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Kelly Moran

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Not sure if this has been a thread before-so apologies in advance. Was on you tube entered Kelly Jellyman Moran -and again looked at the videos Bruce Penhall posted.. I reckon Bruce was a prince -organising a reunion of people who were important to Kelly. At that time Kelly was in a hospice. There is also a video of Kelly's memorial service- I think at Costa Mesa track . Various other speedway luminaries attended- Bobby Schwartz, Ron Preston, Dennis Sigalos  etc. Brought tears to my eyes. Noted Bruce had put on some weight over the years.  Maybe other forumlanders have seen these videos also-but I thought that it was a great thing(and a great champion) for Bruce to do-. I was privileged to see Bruce win both of his World Finals in 1981 and 82-reckon he would have won a few more if he hadn't retired undefeated. What say you forumlanders??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Remember viewing the images...was it really ten years ago that Kelly died? Recall his two years at Arlington very well. I was never a great fan of Penhall but one can't dispute his success at Wembley in 1981. I was there and remember it well. His 1982 win will be debated for as long as speedway exists...not sure if he was such a worthy champion on that occasion and he had blighted his copybook at White City just prior to that. Whether he had continued to dominate is open to conjecture. Personally I don't think so as I think that he would have run into problems with the fast rising Danes who began to dominate the eighties.

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I was never a fan of the Americans, other than Kelly and Shawn who you couldn't help liking, even though Kelly referred to Hackney as 'the armpit of the speedway world.' To be fair to him though, the Yanks didn't have much luck at Waterden Rd.

There is no denying though that Bruce Penhall had it all..Quick starter, fast machinery, brilliant from the back and charisma in abundance. Obviously he blotted his copy book at the Overseas Final, but I reckon that would have been forgotten in time if he'd carried on riding into his thirties.

Penhall is the only rider who could have stopped the Gundersen/Nielsen steamroller imo.

 

 

 

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44 minutes ago, Terry said:

There is no denying though that Bruce Penhall had it all..Quick starter, fast machinery, brilliant from the back and charisma in abundance. Obviously he blotted his copy book at the Overseas Final, but I reckon that would have been forgotten in time if he'd carried on riding into his thirties.

Penhall is the only rider who could have stopped the Gundersen/Nielsen steamroller imo.

Absolutely, with Dennis Sigalos also potentially in the mix.

Gundersen was no2 to Penhall at Cradley and Nielsen had a year's more BL experience than Penhall, but Penhall was still a lot quicker to the very top. Like you say, he had the lot. He was also super professional too. He could have easily operated at the top for several more years, had he wanted to. His loss was terrible for speedway. But looking at it coldly and in retrospect, it was exactly the right thing to do for him. He'd won the last title at Wembley and defended it on home turf...he was never going to top that....and certainly not at places like Norden, Bradford, Amsterdam or Vojens.

Edited by falcace
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