Hancock Shows True Colors in Winning World Speedway Title

By SHAV GLICK

Oct. 3, 1997 12 AM PT

The little house on Balboa Island’s Onyx Street is festooned with tiny American flags, red, white and blue balloons and colorful placards reading “Welcome Home Champ” and “Greg Hancock Lives Here.”

Hancock, 27, became the fifth American to win the World Individual Speedway motorcycle

championship last month in Denmark and his mother wants the world--or at least the world of Balboa Island--to know about it. Saturday night, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Hancock will try to add the U.S. National Speedway title to his trophy collection.

For the first time since national speedway events were held in 1932, there will be two world champions in the field. Billy Hamill of Monrovia, the 1996 champion, and runner-up to Hancock this year, will also ride at Costa Mesa.

“Watching Billy win last year, both as a teammate and as a close friend, helped inspire me to win this year,” Hancock said. “I was third last year and from the moment I finished the last race last year, I was obsessed with winning this year.”

Hancock, who learned to ride the tricky brakeless speedway bikes as an 11-year-old in junior races at Costa Mesa, San Bernardino and Ascot Park, broke on top in the six-race world Grand Prix series, winning the opening race in the Czech Republic.

“Once I got the lead with that win in Prague, I never looked back,” he said. “I had a five-point lead going to Sweden, where it was cut to two, but after that I kept picking up points until we got to Poland and I won again. That put me 18 points ahead and only the Denmark round left.

“I felt pretty good there and a third-place finish left me 17 points ahead of Billy. The next guy, Tomasz Gollob of Poland, was another nine back.”

Hancock got his biggest scare a couple of hours before the English Grand Prix at Coventry, his home track. His Team Exide van, loaded with three bikes, tools, racing uniforms and spare parts, caught fire and burned to the ground.

“The crew managed to save two bikes out the rear end, but everything else was gone,” he said. “I was really in a panic when I got the word, but all the guys rallied around and loaned me tools, sprockets, wheels, all the things you need to race.”

Hancock finished seventh that night, the only time in six events that he failed to qualify for the A final, which involves the top four scorers.

The U.S. final Saturday night will be patterned after the Grand Prix program. Previously, the champion was determined by points scored in 20 heats, every rider racing every other rider once. This year, the four point leaders after the 20 heats will meet in a winner-take-all four-lap race for the national championship.

“This adds more excitement for the spectators,” Hancock said. “Before, sometimes you could tell who was going to be champion long before all the heats were run, but now no one knows until that last race.”

Besides the two world champions, six former U.S. champions are in the 16-rider field. One of them is Hancock, who won in 1995 in a runoff with two-time champion Bobby Schwartz. The others are defending champion Steve Lucero, Brad Oxley, Mike Faria and Chris Manchester, who, like Hancock and Hamill, has been racing in Europe this season.

“Beating these guys on their home turf is tough,” Hancock said. “We race on much larger tracks in Europe and guys like Steve and Brad and Mike are tuned in on how to win Costa Mesa. There’s really nothing like it in the world. It’s one of a kind, but it’s great. It’s where we all got our start--Bruce [Penhall], Sam [Ermolenko], Billy and myself.”

Penhall won world titles in 1981 and 1982, Ermolenko in 1993. The only other American winner was Jack Milne in 1937.

Hancock also won the World Pairs with Ermolenko in 1993.

“I rode against Gary Havelock in a runoff for the championship,” Hancock said. “When I beat him, that’s when I realized I could ride with anyone.”

Havelock, of England, was world champion at the time.

Hancock is finishing his ninth year in the British Speedway League. For the first eight, he and Hamill were teammates on Cradley Heath, but when that team disbanded last year, Hancock joined Coventry and Hamill rode for Belle Vue. Even after they split ranks, however, the two formed Team Exide, riding as teammates in international events.

“The British League is what got us over there, but we ride as much [as] or more on the continent than we do in England,” Hancock said. “A typical week for me would start Tuesday with a race in Sweden . . . , then Wednesday in Denmark, Friday back in England and Saturday at Coventry for my home team, and then over to Poland on Sunday.

“The toughest part is getting home around midnight Saturday and then getting up at 5 for a long drive to London to catch a flight to Poland. It’s great racing, though, and we won the championship in Sweden and we’re in the playoffs in England.”

The speedway “playoffs” are as selective as the NBA. Eight of 10 teams make them. Hancock’s team finished eighth, but he will be flying back Monday to help Coventry try to spring an upset.

DRAG BOATS

Charlie Fegan, driving his American Flyer from Bosque Farms, N.M., has been the dominant figure in Charlie Allen’s International Hot Boat Assn.’s top-fuel hydro class for the last two years. This year he decided to run a second boat and hired Dwayne Patton of Visalia to drive American Flyer II.

Patton has made the most of it, beating his boss enough to take a 61-point lead, 1904-1843, into this weekend’s Mission Foods Fallnationals at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas. The only other race remaining is at Firebird Lake, in Chandler, Ariz., on Nov. 16.

Although he is a rookie in top-fuel hydro, Patton is no novice to drag boats, having successfully campaigned a blown gas hydro. Patton scored his first victory over Fegan in the Clinton Anderson Invitational in San Diego last month.

Thirteen pro and eliminator classes will be contested Saturday and Sunday at Puddingstone, located in Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park. Qualifying will be held Saturday, with eliminations Sunday.

Fegan is the defending champion and also holds the IHBA elapsed-time record of 5.37 seconds, set last April at Firebird. The speed record of 227.90 mph was set by Tom Cantrell of Albuquerque last November, also at Firebird.

NHRA

Rookie driver Gary Scelzi continues to hold a 116-point lead over Cory McClenathan in Winston top-fuel standings with four races remaining, starting with the Pennzoil Nationals this weekend in Memphis, Tenn., but he’s uneasy over holding on to win the crown.

“The race won’t be over for a long time,” the Fresno driver said. “Looks like I’ll have to keep taking Rolaids and using Grecian Formula until the Winston Finals.”

Cruz Pedregon underwent an emergency appendectomy Monday after driving in the Sears Craftsman Nationals at Topeka, Kan., but the former funny car champion says he’ll be in Joe Gibbs’ car when practice starts today in Memphis. . . . Dale Armstrong, who recently left Kenny Bernstein’s team after 16 years and five NHRA championships, will become crew chief for Don Prudhomme’s top-fuel team next season.

NASCAR

Fords have won 17 Winston Cup races this year to 10 for Chevrolet, all by Jeff Gordon. In keeping with NASCAR’s attempts at parity, the Chevies will be allowed another quarter-inch of height on their rear spoilers for Sunday’s race at Charlotte, N.C.

Team owner Felix Sabates, who runs Chevrolets, says it’s too little too late.

“I believe if you gave Jeff Gordon a Ford, he would be undefeated this year,” Sabates said. “The Ford is such a superior car to what we have aerodynamically, with all the downforce they have.”

Sabates is expected to announce that two-time Daytona 500 winner Sterling Marlin will replace Robby Gordon as his driver next year.

LAST LAPS

Former motocross champion Jeff Ward, who was rookie of the year at the Indianapolis 500 after finishing third, will return to the Indy Racing League for the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday night, Oct. 11. Ward will be in a Dallara-Aurora, owned by Sinden Racing Service of Indianapolis.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. champions in world speedway motorcycle competition:

WORLD INDIVIDUAL

Year Winner, Hometown : Final Site

1937 Jack Milne, Pasadena: London

1981 Bruce Penhall, Balboa: London

1982 Bruce Penhall, Balboa: Los Angeles

1993 Sam Ermolenko, Cypress: Pocking, Germany

1996 Billy Hamill, Monrovia: Vojens, Denmark

1997 Greg Hancock, Costa Mesa: Vojens, Denmark

WORLD LONG TRACK

1983 Shawn Moran, Huntington Beach: Pardubice, Czechoslovakia