Penhall Has Good Track Record

Bruce Penhall’s career has been something like the race track at the Orange County Fairgrounds, where, as a 16-year-old from Balboa, he launched a speedway motorcycle career that led to two world championships.

From start to finish, the four corners of the 190-yard oval mirror the four phases of his life, from childhood to international fame, to show business to family man.

Turn 1 would be Penhall’s days as a 13-year-old junior speedway rider who raced for trophies. As a sophomore, he quit the Newport Harbor High School baseball team to become a professional racer.

The intimate setting at Costa Mesa became Penhall’s home track, but it wasn’t long before he set his sights on competing against the best riders in the world in the British Speedway League as he rounded into Turn 2.

Penhall spent five years and aged 10 more as a stranger in a strange land. He complained about the food, the weather, the girls, the economy. You would have thought he had been sentenced.

But he always went back. The racing was the best in the world, and Penhall was quickly becoming the best of the best. He became world champion in 1981 at London’s Wembley Stadium and then repeated in 1982 at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

But Penhall’s career took another twist at Turn 3 when he announced to the Coliseum crowd on a hot August night that he was retiring from racing to portray police cadet Bruce Nelson on the popular TV series, “CHiPs.”

Penhall portrayed a highway patrolman and Erik Estrada’s sidekick for 20 episodes before NBC canceled the series. He has continued to work as a sports commentator for ESPN, Prime Ticket and the Nashville Network and has appeared in seven motion pictures.

Turn 4 has been the most rewarding. Today, Penhall, 33, is a family man, living on Nellie Gail Ranch with his wife, Laurie, sons Ryan, 4, and Connor, 11 months, and daughter, McKenzie, 2.

Penhall’s accomplishments in racing and Hollywood have been well documented, but he proudly points to his family as his greatest achievement.

“Winning the world championship was a life-long dream, but helping to deliver my three children was the ultimate,” he said.

The quote is true to form. Penhall was never really a motorcycle racer. Oh sure, a motorcycle was his vehicle to stardom. But he always had visions beyond the race track. The checkered flag was nice, but he was destined for bigger and better things.

JUICY BRUCEY

Penhall learned to ride a bike on a vacant lot on the corner of La Palma and Crescent streets in Anaheim, where a YMCA now stands. He was 7 and seemingly rode for hours, jumping off a small mound on his self-made motocross track.

“It was a huge vacant lot, and you could drive by there any afternoon and Bruce would be riding his mini-bike,” said neighbor Jon Looney, football coach at Brea-Olinda High School.

“In those days, if a kid had a mini-bike in the neighborhood, it was a major league deal. Bruce rode for hours and was the envy of every kid in the neighborhood.”

He also terrorized the neighborhood by making illegal hot laps through the quiet streets. If Penhall’s father, LeRoy, wanted to keep peace with his neighbors, he would have to find a new vehicle for his son.

At 13, Penhall turned to speedway with longtime friend Dennis Sigalos. Their fathers built a practice track behind Sigalos’ Orange County Food Service in Fullerton, and the boys rode mini-speedway bikes powered by chain saw engines.

Still, Penhall had problems confining his riding to a track. The Penhall family owned a beach house on Balboa near the Wedge, and Bruce enjoyed riding his 125cc motorcycle on the beach, usually one step ahead of the Newport Beach police.

One day, the cops caught up.

“They put me in the back of the squad car, and I’ll never forget when my father arrived home,” Penhall said. “He jumped out of his car and asked the cops what I did. They told him I was riding illegally on the beach, and my dad said, ‘Is that all?’ and went in the house.

“I sat there in that cop car while he was reading the newspaper. I thought I was going downtown. Finally, the cops went in our home and told my dad that they weren’t going to arrest me and that they were leaving me with him. Later, I figured out that my dad just wanted me to sweat it out to teach me a lesson.”

Penhall won his first professional race at old Irwindale Raceway on his 16th birthday. He moved from third- to second-division racing in two weeks and spent half the season competing against many who couldn’t match his skills.

“It was the best training in my life going against some of those crazy guys,” he said.

The next season, Penhall, with his good looks and long blond hair, became a crowd favorite at Costa Mesa. Announcer Larry Huffman nicknamed him Bruce (The Fox) Penhall and “Juicy Brucey.”

Costa Mesa promoter Harry Oxley said there was a something about Penhall that separated him from other riders, even in the early stages of his career.

“Bruce had an attitude that he has carried since he was a youngster to become world champion,” Oxley said. “He had a desire so big to be the best. His desire took him to the top.”

AN INTERNATIONAL STAR

It was only a matter of time before Penhall would move on to the British Speedway League and set his sights on the pinnacle of racing . . . the world title. He attended the 1977 World Final at Wembley Stadium and that night set a goal of becoming a champion.

During the off-season, he signed to ride for Cradley Heath. The 1978 season was his first extended time away from the comforts of home, and some predicted the rich kid from California would never make it in England.

But Penhall survived the long drives to weekly matches, the warm milk and the cold, rainy days, the greasy burgers at Wimpy’s and the flights every weekend to the Continent. It wasn’t long before he had his shot at the world championship.

It was 1980, and the scene was Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden. Penhall, 23, was the favorite. But it was too much to expect the young American to win in his first attempt.

Penhall finished fifth. In the pit area, Penhall’s pride no longer could overcome his agony. He sat on his toolbox weeping.

In his eyes, he had failed. He had dedicated the race in the memory of his parents, LeRoy and Barbara, who had been killed in an airplane crash five years earlier.

It was a different scene a year later when Penhall was triumphantly carried off the Wembley Stadium track by a group of supporters as the huge crowd rose to cheer the new champion.

The victory fulfilled an eight-year dream, a moment Penhall had dedicated his life to achieving. “This title was for America,” Penhall said. “Tonight, my family was with me on every turn.”

Penhall never truly understood the significance of his victory until he returned home Sept. 25, 1981, to the Orange County Fairgrounds. He received plaudits and plaques from everyone who had the strength to walk down to the track.

Penhall received a telegram from President Reagan, which read in part: “You have brought a great honor to yourself and to your country. I have the greatest admiration for any sportsman who has the dedication to become a champion.”

Penhall’s popularity continued to grow throughout Europe, rivaling that of any rock star. He won the triple crown of speedway--World Best Pairs, World Final and World Team Cup--in 1982. He was named Britain’s sportsman of the year. He even wrote weekly columns for two British newspapers.

But at the same time, a new avenue began to open. Hollywood was calling.

PENHALL GOES TO HOLLYWOOD

At 27, Penhall rode out on top of his racing career, announcing on the night that he had won his second world championship that he was retiring to join the cast of “CHiPs.” It was an offer Penhall couldn’t refuse.

“I wanted to go out on top,” he said in 1982. “I have nothing left to prove. I know it will take longer to become a good actor than it did for me to become world champion.”

Admittedly, Penhall was a novice, but his popularity continued to grow. His picture was on the cover of every major fan magazine. He averaged 5,000 pieces of mail each week.

Penhall’s fame was also unpredictable. MGM studio officials received a letter from a teen-aged boy in Cleveland whose girlfriend had left him because she had fallen in love with Penhall’s character, Bruce Nelson.

The boy said he was coming to California to kill Penhall. The studio assigned police protection on the set each day.

Penhall was three episodes short of a full season in 1983 when NBC canceled the show. Rather than join a long list of out-of-work actors, he became a commentator and began working in “B” films for producer Andy Sidaris.

Among his film credits are “Picasso Trigger,” “Savage Beach,” “Do or Die” and his lastest, “Hard Hunted.” “I’ve shot six films and I’m contracted for five more,” Penhall said. “You won’t hear me degrading the films. I’m paying my dues, and beggars can’t be choosers.”

THE FAMILY MAN

Once one of the most eligible bachelors in Orange County, Penhall’s life turned seven years ago when he was introduced to his future wife, Laurie, by his road manager.

“My road manager kept telling me, ‘I can’t introduce you to her, you’ll fall in love,’ ” Penhall said. “We went out on a date, and it was just OK. I didn’t call her for two weeks, and then we went out again and talked to each other every day after that. My road manager was right.”

Penhall’s oldest son, Ryan, is following in his father’s footsteps. He rides a Yamaha 50cc on a track his father built near his home. McKenzie is fearless, already jumping into dad’s arms in the backyard Jacuzzi. Connor will be 1 next month and has begun walking.

“They’re the joy of my life,” Penhall said. “I take the whole family with me when I’m shooting on location.”

Penhall also keeps in close touch with the Hollywood crowd as a product placement director in the entertainment field for Oakley in Irvine. He recently completed a grand slam, signing Madonna, Janet Jackson, Paula Abdul and Mariah Carey to wear the company’s sunglasses.

Despite all his personal and business success, some would suggest that Penhall should never have retired from speedway. He has received some big offers to return to racing but has been content to compete in several match races since his retirement.

Hall of Fame Banquet Facts

WHAT: 11th Orange County Hall of Fame Banquet.

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 29.

WHERE: Disneyland Hotel, Anaheim.

HIGHLIGHTS: Tickets, $100 each or $1,000 for a table of 10, can be secured by calling (714) 935-0199. The affair (cocktails at 6 p.m, dinner at 7) will include the induction of Homer Beatty, Bill Cook, Bobby Knoop, Pat McInally, Alex Omalev, Bruce Penhall, Dwight Stones, Bertha Ragan Tickey and Shirley Topley .