Bruce Penhall

[liverpool chad 2]

Tony, Having read Alan Wilkinsons book in which he states that he and Chris Pusey tried to get Jack Fernley to sign Bruce for Belle Vue. Could you ask him how he would of liked to ride in the same team has his friend Peter Collins.

 

PS A message for "dirt" overrated, gutless and conman, are not words that you would associate with Bruce Penhall! Hang your head in shame

[dirt 0]

Tony, Having read Alan Wilkinsons book in which he states that he and Chris Pusey tried to get Jack Fernley to sign Bruce for Belle Vue. Could you ask him how he would of liked to ride in the same team has his friend Peter Collins.

 

PS A message for "dirt" overrated, gutless and conman, are not words that you would associate with Bruce Penhall! Hang your head in shame

How else would you describe someone who quits when they are world champion, for wait for IT....to become an actor. No Bruce Willis either, a C grade low budget load of crap - which he apparently played the part of a cop. After this failed attempt at a job, no he doesn't make a comeback, preferring the safe option of running the family business - 'concrete blasting'. Then confirms he is a strange breed by taking up the biggest money wasting sport ever invented power boat 'racing'.

 

The sport of speedway meanwhile suffered massively during this period. Hard to imagine Roger Federer or Nadal winning a Slam or 2 and creating some great rivalry and competition,,,,then the one on the top suddenly turns his interest to acting or kite surfing, and never plays again. Never a decent explanation.

 

Now he is bound to have some followers and others who have questions or are intrigued to find out more bout him. That is why it was never a good idea to have a biography about him written by an adoring Cradley Heathens fan, who needed rope tied to his ankles, as he was so far up Penhalls ass, he didnt evan try to give a subjective view. Just tried to big everything about him up, and not write about anything at all interesting.

 

I cant help but feel he robbed the speedway world 'of that time' of some fascinating battles throughout the eighties, and depleted what was shaping as a golden period for speedway.

 

As for him saying he could have matched Muller in 83 or whatever he said I'm sure all the big guns would have thought the same, but at least some others had the courage to have a go.

 

edit: FWIW I couldnt agree less about 83. The two crowns penhall won were on very smooth speedway tracks , whereas 83 was tailored for longtrack specialist Muller, who was unstoppable! Penhall was dreaming of being able to match him. I doubt he would have scored many at all in 83. Still the question remains unanswered: If you are that arrogant or confident in your ability - why would a competitive sportsman hang up the boots for good??? when still a baby in the sport.

Until he can answer that question properly he will remain an enigma and not deserve one bit of admiration.

Edited September 16, 2010 by dirt

[dirt 0]

"I challenge anyone to find a worse book than Penhalls offering! What a pathetic disgraceful attempt at producing a readable book. I now have mixed feelings but certainly a lot of hate for the man who by writing a book should have been gaining admirers, not creating enemies. you have to laugh at how anyone could publish this thing. Anyone off the street could have written a better book on any subject. I dont know how he managed to do so poorly, on a subject that I love. This book should be called Mission Impossible. 0/10, the few pictures are even poor. and who the hell would want to read about his power boat racing and how he won a world championship at that. I couldnt care any less.

Thank god ive got some better offerings arriving soon to get this over rated gutless yank out of my system.

cheers."

 

A quick search finds this diatribe, which I would hesitate to call a review, that you posted last December. I'm sure the author was delighted to read such well written constructive criticism. You still didn't actually explain what you didn't enjoy about the book.

 

I've got the book by the way, no classic granted, but tells the Penhall story well enough. Also as a Biography I reckon it's important to talk about Penhall the person, not just what he achieved on the track.

The book was written by a smitten C.H. fan who just rambled about how great penhall was and said he was the best theres ever been and best there ever will be etc. Utter garbage. Many better since which has made the book seem like a glorified fairy tale. IMHO Penhall did more damage to the sport than good, and the only people who would disagree are Heathens fans who are so overwhelem that he turned around the fortunes of the club from crap to champs so they see him as a God figure.

 

Also it doesnt talk about penhall the person either. Just describes things hes done etc, theres no insight, no quotes from others to back up his 'story' just one fans inane ramblings about how great penhall is and lists everything hes accomplished and done.

 

The author of the book sent me a PM directly after my review and thanked me for an honest appraisal, which was invaluable feedback etc etc. When I seen it was written by a C.H. fan, It made some sort of sense. But surely Bruce Penhall should have ensured a decent sports writer did his biography not a smitten fan. Maybe he wanted it written like that, or maybe he didnt care as long as he got a cut of the proceeds.

 

Anyway notice how the sport in the USA went to rubbish after he quit the game. No new blood for many years and actually the country has never recovered. Yeah well done Bruce your a legend!

[The White Knight 9,039]

I have to say that Penhall was never the same to me after that 'Fixed Race' with the Americans.

 

Can't understand why BackTrack dropped Rod Haynes who's Articles were always a good read, for an American who deserted the Sport at the moment of triumph AND was known to have FIXED Races. That raises a bit of a morality problem for me.

 

Sorry Tony - but - that's how I feel.

 

I still love the Magazine though - apart from the ramblings of the infamous Penhall.

[lucifer sam 3,953]

The book was written by a smitten C.H. fan who just rambled about how great penhall was and said he was the best theres ever been and best there ever will be etc. Utter garbage. Many better since which has made the book seem like a glorified fairy tale. IMHO Penhall did more damage to the sport than good, and the only people who would disagree are Heathens fans who are so overwhelem that he turned around the fortunes of the club from crap to champs so they see him as a God figure.

 

Also it doesnt talk about penhall the person either. Just describes things hes done etc, theres no insight, no quotes from others to back up his 'story' just one fans inane ramblings about how great penhall is and lists everything hes accomplished and done.

 

The author of the book sent me a PM directly after my review and thanked me for an honest appraisal, which was invaluable feedback etc etc. When I seen it was written by a C.H. fan, It made some sort of sense. But surely Bruce Penhall should have ensured a decent sports writer did his biography not a smitten fan. Maybe he wanted it written like that, or maybe he didnt care as long as he got a cut of the proceeds.

 

Dirt, you can't stop someone writing a biography about you. And there's no reason why there has to be just one biography either.

 

Maybe one day Bruce Penhall will write his own autobiography, as Briggo and Ivan Mauger amongst others have done recently.

 

In the meantime, you are entitled to your opinion on Penhall, although I think some of your views on Penhall place you very much in the minority. As for the 1983 World Final, I think Bruce would have won it. A big fast track such as Norden would have suited him well.

 

And I enjoyed the Steve Johnson book - I read it when in Italy for the GP around five years ago. No, it doesn't provide any hard-hitting revelations (in fact, Bruce is much more hard-hitting in the Kenny Carter book "Tragedy"), but it was a pleasant-enough read.

 

All the best

Rob

[fatface 2,554]

...and...relax..

 

If Bruce had a keen enthusiast from another country approach him to write a book about him, then like most decent people he would say yes. Let's be honest the re-emergence of the speedway book market had only just started when that book came out. It's not as if Tempus, Retro Speedway and the rest were in a bidding war. I agree, a much better job would have been done by Tony Mac now..and given the full Cardiff launch. But so be it..

 

As for other points in this thread. I don't think he would ever admit it, but surely Bruce must've had some pangs of regret over his retirement. I completely understand why a 25 year old Californian man would be easily tempted by the offer of Hollywood fame and fortune over more years of endless travelling around Europe pursuing a life-threatening job whilst based in the Black Country. But it's a rare thing to the best the in the world at something...and Bruce was the best. To believe he could jump over to a completely unrelated vocation like acting and be among the best at that...well, it showed more than a smidge of ego.

[liverpool chad 2]

How else would you describe someone who quits when they are world champion, for wait for IT....to become an actor. No Bruce Willis either, a C grade low budget load of crap - which he apparently played the part of a cop. After this failed attempt at a job, no he doesn't make a comeback, preferring the safe option of running the family business - 'concrete blasting'. Then confirms he is a strange breed by taking up the biggest money wasting sport ever invented power boat 'racing'.

 

The sport of speedway meanwhile suffered massively during this period. Hard to imagine Roger Federer or Nadal winning a Slam or 2 and creating some great rivalry and competition,,,,then the one on the top suddenly turns his interest to acting or kite surfing, and never plays again. Never a decent explanation.

 

Now he is bound to have some followers and others who have questions or are intrigued to find out more bout him. That is why it was never a good idea to have a biography about him written by an adoring Cradley Heathens fan, who needed rope tied to his ankles, as he was so far up Penhalls ass, he didnt evan try to give a subjective view. Just tried to big everything about him up, and not write about anything at all interesting.

 

I cant help but feel he robbed the speedway world 'of that time' of some fascinating battles throughout the eighties, and depleted what was shaping as a golden period for speedway.

 

As for him saying he could have matched Muller in 83 or whatever he said I'm sure all the big guns would have thought the same, but at least some others had the courage to have a go.

 

edit: FWIW I couldnt agree less about 83. The two crowns penhall won were on very smooth speedway tracks , whereas 83 was tailored for longtrack specialist Muller, who was unstoppable! Penhall was dreaming of being able to match him. I doubt he would have scored many at all in 83. Still the question remains unanswered: If you are that arrogant or confident in your ability - why would a competitive sportsman hang up the boots for good??? when still a baby in the sport.

Until he can answer that question properly he will remain an enigma and not deserve one bit of admiration.

 

Retiring when you are at the very top of your sport is very appealing to most sportsmen, especially if they have made lots of money or have a cushy job to go into. Well Bruce had both the money and the cushy job to go into so you can't blame him really. Bruce Penhall didn't owe speedway anything, he went out every week risking his life to give people like you and i lots of pleasure! Cradley Heath on the other hand were short changed as Bruce left part way through the season and in mid contract.

Your reply baffles me slightly as, you fail to explain why you think that someone is quote "a conman, gutless and overrated" when they do what many thousands of people do every day, and that is change their career for a better one closer to home. Admittedly he was somewhat unsuccessful in his acting career, so he then trys his hand at powerboat racing and guess what? he becomes world champion! So thats world champion at two very dangerous pastimes, so i think we can drop the word's gutless and overatted from your argument! And as for you thinking running a family business is an easy option, then think again, ive just spent 30 odd years doing just that and it's not easy!

I notice you mentioned two tennis players as an example. Well cast your mind back to 1981 and one of the sports most consistent men Bjorn Borg quites the game while ranked world number 2 having been number 1 for many years and all this in the middle of the great rivalry with John McEnroe!

[liverpool chad 2]

Anyway notice how the sport in the USA went to rubbish after he quit the game. No new blood for many years and actually the country has never recovered. Yeah well done Bruce your a legend!

 

 

Is that so!!! Bruce Penhall quite the sport in 1982 and since that year the USA have given this great sport two fine riders in Greg Hancock and Billy Hamill, both WORLD CHAMPIONS.

 

Its like blaming Michael Lee or Kenny Carter for the fact that England have only had two world champions since the very same date!

 

See how stupid that statement sounds

[liverpool chad 2]

Sorry i forgot about Sam

The point i was trying to make was. That it is not Bruce Penhalls job to ensure good riders keep coming through from America, nor is it his fault they now don't! And anyone who thinks that Americas lack of speedway stars is down to the fact that BP quit in 1982 must be barking mad!

[Racing Jase 0]

Rebels77, as a young Bruce Penhall fan, I found the attitude of the British crowd at that meeting somewhat hypocritical, to say the least. I can't remember anyone kicking up a fuss when Dave Jessup and Larry Ross allowed Michael Lee & Ivan Mauger to beat them in their final heat in the 1981 Overseas Final, but Penhall does it a year later and suddenly there's a huge uproar. True, he shouldn't have done the wheelies, but otherwise Jessup & Ross did exactly the same.

 

All the best

Rob

 

I have no problem with what Bruce did that day, it happens, it was not his fault he was drawn against his fellow countrymen in that heat.

I find it strange how people slag him off for it yet the run off with the team riding Collins brothers(no problem with that either) goes unmentioned!!

[The White Knight 9,039]

I have no problem with what Bruce did that day, it happens, it was not his fault he was drawn against his fellow countrymen in that heat.

I find it strange how people slag him off for it yet the run off with the team riding Collins brothers(no problem with that either) goes unmentioned!!

 

 

Were they fooling about doing 'Wheelies' making it blatently obvious they were not trying - I don't think so.

[Racing Jase 0]

Were they fooling about doing 'Wheelies' making it blatently obvious they were not trying - I don't think so.

 

Nope, they were making it blatantly obvious who wasnt going through!

 

Like I said, I couldnt care less either way, all I am saying is if it had been Brits helping Brits, they would have been applauded for it, you know it, I know it and all that slag off Penhall know it.

[Humphrey Appleby 13,958]

"I challenge anyone to find a worse book than Penhalls offering!

 

I haven't read it, but I can take or leave his column and I find Malcolm Simmons to give a much more interesting rider's perspective.

 

Even so, I don't quite understand the diatribe by some against the bloke for wanting to do something other than ride speedway, nor blaming him for the decline of American speedway. It might well be the case that American speedway was never quite the same again, but that's hardly the fault of one rider...

[liverpool chad 2]

I haven't read it, but I can take or leave his column and I find Malcolm Simmons to give a much more interesting rider's perspective.

 

Even so, I don't quite understand the diatribe by some against the bloke for wanting to do something other than ride speedway, nor blaming him for the decline of American speedway. It might well be the case that American speedway was never quite the same again, but that's hardly the fault of one rider...

 

Agreed.

 

Which is what i have posted earlier.

[salty 2,202]

Just to point out that the quote which looks like it was attributed to me in Humph's post above is actually me quoting Dirt. Wonder if anyone has taken him up on his challenge to find a worse book than the Penhall tome.