VOL. 51 ISSUE 8 FEBRUARY 25, 2014 P23
PHOTOGRAPHY
BY
KIT
PALMER
READYING FOR WORLD CUP
T
eam USA launched its 2014
Speedway World Cup prepa-
rations with a series of private
training sessions at Perris Race-
way in Southern California in late
January and early February. Ten
invited riders took part with team
manager Billy Hamill and captain
Greg Hancock spending time
coaching the team.
This year's World Cup will be
a seven-day tournament, July
26-August 2 with events in Eng-
land, Sweden and Poland.
Team USA finished fifth in last
year's Speedway World Cup com-
petition – its best finish in a de-
cade. Thus for the first time since
2007, Team USA goes straight to
the final stages of this year's tour-
nament and doesn't need to go
through a qualifying round.
Joining two-time World Cham-
pion Hancock at the Perris
Raceway training camp were fel-
low 2013 World Cup team mem-
bers Ricky Wells and Gino Man-
zares. Also in attendance were
25-year-old Aaron Fox, former
motocrossr Tyson Burmeister,
and up-and-coming teenagers
Max Ruml, Rocco Scopellite,
Dillon Ruml and
Broc Nicol.
Manzares and
Fox have both
landed contracts
to race for British
Premier League
teams in the 2014
season with the
Ipswich Witch-
es and Edinburgh Monarchs
teams, respectively. Along with
Hancock, Wells and the British-
based Ryan Fisher, Team USA
has its largest rider pool racing
in Europe in nearly a decade,
though it is still a small number
compared to its main rivals. In
speedway terms, the Europe-
an team competitions are very
much the major leagues.
"We have 10 riders out here
and it was very promising for our
first training sessions," Hamill
said. "We are perhaps the only
country preparing like this so ear-
ly and we have big plans and aspi-
rations. We are getting Gino and
Aaron ready for their first seasons
in Europe and this is a pretty excit-
ing time for American speedway."
Team USA will name its nine-
rider World Cup roster in June,
from the American riders based
in Europe and those racing do-
mestically.
Team manager
Billy Hamill
recently held
some Speedway
World Cup
training sessions
at Perris
Raceway in
California.
C
heck out Sammy Halbert's on-board video
of the Oregon Short Track battle from Sat-
urday night featuring Halbert, AMA Grand Na-
tional Champion Brad Baker and Davis Fisher.
VIDEO OF
THE WEEK:
RUBBIN' IS RIDING
