I'm proudly British and as a speedway fan from back in the day the US riders (especially Penhall, Sigalos and the Moran brothers) were universally liked by English speedway fans and their UK team-mates. Bruce Penhall in his day blew every other rider off the track. When he won the world championship he totally deserved it. Anyone who calls him a cheat is an idiot.
Penhall wasn't the first rider to do this for the sake of his countrymen to qualify and really, he wasn't the last. I didn't see it as cheating. I mean, would it have been any different if his engine had failed?
@@Holden308 Exactly. The Swedish, Polish and Danish riders were all good UK team players but in international competitions they looked after their own fellow countrymen. That's sport and that's patriotism, which I believe is a dirty word these days. I miss my speedway but us British fans loved all the overseas blow-ins. xxx
Bruce had a brilliant riding style l watched him win his first world title he was certainly no cheat but an American rider who was missed when he retired.
Well he cheated at this meeting. Ordered to by the team manager or not is irrelevant. If someone tells you to jump in the fire you wouldn't would you? A disgrace he was here. Should've had pts deduction and he wouldn't have been in the final at all
What the hell else could he do but help out his buddies? If it was an English rider doing it he would have been given a standing ovation, in the early eighties apart from Michael Lee and to a lesser extent Carter no English rider could hold a candle to Penhall....as for all the Muppets in the crowd and in the press that slaughtered him at the time calling him a cheat etc, the fact he threw away 3 points in his last ride meant an English rider won the meeting...this fact seems to have passed everybody by.....
Away from the controversy for a moment, I think the White City stadium is now the Westfield shopping centre. No doubt you can hear the ghostly roar of the bikes as you circulate among the Armani, Hugo Boss and other assorted cathedrals of consumerism. Sigh...
@@Win-xl7no That is sad to hear. This old Londoner's two big loves in the late 70s/early 80s was speedway and rock music. White City was to speedway what Wembley was/is to rock music.
Oh gawd, Michael Porter ... is it true that they've turned the brilliant White City Stadium into a Westfield shopping centre? Bearing in mind that retailers are going belly up every day (even classy John Lewis are starting to close retail stores), this old ex-pat living in Oz can only apologise that Australia has given the UK one of the most boring, generic, overpriced and customer-unfriendly shopping "experiences" ever invented. No wonder we're all shopping online, or not shopping at all.
i was there all those years ago.travelled all the way from sheffield to support shawn moran a true tigers hero.but it didnt feel right.Jessup was gifted the win.it was a bad day for speedway
It's called sandbagging, in the US it is anyway. When a rider purposely rides below their skill level for the benefit of someone else, or maybe because of a points situation, I don't know.
They deliberately made it a team sport, nation vs Nation, and there were no rules against it, it had been done previously. Penhall was under team orders.
Competition invites injury, if you don't need the points, stay off the throttle. Less chance of needless mishap to yourself or your teammates. No dishonor in that at all.
Yep, I'm aware of the rule. As much as I disagree with it, it is a rule, but that still don't take away from Bruce putting team and country first. I'm not a big Penhall fan, but I will give credit where credit is due.
He threw the race so the bottom of the barrel shit u.s. riders could get through at the expense of the superior British riders. He sucks. Dont get that? Whats the problem?
@Hakapik; were they on his team? If so it's called team riding nothing BS about it. Superior British riders Hell Penhall, Kelly and Shawn Moran all were top of the heap over in England Speedway racing... Penhall won back to back WORLD championships... yea barrel of shit U.S riders... how many did Kenny Carter win... enough said...
But its not a team sport, so team playing is cheating. as a result of these tactics and because the governing committee did not ban and or suspend such riders the sport disappeared within 5 years
Bruce was my favourite rider (after Steve Wilcock). All he had to do was bust the tapes, put his hand up and retire... anything other than fanny about at the back. It would have been so easy to not make it look obvious.
Team play !! When similar was done for the team at Cradley it was looked upon with heartfelt gratitude and praised :) one of the things i always loved about speedway ... individual & team sport at same time ... i still remember a time when a team mate let my uncle Dave pass him for first place to get the points he needed, it was a 5-1 win either way of course but still a lovely gesture to sacrifice your win to help someone else in your team ; ) which i also saw many times over .... no different here in my opinion ... Bruce a true Hero for his country ... sacrificed for the good of his team .... good on him i say and God Bless Speedway :)
No no no. Cheating is putting "hot fuel" in your float bowl for a better start, and not being able to detect it in your tank. :) Did they do that? Well, we will never know now, will we? :)
I was there for this meeting and while most people could agree with the reasons I think it was the fact Penhall was popping wheelies at the back and that was taking the mick out of the fans and that's what I and many others didn't like
ian, I think you're over-thinking a very basic sport. Truth is, Bruce Penhall blew every other rider off the pitch that day. He was just doing his job. He wasn't taking the mick out of anyone.
Hay i was there as well, while i do not agree completely with your comment, as i would say, given the bunch i was there with ( a team) that the crowd had a fairly good knowledge of how the points were stacking. and the individual riders skills and talent. the booing was because he had tossed the race. a race he should have clearly won easily. but there are the british thinking of how much money did he get paid to do this. how much did the bookies rip the punters off for this? and many bookies got a slap after this race. while it is understandable for the soviets to do this since they are sneaky bastards to start with, but it was a shock to see americans bring team tactics into an individual sport. it killed the sport, thank you america! as for the wheelies, that just confirmed him as a wanker
Um, how about the manufactured race with Jessup, Lee, Mauger and Ross in the 1981 Overseas? Or the Danes (Olsen/Gundersen/Petersen) in Heat 20 of the 1982 ICF? Why pick on Penhall? Double standards.
a friggin big difference. 1 Jessup, Lee, Mauger and Ross in the 1981 Overseas. this was not a points set up to promote one country over another by manipulation. all the riders had enough points anyway to advance. it was only a rubbish report in the daily mirror who sponsored the race that was upset. 2 they didn't even qualify that year so ????
Eh? Both Lee and Mauger needed first or second from that final ride in the 1981 Overseas to qualify, and Jessup and Ross were happy to sit back and let them pick up the points. As for the 1982 ICF, Petersen lost in the run-off, but before that in Heat 20, he was waved by Olsen and Gundersen on the final bend. No difference. Just singling out Bruce Penhall. As I said before, double standards.
Im alittle late to the party.. I Surely would NOT say he is a cheat.. Had he purposely wrecked an opponent or jumped a start, etc. That would be cheating. Bruce purposefully tanked the race to help his team mates. And lost money, lost the race (Which is hard for true competitors and especially top competitors.) . So he made a sacrifice for his team.. You can see by the interview, he clearly wasnt happy with having to do so. Lost money, lost stature, added loss to his permanent record which will be his legacy..
It cannot be cheating, IMO, if you do it completely openly, so everyone can see it happening and the referees do not conclude you were doing something wrong. I can understand it being unpopular and it could even be classed as unsportsmanlike, but if it was allowed to happen, therefore falling within the rules, then it can't be cheating. On the flip side there is a case for the rule covering a rider not bona fide effort to have been invoked, but again that's the decision of those paid to make such a judgment, not the rider's responsibility.
Super Stadium and track White City. Never got to go there myself unfortunately I First saw White City in an episode of the Sweeney. What became of it? Don't tell me a shopping complex, or housing estate.
Pointing out dumb rules by taking advantage of them is the ultimate protest. If the dumb rule makers are going to give advantage to slower riders then why not shove it back in their face....
I read the title had to see what it was about, give me a break not even close to cheating team sportsmanship is all had it been a Brit no doubt standing ovation and knighthood would of been done Ahahahahahaah!
Wouldnt call it cheating but isnt there a rule in speedway that you have to show you are at least trying to race ? All this and the world champs to come and no controversy there then !!!!!!!!???????
Bruce a cheat??? Get real, its embarassing to see an english crowd booing one of the riddrs that give british speedway all that entertainment,we need another bruce nowadays
Robert ... we need speedway full stop! Having a speedway/RU-vid moment on a Sunday night in Sydney, Oz, I just watched a really depressing clip about Coventry Bees abandoned stadium. Thing is, Wimbledon stadium, home of my old team, is apparently now a housing estate.
I don't think it's embarrassing they were booing, Penhall made a decision which he was entitled to do, but at the same time his actions had a consequence that made him unpopular with the crowd, that's sport and people wouldn't watch it if there wasn't a lot of emotion invested in the whole thing.
It's only cheating if the Americans do it lol many other riders from other countries have done the same, even back then. Ofc it's the English who have an issue with it.
Penhall had already advanced why would he take out other American riders or risk tearing up his equipment... I would have had fun or as we say over here put on a show with some show boating...
But its not a team sport, so team playing is cheating. as a result of these tactics and because the governing committee did not ban and or suspend such riders the sport disappeared within 5 years
riders were no PUT in the heat, they gained there place in the heat based on there previous race results/ points. by advancing lower point holding US riders with a results not honestly gained by skill and ability, advanced them into the next heat thus displacing other riders with earned points. so yes cheating
because if he had won that heat he would have won the title on points alone. by giving points to other US riders he displaced two UK riders and possibly a NZ rider from the final heat. the final would have been US, UK,UK UK. as a result of his actions the final was US, US, US, UK.
It was an individual final,, Bruce should have pull out all the stops,, fuk the country,, it was individual, if it was best pairs, then you look after your teammates
Speedway was never bent. The organisers weren't smart enough to "bend it". It was just a sport that thousands of people loved and when our teams lost, they lost. This brilliant sport died a death because the organisers didn't know how to keep it alive ... IMHO. x
No cheating, Brits and their stupid rules, that point system sucked, change it.... qualify for speed, take top 16, 4 races take winner of each then 1 race the winner of that race is the winner no BS.
No Cheating on Bruce's behalf!.. Seam's more like the Lymies are a little "Butthurt" that the Yankie's are Kicking Ass!...Greg Hancock must have gave them Heart Attacks! lol
Penhall was always a "Foul and dangerous rider".. (quote is from the ref after the Kenny Carter 'incident' at the1982 world final), I was EXPECTING to see this.... I think that this WAS a flouting of the rules... BUT the ref 'on the day' had the chance to 'pull' Penhall.. but he let it go. Stop whinging....... BTW R.I.P. Kenny Carter... (reborn as Tai Woffinden..?)
Bruce penhall was allways a class act ...he made a tough decision ...and it wasnt selfish by no means ..he is one of a kind and deserves all the respect the country can give ...
At the end of the day, like him or hate him, what can be said is that a top class rider called Bruce Penhall was NOT a good example or spokesman for the sport of Speedway.
I was a Wimbledon Dons fan back in the day ... and a rookie journalist. I interviewed Dave and Roger Johns for a story on speedway. Lovely blokes, both of them. x
I think Dave Jessup was a really nice bloke. I was a Wimbledon Dons fans and DJ was a very ordinary rider. He was never going to win the World Final. Glad to hear he's good at golf.
Took all the brown land now so kids have Nothing today except walk the streets especially in City. The council sell ,sell, but didn't think of the Generation`s to come
