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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/143869
(Above) Penhall is m o bbed by his crew after winning. (Top right) Penhall races with Kenny Carter moments before their fateful encounter in event 14. (Right) Kelly oran leads Jan Andersson, Jiri Stancl and Edward J ancarz in heat 13, one of Moran's winning rides. Briton took it back down the straight. The American probed and p ro bed, but was unable to find an open ing . Finally, on the last lap, he went hi gh through three, then lowered h is line and p u t everyth ing he had in to it. H e came up a few feet short. Ni elsen fin- . ished third ah ead of Niemi. "Sure, you've got to sto p and p u ll yourself together," said Penhalliater. " It's no t the end of the world. There's four other heats left. I've seen the wor ld championship won wi th 13 poi n ts before, so I knew I was in th ere with a chance." Because of the number he ha d drawn for the n igh t - 13 - Pen hall had to come back and ride in the next hea t. H e led it from the gate, wh ile West German Georg Hack, Sweden 's J an Andersson and American Kelly Moran argued over second. Penhall pulled away as Andersson settled into second , with Mora n pressuring to no avail. Collins easil y won his next event - heat seven - and set the fastest one lap time of th e evening th us far en route. Poland's Edward Jancarz, Australia 's Phil Crump and Russian Mikhail Starostin followed in that order. (Starostin earned the tra veling bonors among the even t's participants. From Russia he was flo wn to Cuba by military transport, then he used commercial ai rl ines to fly to Mexico City and then to Los Ange les. His bikes only arrived the afternoon of the race and he wa s forced to borrow boots and a skid sh oe. Starostin was also the race's most consistent com petitor, finis hi ng fou rth each time out.) Kenny Carter, p icked by many before the race as Penha ll 's biggest threat, easily won hi s first heat, fin ishing well in front of j a n ca rz, Andersson and Czech Vaclav Verner. American Final winner Dennis Sigalos , in his first race since breaking his ankle a month ago, also won his first race. Kelly Moran had to battle with a determ ined Peter Collins before taking secon d, well 'beh ind Sigalos. Theirs was the first heat of the even in g and the fans saw an American win to start off the evening. . Carter and Sigalos met in hea t ยท eig ht; both with th ree points. They hi t turn one as close as two riders can be without sharing the same mo torcycle, but Carter emerged th e leader and he soon began to stretch it out. Sigalos finished a distant second ahead of Czechoslovakia's Jiri Stancl and Nielsen. Carter's I: 12.47 would stand as the fastest four laps of the even ing, and " is second lap of 17.63 h was the quickest single lap up to tha t point. Kelly Moran won the following four-Iapper to put three points in his score colum n. Nielsen , Crump and Verner trailed. . Event 10should have been Les Collin s' easiest race of the even ing as he faced Stancl , Andersson and his brother Peter , all of wh om had five points betw een them after two rounds. But it was no t to be. Stancl nailed the start perfectly and then Andersson went around the outside of Les Collins in the first turn. Collin s kept up with Andersson for a lap, then rode in th ird for the rem ainder of the race , picking up only one poin t. It was a major turning point in the race. " h should ha ve been my easiest race," observed Collins aft er the night was over. " Bu t that 's speedway. Any one of four riders can win. I didn't get the gate, and then I was wiped out with all th e shale." "I breathed a sig h of relief for sure, " said Penhall. " But still there were four or five ride rs in contention and I just had to go out and make sure I won my heats." Carter had an easy time winning heat 11, leading Hack, Niemi and Starostin all the way. Penhall was up in the 12th race, facing Sigalos, England's Dave Jessup and Jancarz. Penhall broke away from the start and then led to the fin ish. Siggy was second off the line, but Jessup relieved him of that spot in turn two. The order was set until the final turn , where Jessup - who has a history of mechanical failures in world championship competition - had- another mechanical failure and coasted across the line fourth behind Penhall, Sigalos and Jancarz. Up to that point Jessup had been in the hunt with five points from his first two heats. With three rides com p lete, Carter led all scorers with a perfect nine points. Penhall had eight, Sigalos and Collins seven apiece, and Moran six. Moran ga ined three points from his ride in event 13, but everybody was waiting for the heat 14 match up of Carter and Penhall. And the two rattled handlebars from the first turn on, but while they battled Peter Collins had the lead. While Collins- was busy trying to improve his brother Les' chances, Penhall made his move down low coming out of turn four. He was . inside of Carter as they were still shoulder to shoulder into and through turn one. Then through turn two, Carter literally disappeared. The race was red-flagged with Carter's bike on the track and the Englishman caught in the bottom of the chain-link catch 7