1982 Intercontinental Final

The 1982 Intercontinental Final was the eighth running of the Intercontinental Final as part of the qualification for the 1982 Speedway World Championship. The 1982 Final was run on 23 August at the Vetlanda Speedway in Vetlanda, Sweden, and was the last qualifying stage for riders from Scandinavia, the USA and from the Commonwealth nations for the World Final to be held at the Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, USA.[1]

1982 Intercontinental Final
Previous: 1981 Next: 1983

English rider Les Collins, the younger brother of 1976 World Champion Peter Collins, in the best year of his career won the Intercontinental Final from countryman Kenny Carter and American Dennis Sigalos who defeated Hans Nielsen in a runoff for third place. Other World Final qualifiers were Kelly Moran, Dave Jessup, Kai Niemi, Jan Andersson, Phil Crump and Peter Collins. A three rider run-off was required for the final placing Collins won the run-off from Andy Grahame and Bo Petersen the riders to miss out.

Also qualifying was defending World Champion Bruce Penhall who would go on to win his second successive World title in his home town of Los Angeles before announcing the worst kept secret in speedway, his retirement from the sport to become an actor on the American television series CHiPs.

Somewhat surprisingly, triple World Champion Ole Olsen finished in 15th place having scored only 4 points. Even more surprising was countryman and future triple World Champion Erik Gundersen who finished in 16th and last place having scored just 3 points, though Gundersen did suffer numerous bike problems throughout the Final in Vetlanda. In his Individual World Championship career this would be the only time Gundersen ever finished last in a qualifying meeting.

1982 Intercontinental Final

Pos.RiderTotal
1 Les Collins12
2 Kenny Carter11
3 Dennis Sigalos10+3
4 Hans Nielsen10+2
5 Kelly Moran9
6 Bruce Penhall9
7 Dave Jessup8
8 Kai Niemi7
9 Jan Andersson7
10 Phil Crump7
11 Peter Collins6+3
12 Andy Grahame6+2
13 Bo Petersen6+1
14 Larry Ross5
15 Ole Olsen4
16 Erik Gundersen3
17 Shawn Moran (Res)0

References

See also

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