United States national speedway team

United States
United States
Nation color	White
SWC Wins	5 (1982, 1990, 1992, 1993, 1998)
World Championships

The United States national speedway team are an international motorcycle speedway team governed by the American Motorcyclist Association. They compete in the major international speedway competitions, including the Speedway World Cup and Speedway of Nations and the former events the Speedway World Team Cup and the Speedway World Pairs Championship.

History

After Jack Milne and his brother Cordy Milne had finished first and third at the 1937 World Final (with another American Wilbur Lamoreaux finishing second),^[1] the U.S. went into the speedway wilderness until the early 1970s, when international riders such as world champions Barry Briggs and Ivan Mauger from New Zealand began visiting the Costa Mesa Speedway in Los Angeles. Scott Autrey's appearance in the 1976 World Final in Poland, was the first American appearance since Ernie Roccio had finished 15th in 1951.^[2]

Autrey, who in the mid-1970s had campaigned hard and successfully to have American riders included in the Speedway World Championship, signalled an American resurgence in speedway and was soon followed by others, such as 1981 and 1982 world champion Bruce Penhall, brothers Kelly and Shawn Moran, Bobby Schwartz, Dennis Sigalos, Lance King, 1993 Individual Speedway World Championship world champion Sam Ermolenko, Rick Miller, 1996 world champion Billy Hamill, and four times world champion Greg Hancock all going on to be regarded as some of the world's best speedway riders.^[3]

Major tournament wins

Speedway World Cup

The team has won the Speedway World Team Cup on five occasions, including their first win in 1982 which gave the U.S. the "Triple Crown" of speedway by winning the Individual, World Pairs and World Team Cup in the same year.^[4]^[5] The U.S. were a major force in the early 1990s, winning 3 out of 4 tournaments. Key riding members of the title wins include Billy Hamill (4 wins), Sam Ermolenko and Greg Hancock (both 3 wins).

The finals of both the 1985 and 1988 World Team Cups were held at the Veterans Memorial Stadium in Long Beach, California.^[6]^[7]

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Riders	Pts
1982	London White City Stadium	1. United States (37) 2. Denmark (24) 3. West Germany (18) 4. Czechoslovakia (17)	Kelly Moran	10
			Bruce Penhall	10
			Bobby Schwartz	9
			Shawn Moran	8
			Scott Autrey	0
1990	Pardubice Svítkov Stadion	1. United States (37) 2. England (34) 3. Denmark (30) 4. Czechoslovakia (19)	Kelly Moran	12
			Sam Ermolenko	11
			Shawn Moran	10
			Billy Hamill	4
			Rick Miller	0
1992	Kumla Kumla Speedway	1. United States (39) 2. Denmark (33) 3. England (31) 4. Sweden (17)	Greg Hancock	11
			Sam Ermolenko	10
			Billy Hamill	10
			Ronnie Correy	5
			Bobby Ott	3
1993	Coventry Brandon Stadium	1. United States (40) 2. Denmark (38) 3. Sweden (28) 4. England (14)	Sam Ermolenko	11
			Bobby Ott	11
			Billy Hamill	10
			Greg Hancock	10
			Josh Larsen	-
1998	Vojens Vojens Speedway Center	1. United States (28) 2. Sweden (24) 3. Denmark (23) 4. Poland (17) 5. Germany (14) 6. Czech Republic (14) 7. Hungary (6)	Billy Hamill	16+1
			Greg Hancock	12+5
			Sam Ermolenko	-

Titles

Preceded by Denmark	World Champions 1982 (1st title)	Succeeded by Denmark
Preceded by England	World Champions 1990 (2nd title)	Succeeded by Denmark
Preceded by Denmark	World Champions 1992 (3rd title) 1993 (4th title)	Succeeded by Sweden
Preceded by Denmark	World Champions 1998 (5th title)	Succeeded by Australia

World Pairs Championship

Year	Venue	Standings (Pts)	Riders	Pts
1981	Chorzów Stadion Śląski	1. United States (28) 2. New Zealand (22) 3. Poland (21) 4. Czechoslovakia (18) 5. Denmark (17) 6. England (9) 7. West Germany (3)	Bruce Penhall	14
1981	Chorzów Stadion Śląski		Bobby Schwartz	9
1982	Sydney Liverpool City Raceway	1. United States (30) 2. England (22) 3. Denmark (21) 4. Australia (16) 5. Finland (16) 6. New Zealand (13) 7. Czechoslovakia (8)	Dennis Sigalos	18
1982	Sydney Liverpool City Raceway		Bobby Schwartz	12
1992	Lonigo Santa Marina Stadium	1. United States (23+3) 2. England (23+2) 3. Sweden (22) 4. Italy (18) 5. Denmark (16) 6. New Zealand (14) 7. Australia (10)	Greg Hancock	11+3
			Sam Ermolenko	9
			Ronnie Correy	3

International caps (as of 2022)

Since the advent of the Speedway Grand Prix era, international caps earned by riders is largely restricted to international competitions, whereas previously test matches between two teams were a regular occurrence. This means that the number of caps earned by a rider has decreased in the modern era.^[8]

Rider	Caps
Autrey, Scott	22
Bast, Bart	3
Bast, Steve	5
Burmesiter, Tyson	1
Chrisco, Keith	1
Cook, John	49
Correy, Ronnie	23
Curoso, Mike	1
Ermolenko, Charles	9
Ermolenko, Sam	51
Faria, Mike	7
Fisher, Ryan	8
Green, Randy	3
Gresham, Steve	20
Hamill, Billy	29
Hancock, Greg	39
Ingalls, Kenny	3
Ingels, Eddie	3
Janniro, Billy	11
Keeter, DeWayne	2
Kerr, Chris	3
King, Lance	47
Kosta, Larry	4
Lamoreaux, Wilbur	3
Larsen, Josh	11
Lucero, Steve	3
Manchester, Chris	3
Miller, Rick	34
Milne, Cordy	3
Milne, Jack	3
Moran, Kelly	47
Moran, Shawn	74
Nicol, Doug	4
Odom, Donny	1
Ott, Bobby	15
Oxley, Brad	12
Penhall, Bruce	34
Pfetzing, Robert	9
Preston, Ron	14
Pyeatt, Denny	10
Schwartz, Bobby	74
Sigalos, Dennis	52
Venegas, Charlie	1
Wells, Ricky	4
Werner, Brent	15
Woods, Rick	3

References

^ "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
^ Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.
^ "WORLD FINALS 1936-1994" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved July 10, 2021.
^ Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results. Guinness Superlatives. p. 290. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.
^ "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved July 12, 2021.
^ "1985 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
^ "1988 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved July 15, 2021.
^ "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved October 8, 2023.

[1] "HISTORY SPEEDWAY and LONGTRACK". Speedway.org. Retrieved July 5, 2021.

[2] Oakes, Peter (1981). 1981 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. pp. 20–21. ISBN 0-86215-017-5.

[3] "WORLD FINALS 1936-1994" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved July 10, 2021.

[4] Matthews/Morrison, Peter/Ian (1987). The Guinness Encyclopaedia of Sports Records and Results. Guinness Superlatives. p. 290. ISBN 0-85112-492-5.

[5] "Speedway riders, history and results". wwosbackup. Retrieved July 12, 2021.

[6] "1985 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved July 15, 2021.

[7] "1988 WORLD TEAM CUP". International Speedway. Retrieved July 15, 2021.

[8] "ULTIMATE RIDER INDEX, 1929-2022" (PDF). British Speedway. Retrieved October 8, 2023.

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v t e International speedway competitions
World	Individual (Grand Prix) (Qualification) Pairs (Speedway of Nations) World Team Cup (World Cup) Individual U-21 Team U-21 Individual U-16
Europe	Individual Pairs Team U21 U19 Junior (team)
National Championships	Argentina Australia / (U-21) Austria Czech/Czech Rep Denmark / (U-21) Finland France Germany/East/West Great Britain / (U-21) / (U-19) Hungary Italy Latvia New Zealand Norway Poland / (U-21) Romanian Russia/Soviet Slovenia Sweden / (U-21) USA (AMA) / USA (SRA)
National Leagues	Denmark Great Britain Poland Sweden Czech/Czech Rep Germany/East/West Hungary Russia/Soviet
Ice speedway	World Championships: Individual Team European: Individual
Long track	World Championships: Individual Team
Former Championships	Australasian British Nordic Champions Cup (indiv) Champions' Cup (teams) Commonwealth Continental Estonian Intercontinental Nordic Overseas Star Riders'
Governing Bodies	World (FIM) FIM Europe