“He was hard on me, but we also had a lot of fun together at the same time. He showed me where to go, what to do and what not to do.
Little did I know at that point he was in his final year of racing in Europe, but I had everything to gain – his workshop and his knowledge. “That’s what I did and in 1989, I got the call. As soon as I get the opportunity, I am coming.’ That was the key moment of me saying, ‘That’s what I want to do.’ I was 15 years old, but I was thinking, ‘This is me. I got to work in the pits with him regularly, cleaned his bikes and I just really lived it. “John really painted the picture of British speedway for me. I also stayed with Bobby for a couple of days, but most of the time with John. “I went to Europe in 1985 – I went to watch the World Final at Bradford. What were your first experiences of speedway in Europe? He is the one who really started to emphasise things about Europe and explain things to me.”
Dont go to sleep goosebumps free#
I had all this free information and all I had to do was absorb it. All they were trying to do is help me find my way forward in different ways with the different upbringings they had. Bruce would say, ‘You could have maybe done it like this.’ Bobby would say, ‘You don’t do it like that. I had Bobby on a different level to Bruce. “I turned to Bobby for so many things over so many years. They used to give me advice constantly and they’d say, ‘We don’t know if he’s really getting what we are saying because all he does is grin.’ All I did was smile and take it all in, but they obviously wanted some sort of a response, and I didn’t always give them that, so they were thinking, ‘What the heck is up with this Grin guy?!’ Bruce’s success played a major role in my career. “Bruce and his mechanic Spike are the ones who nicknamed me ‘Grin’ back in the day. But he always had time to come down to your level and talk to you as a human being. “Bruce quickly became one of my heroes because of his rapid success. I took advantage of it in a positive way and learned from these guys. “I never took advantage of it in the wrong way. All I had to do was walk it and respect it, and just take in all this great knowledge getting thrown at me, which I did. I was around these guys from the word go and I had the red carpet rolled out in front of me. Having Bruce Penhall, Dennis Sigalos and Bobby Schwartz around was great, and they became part of our extended family. “From day one, my dad was associated with a lot of the greatest riders. You gained a lot of heroes as you followed the sport in California, including top American riders like Bruce Penhall, Dennis Sigalos, Bobby Schwartz and John Cook, and it sounds like a number of them helped you become the rider you became … It was the biggest addiction I got into from a very early age, and it never left. “I just remember from that point on that I never stopped tugging on my dad’s back pocket to try speedway for myself. When I saw the junior speedway guys, like Kelly Moran and eventually Dennis Sigalos and Lance King, these guys became my new heroes.
“From the first moment we saw junior speedway live, I was running around underneath the grandstands collecting tear-offs thrown by the riders or all of the beer cups. They started to support Bobby with some sponsorship and through all that, Bobby got my brother interested in speedway. Charlie also became friends with and started to help (legendary American rider) Bobby Schwartz at that time. He got my dad really hooked on the sport. “Long story short – Charlie got my dad into speedway because he was watching it. They ended up living on Balboa Island – upstairs and downstairs from each other. He was newly divorced from my mum and living alone, and eventually he became friends with (American rider) Josh Larsen’s dad Charlie, who was also newly divorced. “My dad Bill started to take my sister Carrie, brother Dave and I when I was around four or five years old. As part of our Stars of the Century series, PAUL BURBIDGE caught up with Speedway GP’s evergreen icon to reflect on three decades at the top …įirstly Greg, how did your speedway journey start?.
Dont go to sleep goosebumps plus#
American great Greg Hancock has redefined what’s possible on a speedway bike, winning four Speedway GP world titles – three of them after celebrating his 40th birthday.
0 kommentar(er)
