The Slice of Lucky Pie
By Tracy Holmes

Seneca the Younger, "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."

So Bartosz Zmarzlik has again re-written the history books. My goodness, what a genius! And he's only 30 something. That's frightening. Has he been lucky? Of course. Very few World Champions have been crowned without having been party to an extra tea-spoon of good luck. But, read the introduction again. All the good luck in the world, would be of no use if one was not in the position to take full advantage of it.

Zmarzlik has done just that, now six times World Champion, winning the last 4 World Championships, without having to face Artem Laguta or Emil Sayfutdinov. [ Thank you Vladimir Putin ] Remember, it was Laguta that stopped him winning three in a row, back in 2021. And Sayfutdinov who took the bronze medal. Could those two have stopped Zmarzlik in anyone of the last four years? Maybees, maybees not though and sadly, we will never know. But that has been 'The Slice of Lucky Pie' for Zmarzlik. And this year, we had 'sprint races' that saw the Pole outpoint Brady Kurtz ten points to nine.

I loved a viewpoint printed in Speedway Star; "How can a race, at the end of what is effectively a practice session watched by two men and a dog, have such a major bearing on the World Championship?" And this from Peter Oakes, "We all deserved to see the Title decided in a race-off rather than what happened because Zmarzlik was quicker than Kurtz in a series of five ill-conceived television extras."

Oh how I love the theatre, politics and drama. Add the magic of Speedway and you have the recipe for pure excitement, addiction and no hangovers. It's also a recipe for that 'Lucky Pie' and the vital pieces needed for any rider ascending to Speedway's Holy Grail.

We're now going to look at most of the World Final winners and see where they got their 'sweeteners' from. Lionel Van Praag. He won the first World Final at Wembley in 1936, beating Eric Langton in the run-off. [ Speedway's greatest of mysteries as to why Langton was not excluded for breaking the tapes. ] It was the points system where Van Praag was able to capitalize. Bonus qualifying points were carried into the Final. And after 20 heats, Bluey Wilkinson was unbeaten with a 15 point maximum. However, he had scored 10 bonus points which left him one point behind Van Praag and Langton. So Wilkinson took the Bronze Medal and in THE most controversial Gold Medal run-off in World Final history, Van Praag overtook Langton on the last bend to write his name into Speedway folklore.

The next winner in 1937 was Jack Milne. He was unbeaten on the night and had the most bonus points. However, it wasn't just luck for him but for the whole field as Bluey Wilkinson wasn't there. Having been injured earlier in the season, he missed out on qualifying. This was emphasized the following year as Bluey at last won the World Final. Luck for him? He tied with Jack Milne at the end of the night, 14 points each. Milne had dropped a point to Wilbur Lamoreaux. So when they faced off in round five, Bluey was able to sit behind Milne, knowing that his bonus point lead would give him the Gold Medal with no run-off required.

And that's how the first three World Champions achieved their Golden Goal, gifted by a little help from Lady Luck. With the outbreak of the Second World War, the World Final was over for ten years.

Post war, Tommy Price 1946, Jack Parker 1947 and Vic Duggan 1948, won the three 'British Riders Finals' at Wembley. One can only imagine how many 'World Finals' Parker and Duggan may have shared had there been no war. It was Tommy Price who won the first post-war World Final, unbeaten at Wembley with Parker forced to take the Silver Medal, beaten only by the Champion. The bonus points had been scrapped. For Price and the entire field, their 'Get Out of Jail Free' card was the absence of Vic Duggan and Freddie Williams, both having been injured and unable to compete in the qualifying rounds.

1950 sees Duggan and Williams both make it however, THE red-hot favourite was Graham Warren. Sadly, the Duggan challenge never eventuated, just a shadow of what he had been capable of.

And it turned out to be a head to head between Williams and Warren. They met in round three, both winning their first two heats. Williams made the gate and when Warren made his move to get inside, he buttoned off and down he went. Could he have overtaken Williams? We will never know and Warren himself never knew why he did what he did. But for Williams, this was his 'ticket to ride' and he won the Title, beaten only by Jack Parker. Warren won his last two heats but twelve points relegated him to the Bronze Medal behind Wally Green on thirteen.

1951 sees Jack Biggs unbeaten after four rounds. He needs one point from round five to take the Title. His opponents in heat 19 are the defender Freddie Williams, who has not had such a great night. Split Waterman who needs a win for a place on the podium and Aub Lawson. I have read many interviews and articles that try to explain what happened. All Biggs needed to do was, take out insurance. With a word to either Lawson or Williams, for the cost of a pint, that one point would have been secure before the tapes went up. And it's been pointed out that Biggs would never have considered that option. Well, he paid for it dearly. Waterman got the win as Lawson and Williams made sure Biggs never got that point. So Biggs remained on twelve points now equal with Waterman and Jack Young. The triple run-off result; Young, Waterman, Biggs. The 1951 World Final would forever be remembered as 'the Biggs Final' and for the sake of a pint, Jack Young was able to capitalize for his weight in Gold.

Some say, to take out insurance is cheating. I don't see it. If you have done the hard graft and all that's left for the mission to be accomplished is to make an agreement, what's the problem? One verbal acknowledgement, one handshake and Jack Biggs would have been Champion of the World.

Every rider in the 1957 World Final, including the winner Barry Briggs, had the same slice, as that was the year Ronnie Moore left Speedway and went motor racing. When he won his second Title two years later, any doubters had their questions answered.

Bjorn Knutson finally struck Gold in 1965. Along with his fellow finalists, they were all spared having to face the 'Norwegian Wonder,' Sverre Harrfeldt. In this day of information overload, it's incredible to imagine the circumstances. But, Sverre had been given the wrong date for the European Final, the last round before Wembley. Had he qualified, could he have gone all the way? He answered that question a year later. No, he didn't win but the 1966 scorechart read, Barry Briggs 15. Sverre Harrfeldt 14. Even Briggo got to eat his slice that year as Ove Fundin was missing from the action. After a decade of standing on the World Final podium, [ a record only equalled by Jason Crump in the Grand Prix era ] he got into trouble with the Swedish powers that be and was forced to miss the qualifying rounds. I have read other reports but that is the one Ove told me. [ name dropping? hell yeah! ] Twelve months later, he was World Champion for the fifth time.

1972 sees Ivan Mauger win his fourth World Final in five years. Let's be clear, no-one deserved the Gold Medal more than he. It was June 1st at the World Pairs Final, Boras, Sweden. Ivan with Ronnie Moore tied on points with Ray Wilson and Terry Betts. For the run-off, Ivan faced Wilson and it was over in less than a lap. Ivan hit a pothole, the very pothole Ronnie had told him to avoid, lost control and crashed, heavily. He broke bones in both wrists, some newspapers suggesting his year was over. Not a chance! June 22, wins the British Semi-Final. July 9, wins the World Longtrack Final. August 2, wins the British Final. September 16, wins the World Final at Wembley.

Surely he would need two heaped teaspoons of 'good luck'? Yes, and they came from the following. First, defending Champion, Ole Olsen fell in his first heat, challenging Christer Lofqvist for the lead. Ole would win his remaining heats, beating Ivan in round three. Second, Barry Briggs, after beating Ivan first time out, sadly crashes in round two and the injuries received, saw him unable to continue. But of course, those incidents did not hand Ivan the Title, he had to master not just the rest of his opponents, but a track that cut up with potholes a foot deep. On top of that, he had to beat Bernt Persson in the Gold medal run-off. It was one of THE gutsiest wins in World Final history.

1973 at Chorzow, Poland's Jerzy Szczakiel is unbeaten at halftime with Ivan Mauger two points behind. The result of heat 8, Szczakiel, Waloszek, Mauger, Val Gordeev, doesn't begin to tell the story of what a hiding Jerzy dealt to the defender. Well documented in other articles on this site. Mauger keeps his cool and wins his other heats while Jerzy is beaten by Grigori Chlinovski and Ole Olsen. So, Mauger again faces a Gold Medal run-off but this time, he is out-smarted, out-gated, out-manoeuvred, out-ridden and out of the World Title.

Where were Jerzy's 'Wheels of Fortune'? Firstly, the Final being held in Poland but not his home track. Reportedly, all the Poles got to practise as much as they wanted. Well okay, but he was the one who took it all the way. Second and same for all the other finalists, Ole Olsen was carrying injury. An injury that he was unable to overcome and he dropped four points. Fully fit, this Final may have had a different outcome. However, if you are new to Speedway history, 'Never Mind the Bollocks' to what you may have read about Jerzy Szczakiel being somehow 'unworthy' of his Gold Medal. I'll leave you with this statistic; Jerzy raced the reigning World Champion, Ivan Mauger four times that year, and beat him all four times!

It was back in Chorzow for the 1976 World Final and Peter Collins 'rocketed' to first place, quite happy to sit behind Ivan Mauger in round five. We shall take nothing away from his brilliant performance that afternoon. Malcolm Simmons was second, one point behind. But it was Collins' superior power, an extra 20ks faster, that saw him overtake Simmo, making the British Champion look like a beginner. Simmons had been the equal of Collins all season up until the week before he set off for Poland. However, the Weslake factory recalled his motors and when he got them back, they were "rubbish." Malcolm returned them for re-doing but they were still nowhere near powerful enough to match PC.

I'm not saying the end result would have been different but Collins would never have caught Simmons in heat seven. Yes, he would certainly have beaten Mauger in heat 20 and that would set up a Gold Medal run-off. Simmons having lost a point to Phil Crump in round one. As to who the winner would have been, I would not make the call. But it would have been an equal race with both riders having equal horsepower. That was Collins' extra ray of sunshine. Defending Champion, Ole Olsen had failed to qualify but neither he nor Ivan Mauger had motors to equal the Weslakes until later in the year.

Malcolm Simmons was the biggest missing star from 1977, being knocked out of the competition through injury. Come the September Final, at Gothenburg, Ivan Mauger was singing in the rain. When the heavens opened, that gave Mauger the opportunity to cash in on experience gained throughout his career. "Let's prepare for a wet one" he told his team and he got on with it. Yes, Peter Collins was carrying a shocking injury and yes, I will be the first to say, had he been fully fit, on a dry Ullevi track, he would have had no trouble successfully defending his Title. BUT, even fully fit, under these extreme conditions, Mauger just may have had the superior hand. And before anyone yells about Ole Olsen falling in the last heat decider, Mauger had the best view of anyone, and he said that John Boulger and Olsen were going way too fast for the conditions, there was no way they could stay on and he was right. Heat 18 re-run result; Mauger, Lee, Olsen. Boulger f/ex. With that, Ivan was rightly five times World Champion. Lucky? Yes, but he had certainly earned it.

Wembley 1978, every finalist had the same slice. Peter Collins had been knocked out in the last round because of fuel contamination. No 'wild-card' in those days and THE red-hot favourite got to watch Ole Olsen secure his third World Title. NO, Dave Jessup's first round engine failure played no part in the Danish Delight. Sure, only he with Anders Michanek took points off Ole but, had Jessup won all his other races, the Silver Medal would have been his. He failed to do so. Had he won the third place run-off, the Bronze Medal would have been his. He failed to do so. So if he could not win Silver or Bronze, the Gold was never in his grasp. You can disagree with me all you like but it doesn't change those cold, hard facts.

Mike Lee had his arch-rival Bruce Penhall to thank at Gothenburg in 1980. They met in heat 5 and Mike told the story to 'Backtrack'; "In my second race on the first lap, Penhall threw an S-bend on me down the back straight, as we came off the second corner by the pits. I was coming up the inside of him and, bearing in mind that Bruce and I got on fairly well, I had the run on him, but he still turned left on me. So I lost some ground and it took me until the third lap to re-group myself. But the instant he did what he did to me, I said to myself, I'm having you mate. I came under him, pointed at him and took his left leg away. I did that purely because of what he'd done to me earlier. I was gonna have him, no matter what, even if I came down myself."

WOW! Two parts here. Had Mike fallen, he would have been excluded for sure. Had Penhall fallen, Mike may very well have been excluded for being the cause. As it was, Penhall stayed on where another less scrupulous opponent may have dropped it. Lee gambled and won. Extra sauce on that piece of pie!

As for Penhall? 1982 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Les Collins duffs round three. With all due respect to his opponents, that should have been no contest. He was the only rider to beat Penhall, however the two points he dropped, meant the Silver Medal, one point behind the Golden Eagle. Well yes, there was also 'The Late Show with Kenny Carter', and I guess Penhall also got a little lucky there as well. Had Carter remained focused on racing Penhall instead of fighting him ... 'Bye Bye Miss American Pie' I wonder if Penhall got fries with that?

Egon Muller the following year. There was nothing lucky about his outstanding performance and his mechanical genius combined with Otto Lantenhammer's magical prowess. Just the fact that Germany was allocated the World Final in the first place and he was gifted a tailor made track in the middle of nowhere. True, the stage was handcrafted but he had to perform and perform he did to a maximum ovation. Could he have done the same at Chorzow? I'm sure he could have but sadly for the Speedway world, we'll never know. Oh yeah, for those who keep bleating on that "it was the same for everyone", it was bastard not!

1986 sees Hans Nielsen at last win the Gold Medal. His clash with Tommy Knudsen in round four proving rather fortuitus. Knudsen had the lead but drifted wide, opening the door for Hans who took full advantage, also taking out his compatriot's front wheel. Knudsen goes into the fence, and is excluded. It could so easily have gone the other way.

To the end of the 80's now and we look at Hans Nielsen in 1989 along with Per Jonsson in 1990. For both these Finals, Jan O Pedersen had qualified but could not ride because of injury. He made up for that at Gothenburg in 1991 with a 15 point maximum.

Gary Havelock takes the Title in 1992 without having to face the Main Danes. Jan O Pedersen was forced into retirement through injury and Hans Nielsen had been eliminated, a broken collarbone before the Nordic Final, he was unable to break the pain barrier.

"Pocking Hell" exclaimed Hans Nielsen a year later. This was meant to have been the last World Final and the staging at Pocking in Germany, may have been an attempt to make it look ridiculous. However, that backfired as it became a 'cult classic'. Nielsen was chasing Sam Ermolenko in round four when the American left a little wiggle-room for Hans to exploit. Maybe the Dane was a bit too eager as Ermolenko bit the dust and this time, Nielsen was excluded. Another referee may have seen if differently but Sam's 'Golden Handshake' came in the re-run when he dropped a chain on the first bend and Billy Hamill was unable to avoid a collision. The race was stopped with no exclusion!

From his book, 'Breaking The Limits', Sam Said, "The race was stopped and referee Frank Ebdon made the call that all three of us were back in the re-run. I went straight back into the pits and my mechanics got to work. It was the perfect opportunity and I admit that I was lucky but after all that I had been through, I believe I deserved that bit of luck."

As it turned out, with Sam winning the eventual re-run, he needed no points from round five as the Gold Medal was already his. Lucky? Fortunate? Yes and yes again but the morale of the story, being right there to sieze those magic beads and climb that Golden beanstalk.

With delays in getting the SGP up and running, it was decided one more World Final would fill the gap. If Pocking '93 was 'The Godfather', Vojens '94 became 'Pulp Fiction'. For me, this was when Tony Rickardsson became Tony Rickardsson. Six points at half time from three second places. Surely he had snuffed out any Golden dreams. Whereas Hans Nielsen at half time was unbeaten. That's when the World Final tinder-box exploded and the sparks flew in all directions. All of a sudden, Rickardsson collected two chunks of that 'Lucky Pie' fair in the face. Round four sees Tommy Knudsen with a duck and Hans Nielsen excluded for going into the fence. Suddenly, the Super Swede was back in with a serious shot, and steps up to the plate winning heat 16. Lucky Strikes were also dealt to Greg Hancock and Craig Boyce. They also took full advantage with their round four wins.

The script was written for Rickardsson, Hancock and Boyce all to meet for a sensational showdown in heat 19. Three points for Hancock and he is Champion of the World. Three points for Boyce and he is Champion of the World. Three points for Rickardsson and he forces a run-off. Hancock misses the gate, Boyce hits the front only for Rickardsson to blast ahead and secure a Gold Medal run-off with the Australian, leaving a disconsolate Hancock to cry in his coffee. Nielsen held his nerve to win heat 20 and make it a 'Triple Treat'. Making the gate, he grasped the Gold Medal with one hand only to drift ever so slightly off line, then watched as Rickardsson pounced, snatching that Medal and victory from his bewildered opponent. Boyce was happy just to be there.

The World Final was never held again. 'Enter the Dragon' who has breathed her fire for the last thirty-one years. Nielsen got his fourth Title. Rickardsson and Hancock became SGP legends and yes, same pie, different recipe. Of course, lots of stories abound in those 'Chronicles of Nirvana' but that's for someone else to write. As for me, it's dinner time. Bacon and egg pie? Lucky for some.

This article was first published on 12th October 2025