King, Pfetzing Lend Speedway Savvy to Opener

Lance King and Robert Pfetzing bring an impressive list of credentials in international speedway racing when they return for the 22nd season opener at the Orange County Fairgrounds at 8 tonight.

They have a combined 11 years of international racing experience in the British Speedway League. King finished third in the world championship in 1984 in Sweden and Pfetzing tied Bobby Schwartz for the U.S. Championship in 1986, losing the title in a runoff.

Both grossed more than $50,000 in purses and sponsorship racing last year, but they have decided to remain home in Southern California for the 1990 season.

King, a 26-year-old who lives in Fountain Valley during the off-season, said the decision to stay home was strictly for financial reasons. He is in a dispute with a former promoter for $10,000 King says he is owed for racing the past two seasons for King’s Lynn team.

Pfetzing, a 30-year-old who lives in Santa Ana during the off-season, has returned for personal reasons after riding for Wolverhampton last year.

Pfetzing’s grandmother has breast cancer and will begin receiving daily radiation treatments when she returns from visiting relatives in Florida next week. Pfetzing will live with his grandmother and take her to the daily treatments.

“My mother died 10 years ago and my grandmother has been like a mother to me since then,” Pfetzing said. “I’ve lived with her in the off-season, and she’s always been my biggest supporter in racing. Now, I’m going to take care of her.”

This marks the second time both riders have grown tired of racing, living and traveling in foreign countries.

King took a one-year leave of absence in 1985 to race locally but still managed to qualify for the world championship. Pfetzing was disenchanted after his first season overseas in 1984 and stayed home for three seasons before returning to Bradford in 1988.

Now, after competing four nights a week in the British Speedway League and spending weekends competing in open meetings in West Germany or Italy, King and Pfetzing are glad to be home.

King grew up at the race track. He was riding a minibike before he learned how to ride a bicycle. He turned professional at 11 and had a full-time sponsorship contract.

He became a Division I rider and began racing four nights a week in Southern California as a sophomore at Birmingham High in Van Nuys. He was handpicked by former world champion Bruce Penhall for his team at Cradley Heath and left for England when he was 18.

At 22, he had qualified for three consecutive world championship races. He owned a house in Tamworth, England, and another in Fountain Valley. He had a classic car collection that included a 1981 Mercedes Convertible 350 SL Zender, a 1981 Renault R5 Turbo and a Volkswagen Baja Bug with a BMW 320i engine.

For the past two years, he was the team captain at King’s Lynn. He averaged 8.90 points (out of a possible 12) in the British Speedway League.

King estimates he grossed $50,000 racing in 1989 and doesn’t expect to match that figure in Southern California, although he has retained his main sponsor, Gold’s Gym, for this season.

King plans to race four nights a week at Costa Mesa, Ascot Park’s South Bay Stadium, Glen Helen Regional Park in San Bernardino and Victorville.

Pfetzing was 21 when he won 12 main events in third and second division racing through the opening 13 weeks of the 1981 season before moving up to the Division I field.

Pfetzing, a Kennedy High graduate, was easily recognized in his brightly colored leathers, trimmed in oranges, yellows and red that made him look like a snow cone. After three seasons in Southern California, Pfetzing joined Wolverhampton in the British Speedway League in 1984, but he found the competition more than he bargained for.

“The first two months I raced over there, I never got to the first turn ahead once,” Pfetzing said. “I decided that I had better improve my gating (starts), or I won’t survive. I watched everyone and spent lot of time with (three-time world champion) Erik Gunderson and his mechanic learning the tricks.”

Pfetzing became one of the best gaters in the world, rivaling former seven-time U.S. champion Mike Bast as the best U.S. starter in the sport. He averaged 6.5 points at Wolverhampton last year, riding with Americans Sam Ermolenko and Ronnie Correy.

Unlike King, Pfetzing said he enjoyed the slower lifestyle, fresh air and wide-open spaces near his home in Telford.

“I enjoyed it, knowing that I wouldn’t have to live there the rest of my life,” he said. “I was making good money. I grossed about $70,000 last year. But when my grandmother became ill, it straightened out my priorities real fast.

“I had to come home, but I’m happy to be here. I’m excited about racing and look forward to riding in Southern California. Speedway is such a happening here. It’s a great atmosphere.”