27 Facts About Bruce Penhall

Bruce Lee Penhall was born on May 10,1957 and is an American former professional motorcycle speedway racer who later starred in television and in film.

Bruce Penhall was the World Speedway Champion in 1981 and 1982 and rode for the successful Cradley Heath Heathens speedway team in the United Kingdom.

Bruce Penhall retired from speedway racing the night he won his second World Championship in 1982 in front of his home crowd at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

Bruce Penhall first rode speedway when he was 16 at Irwindale Raceway on the American west coast.

On his Dudley Wood debut against Sheffield in a challenge match, Bruce Penhall notched just a single point.

In 1979 Bruce Penhall won the Master of Speedway competition around Europe, as well as becoming the first American holder of the Golden Helmet match race championship.

Bruce Penhall was runner-up to John Louis in the British League Riders' Championship and led Cradley to Inter-League Cup success and their highest-ever league position.

Also in 1979, Bruce Penhall rode in the World Pairs Championship Final at the Vojens Speedway Center in Denmark.

However, Gresham was left stranded at the Heathrow Airport in London, Bruce Penhall was forced to ride the meeting with the reserve riders as teammates.

At the last World Final held at the famous Wembley Stadium, 92,500 people witnessed Bruce Penhall come from behind to pip both former World Champion Ole Olsen of Denmark and later another Dane Tommy Knudsen on the finish line.

Bruce Penhall became the first American to win the World Championship since Jack Milne had won the second ever title at Wembley in 1937.

Also in 1981, Bruce Penhall partnered with fellow American Bobby Schwartz to win the World Pairs Championship in Katowice, Poland, and alongside fellow 1981 World Finalist Erik Gundersen of Denmark, led Cradley all the way to their first ever league title victory, topping the individual league averages on the way.

However, Bruce Penhall had less than one year left in speedway before moving on, firstly to the world of Hollywood movies and later to powerboat racing.

Bruce Penhall caused a stir at the 1982 Overseas Final, at White City.

Bruce Penhall, having already scored enough points to qualify for the World Final, deliberately finished last in the heat to allow Kelly Moran and Sigalos to qualify for the Intercontinental Final in Vetlanda, Sweden.

Bruce Penhall went on to achieve his one last speedway ambition which was to win the Individual World Final on his home soil in America.

Bruce Penhall did this by winning his last 4 rides and finishing with 14 points for the night.

Bruce Penhall then did what many expected and effectively retired from international speedway on the podium as reigning World Champion.

Carter then went wide through turn 1 which allowed Bruce Penhall to come back underneath him.

Carter protested, claiming that Bruce Penhall had hit him in the corner causing him to come off his bike and walked back to the start line in an effort to stop the re-run going ahead without him.

Bruce Penhall went on to win the re-run from Collins and Crump.

Les Collins had inflicted Bruce Penhall's only loss of the meeting when he out-rode the American in Heat 4 in what many believe was a major upset.

Additionally, if Bruce Penhall had been excluded from Heat 14 and not Carter, Les Collins would likely have won the title as he had finished with 2 point lead over third placed Dennis Sigalos.

In 1985, Bruce Penhall travelled to Sydney, Australia to read the lesson at the funeral of rider Billy Sanders after the Australian champion died by suicide at his home in Ipswich, England.

Bruce Penhall later got a tattoo in memory of his late son.

Bruce Penhall is still involved with speedway in Southern California and makes semi-regular appearances at big race meetings in the UK and Europe such as Speedway Grand Prix events.

Bruce Penhall was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2011.