Speedway international

Press, 12 January 1977, Page 9

Speedway international

By

ROD DEW

A man who is ranked among the finest midgetcar drivers in the world, Larry Rice, of the United States, is to compete in a series of international races at the Templeton Pall Mall Speedway on Saturday night.

A former schoolteacher who decided that an academic life was not exciting enough. Rice will drive a light-weight Volkswagenpowered racer similar to the machine he raced with ;uch success in his first V'uth Island appearance at ’W npleton last season. On that occasion, he was accompanied by another prominent American driver, Gary Paterson, who provided the chief opposition.

But this time the former American champion will face up to two drivers who havg carved out fine re-

cords racing in Australia — Kevin Gorrnly and Alan Strader. They will be making their first appearances in New Zealand on Saturday and will be anxious to make a good start before moving north.

Streader, at 49, is the veteran of Australian speedway racing and is still regarded as a big threat to the top drivers. He will race a Chevy II racer. This season he is celebrating his twentyeighth season of competition and could be best described as an all-rounder.

He is a former holder of both the Australian and New South Wales junior speedcar (three-quarter midgets) championships and has been president of the association which controls this form of speedway racing in Australia.

Formerly a scramble, short circuit, solo and sidecar motor-cycle racer before moving on to cars, he now shares his time between junior and midgetcar racing. When he was living in Broken Hill, he formed motor-cycle and car racing clubs and on moving to Adelaide he won the South Australian midget-car championship.

Gorrnly, surprisingly, is a New Zealander. He moved to Australia some nine years ago and it is there that he first made his mark in the sport. He was the New South Wales champion in 1974 and set a 30-lap record for the Sydney Showgrounds in 1973 — a time which still stands. He also held the lap record at the Liverpool City Raceway until August last year and was ranked

second in New South Wales last season. Currently, he is running third in the New South Wales points score for the national crown. On Saturday, he will drive his fuel injected W.D. 40 Volvo. Also reappearing at Templeton on Saturday after several weeks racing in Auckland will be the South Island champion, Allan Palmer, and Mark Williams. The three-quarter midget-car class will get a boost by the unexpected appearance of Ken Radcliffe, the current New. South Wales champion. Runner-up in the last Australian championship, he wilt drive a borrowed car. The picture shows Gormly (left) disputing the lead with Streader in a recent event In Australia.