The World Pairs Final 1987
By Tracy Holmes

Sweden's young guns, Per Jonsson and Jimmy Nilsen just fell short of the qualifying mark. Their 30 points being five less than Finland by Kai Niemi and Olli Tryvainen. That was the only real Semi-Final talking point. Australia's Steve Regeling had a new partner in Steve Baker and for New Zealand, Mitch Shirra was joined by David Bargh. The Moran brothers won their meeting but again, Shawn missed the Final and again, Kelly being partnered by Sam Ermolenko.

June 28 was the World Final date at the famous Pardubice track in Czechoslovakia. Home of the 'Grand Slam' CZ Golden Helmet. The packed stadium, not quite needing the sunblock this time was treated to an epic battle, that was true but with a constant feel of inevitability about it. The Danish Dynamic Duo were outdone in their first race by England's Kelvin Tatum but from then on, it was business as usual and the Triple Crown was never really in doubt. Nielsen even got to set a new track record in heat 5. GAZOOKS!!! So it was title number three for both riders! [ Hans 79, 86, 87. Erik 85, 86, 87. ]

England by Tatum and Simon Wigg did well for the Silver Medals and they actually had the lead over the Danes in their first race but only around the first turn before Wigg's bike dramatically slowed allowing Batman and Robin to blast by. KAPOW!!! The Yanks again stood on the podium but it was in a long shadow cast by the winners. New Zealand by Mitch Shirra and David Bargh, who enjoyed his finest International hour, scored the same points as USA but as last year, denied any run-off because of the later group system. The what??? Many newspapers around the world no longer took Speedway seriously, this genius system was just another link in that chain.

[ I am going to come under fire here as the following scorechart differs from official references. In my defence, this is only a 'scrapbook' series for a bit of fun BUT, it is my reasoning that a team who scores more points than another, will finish higher on the scorechart. Fire away!]

Heats

1 Shirra Moran Ermolenko Bargh Jankowski Zabialowicz
2 Tatum Gundersen Nielsen Castagna Wigg Furlanetto
3 Tryvainen Baker Kasper Matousek Niemi Regeling
4 Tatum Wigg Bargh Baker Shirra Regeling nf
5 Nielsen Gundersen Moran Kasper Matousek Ermolenko
6 Castagna Tryvainen Furlanetto Zabialowicz Jankowski Niemi nf
7 Tatum Wigg Matousek Kasper Zabialowicz Jankowski
8 Ermolenko Moran Furlanetto Castagna Regeling Baker
9 Gundersen Nielsen Bargh Shirra Niemi Tryvainen
10 Bargh Shirra Kasper Matousek Castagna Furlanetto
11 Tatum Wigg Moran Ermolenko Niemi Tryvainen
12 Nielsen Gundersen Baker Regeling Zabialowicz Jankowski
13 Wigg Niemi Tatum Tryvainen Castagna Furlanetto
14 Nielsen Gundersen Matousek Kasper Zabialowicz Jankowski
15 Ermolenko Moran Bargh Baker Shirra Regeling
16 Baker Jankowski Zabialowicz Regeling Furlanetto Castagna
17 Matousek Bargh Shirra Kasper Niemi Tryvainen
18 Gundersen Nielsen Ermolenko Wigg Tatum Moran nf

1st Denmark 52
Hans Nielsen 3 5 4 5 5 4 26
Erik Gundersen 4 4 5 4 4 5 26

2nd England 44
Kelvin Tatum 5 5 5 5 3 1 24
Simon Wigg 1 4 4 4 5 2 20

3rd USA 36
Sam Ermolenko 3 0 5 2 5 3 18
Kelly Moran 4 3 4 3 4 nf 18

4th New Zealand 36
David Bargh 2 3 3 5 3 4 20
Mitch Shirra 5 1 2 4 1 3 16

5th CZ 30
Roman Matousek 2 1 3 2 3 5 16
Toni Kasper 3 2 2 3 2 2 14

6th Australia 21
Steve Baker 4 2 0 3 2 5 16
Steve Regeling 0 nf 1 2 0 2 5

7th Finland 19
Olli Tryvainen 5 4 0 0 2 0 11
Kai Niemi 1 nf 1 1 4 1 8

8th Italy 18
Armando Castagna 2 5 2 1 1 0 11
Valentino Furlanetto 0 3 3 0 0 1 7

9th Poland 14
Wojciech Zabialowicz 0 2 1 1 1 3 8
Roman Jankowski 1 1 0 0 0 4 6

This article was first published on 23rd November 2014