Costa Mesa Rider Leads U.S. to Title

Speedway motorcyclist Greg Hancock of Costa Mesa scored 11 points Sunday to help the United States win the world team cup at Kumla, Sweden, for the second consecutive year.

Hancock, who helped the United States win the world best pairs competition two months ago, was the third-leading scorer in the meeting with 11 points. Henrik Gustafsson of Sweden and Martin Dugard of Great Britain led all scorers with 12 points.

The scoring balance of the U.S. team proved to be the difference, however. Sam Ermolenko of Cypress and Billy Hamill of Monrovia each scored 10 points, followed by Ronnie Correy of Fullerton (five) and Bobby Ott of Redondo Beach (three).

The U.S. team scored 39 points, followed by Sweden (33), Britain (31) and Denmark (17). It marked the first time since 1982 that the Americans have won two world championship events in the same season.