cover of this issue. Inside was the first part o f a multiweek feature on the World Champio n, talking about his accomplishments and his future in road racing... I7-year-o ld Ron Lechien led an Amer ican sweep of the to p three positions at a USGP held at the Unadilla mo tocross track. By doing so he became the youngest rider ever to win a 2S0 Grand Prix... Long-time supercross and motocross star Larry Ward competed in a local motocross race, where he won the 80 and 105 expert classes aboa rd Kawasakis. Today Ward rides fo r the MotoXXX team but is currently o ut of action due to injuries. tu YEARSAGD July 13 . 19 94 ;l;~=!1!i=;:p'!~:fl World Champ- ~~~~~=~ ionship Road Race " Series contender Michael Doohan appeare d on the cove r of this issue . He had just won his ~~C::"J fourth straight 500cc Grand Prix in Assen , increasing his se ries points lead... At the sixth round of the National Motocro ss Cham pionship Series in Buchanan, Michigan, Mike Kiedrowski took the overall, just edging out his teammate Mike LaRocco for the win. On that same day an angry Kiedrowski was fined $ 1000 for ghost- riding his bike into LaRocco...Rodney Smith won the Trask Two-day Qualifier in McMinnville, Oregon, and wrap ped up his second stra ight championship. ~ .... == 40th Anniversary