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1985 World Final


GavinCaney

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Now it's just before my time.

But my grandad speaks fondly of riders like Erik Gundersen. So I thought there would be plenty of you in here that would like to relive his 1985 World Final win.

Where you there? Do you remember it? Are there any other one-off finals from the past that stand out for you?

Commentator Nigel Pearson chose it as his favourite Motorsport Memory when I spoke to him on behalf of Adrian Flux.

Take a trip down memory lane with him by listening here - I certainly remember his third favourite from a Cardiff GP but I think this Erik one will resonate with lots of you.

Enjoy and looking forward to joining in more discussions around here now I've finally signed up.

Cheers

Gav

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 3/19/2021 at 8:45 AM, GavinCaney said:

Now it's just before my time.

But my grandad speaks fondly of riders like Erik Gundersen. So I thought there would be plenty of you in here that would like to relive his 1985 World Final win.

Where you there? Do you remember it? Are there any other one-off finals from the past that stand out for you?

Commentator Nigel Pearson chose it as his favourite Motorsport Memory when I spoke to him on behalf of Adrian Flux.

Take a trip down memory lane with him by listening here - I certainly remember his third favourite from a Cardiff GP but I think this Erik one will resonate with lots of you.

Enjoy and looking forward to joining in more discussions around here now I've finally signed up.

Cheers

Gav

Yes I was there...took a while for the meeting to come alive. I've always been a bit suspicious of the ride by Erik when he passed both Lance King and Shawn Moran a point that Sam Ermolenko covered in his book incidently.

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Yes I was there...took a while for the meeting to come alive. I've always been a bit suspicious of the ride by Erik when he passed both Lance King and Shawn Moran a point that Sam Ermolenko covered in his book incidently.

Still got it on "vhs' at home , those 2 were going slow when erik passed them !

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1 minute ago, geoff100 said:

Still got it on "vhs' at home , those 2 were going slow when erik passed them !

They were riding a perfect line for a couple of laps and then Lance King decided to ride a tighter line allowing Erik a clear run where the dirt was. Again, it was something that Sam Ermolenko touched upon in his book.

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4 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

I was there, i also went to Halifax v Belle Vue afterwards. I always thought it was strange to stage a world final on a Saturday afternoon. 

Was it being shown live on ITV?

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1 hour ago, cityrebel said:

It must have been. I remember it was a really showery day and they didn't water the track at Halifax. The bumper crowd was covered in clouds of dust!

I took Keith Yorke up there. You remember in Kelvin's first race, he stuck his foot in a puddle coming out of the fourth bend, which temporarily blinded Kuznetsov!

The only final I went to after that was Amsterdam...

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1 hour ago, chunky said:

I took Keith Yorke up there. You remember in Kelvin's first race, he stuck his foot in a puddle coming out of the fourth bend, which temporarily blinded Kuznetsov!

The only final I went to after that was Amsterdam...

I remember rushing back after Halifax, because Wimbledon were at Rye House on the Sunday. I was gutted because Belle Vue had a test match at Hyde road on the same day.

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2 minutes ago, cityrebel said:

I remember rushing back after Halifax, because Wimbledon were at Rye House on the Sunday. I was gutted because Belle Vue had a test match at Hyde road on the same day.

You wanna talk about "rushing"? Couldn't be worse than the night we spent at Watford Gap coming back from Belle Vue. By the time we got home, I had time to take a shower, and get back to the stadium for the coach to Eastbourne for the Inter-League 4TT!

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4 hours ago, norbold said:

You know how to make people feel old. The first world final I saw was won by Ove Fundin! :D

While I'm not as old as you (sorry!), and my first World Final was 1969, the thought of, "my grandad speaks fondly of riders like Erik Gundersen" is a real kick in the nuts!!!

I first saw Erik ride 42 years ago. Still seems pretty recent.

When I first saw Erik ride, 42 years before then was pre-war...

Sobering thought, eh?

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16 minutes ago, chunky said:

While I'm not as old as you (sorry!), and my first World Final was 1969, the thought of, "my grandad speaks fondly of riders like Erik Gundersen" is a real kick in the nuts!!!

I first saw Erik ride 42 years ago. Still seems pretty recent.

When I first saw Erik ride, 42 years before then was pre-war...

Sobering thought, eh?

Funny but my mind sort of relates to time in that respect. When Hans last rode for the "Cheetahs" it was 29 years ago (1992) and only seems like yesterday...however in 29 years time I will be 90!

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42 minutes ago, chunky said:

 

I first saw Erik ride 42 years ago. Still seems pretty recent.

When I first saw Erik ride, 42 years before then was pre-war...

Sobering thought, eh?

I often make that comparison too. When something comes on telly that I remember etc., I think to myself what was that number of years before the event. It is quite frightening at times. 

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57 minutes ago, steve roberts said:

Funny but my mind sort of relates to time in that respect. When Hans last rode for the "Cheetahs" it was 29 years ago (1992) and only seems like yesterday...however in 29 years time I will be 90!

 

30 minutes ago, norbold said:

I often make that comparison too. When something comes on telly that I remember etc., I think to myself what was that number of years before the event. It is quite frightening at times. 

I thought it was me, so that makes me feel better!

With regard to Steve's comment, I had a problem like that when I turned 30; ten years ago, I was a sprightly 20-year-old, and and ten years time, I'll be an ancient 40! Now I'm 58, I'm positively crapping myself...

It's not just speedway that ages me, but music too. When I was a teenager, the Beatles were "oldies" to me. Now, I think of OMD as recent... B)

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1 hour ago, steve roberts said:

Funny but my mind sort of relates to time in that respect. When Hans last rode for the "Cheetahs" it was 29 years ago (1992) and only seems like yesterday...however in 29 years time I will be 90!

Hans is one that screws me too. 29 years ago, but I still think of him as a modern rider. 29 years before that, and Harrfeldt and Nordin were only starting to ride for the Dons...

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38 minutes ago, chunky said:

 

 

It's not just speedway that ages me, but music too. When I was a teenager, the Beatles were "oldies" to me. Now, I think of OMD as recent... B)

Music is an interesting one. I was listening to one of my young teenage favourite songs yesterday - Runaway by Del Shannon. The song came out 60 years ago this year. 60 years before that was 1901!!!

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