Mauger after fifth top speedway title

Press, 1 September 1977, Page 28

Mauger after fifth top speedway title

By

ROD DEW

New Zealand’s hopes of extending its record of 10 wins in the world speedway championships at Gothenberg, Sweden, tomorrow rest with one man — 38-year-old Ivan Mauger, of Christchurch.

The winner of the title four times, Mauger believes he has the ability to win again to equal the record of five wins established by the legendary Swedish rider, Ove Fundin, who is certain to be among the spectators. The form of the outstanding New Zealander has not been quite as good in the British league this year as in previous seasons but he is still among the top three points-scorers. He is also well known for his ability to rise to the occasion. No man in recent times has finished among the first three at world-championship level with such consistency as Mauger.

Last season, he was fourth behind Peter Collins (England), Malcolm Simmons (England), and Phil Crump (Australia). This year, of

this trio, only Collins has made it to the final. Mauger automatically becomes the rider Collins has to beat if he is to retain any hopes of holding the world crown he

won last season for the first time. Collins earned his favouritism for the 1977 title when he won the recent inter-con-tinental final at White City. Marger, in sharp contrast, just scraped through among

the seven qualifiers. He was badly handicapped at the outset by an ailing motor in his Jawa and then became involved in a controversial incident when he crashed in a later heat after cutting in front of the English test rider, John Davis, at the start.

He was immediately disqualified but the decision was later reversed. When Mauger went down, he stayed on the track, forcing officials to halt the race so that he would have the chance of a rerun. Davis, who was disqualified in Mauger’s place, staged a one-man sit-down on the track but was eventually led

away. Ole Olsen (Denmark) won the rerun, with Mauger picking up valuable points for second.

It is expected that the qualifiers from the inter-con-tinental final will be the chief challengers for the title. Apart from Mauger and Collins the talented

Olsen and the new British champion, 18-year-old Michael Lee, are considered top contenders. Olsen has already won the title twice and Lee is hoping to become the youngest rider ever to win the world crown — a distinction at present held by another New Zealander, Ronnie Moore. He was 21 when he won the first of his two titles.

Others to qualify for the final from the inter-continen-tal event were Billy Sanders and John Boulger (both Australia) and Finn Thomsen (Denmark). The nine who qualified from the European championship were Anders Michanek, Bernt Persson, Bengt Jansson and Tommy Nilsson (all Sweden), Jan Verner, Edward Jancarz, and Jan Mucha (all Poland), Jiri Stand (Czechoslovakia), and Egon Muller (West Germany). In this group, only Michanek, who won the world title in 1974, and Jancarz can be considered major threats. Muller, who has twice visited New Zealand, is a former world long-track champion but his ability on the j tighter speedway circuits [has never been quite as good.