Season
Review
It was a good job that the Division 1
promoters voted to keep the guest rider system at their conference since
the Division 2 promoters decided not to use guests at all. It would
have been difficult for the Heathens to complete their fixtures!
They had so many injuries during this season as well as losing Erik
Gundersen the year before it must be something of a record, using no fewer
than 51 guests during the season.
Jan O Pedersen, Simon Cross, Gert Handberg and Greg Hancock were retained
from 1989. Billy Hamill was signed to replace Erik Gundersen, Alan
Grahame eventually signed his contract (was it ever in any doubt?). The
only other change was at reserve, John Bostin, was the rider to go to get
the points average down. It was decided to give the reserve berth to
the best of the junior riders on press and practice day, it went to 22
year old Mark Robinson - Robbo as he soon became known.
Erik's involvement with the club continued as his health continued to
improve following his terrible accident from the year before.
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L to
R. Erik Gundersen, Billy Hamill, Jan O.Pedersen, Mark Robinson,
Greg Hancock, Gert Handberg, Alan Grahame, Team Manager Colin Pratt,
On bike - Simon Cross.
Everyone was looking to Billy the Bullet Hamill to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors Bruce Penhall, Bobby Schwartz, Lance King and indeed Greg Hancock, he did not disappoint, typical American lad ready to learn, very confident and very likeable.
Despite this it took time for Hancock and Hamill to settle down in the UK.
It was not long before the troubles began, Gert Handberg was injured in practice and missed two matches with a hand injury. Colin elected to use Rider Replacement for Gert against Bradford on 24th March and were beaten by the Dukes 49-41. Next it was Robbo who got hurt crashing into Shawn Moran and damaging his shoulder, missing two matches.
Simon Cross and Jan O during this time were phenomenal both riding in Test matches for their respective countries. Pedersen was at his best winning the Gold Bar meeting in Denmark in one the most spectacular speedway meetings ever seen on camera coming from last place to first in an eight man eight lap Final. Then winning the Danish Final and breaking the Holsted track record twice.
Then the troubles came,Simon was partner to Kelvin Tatum in the World Pairs when he crashed in the six man races breaking two vertibrae and putting him out of action for 18 months. This was soon followed by Jan O getting injured in a freak accident go-kart racing and breaking his arm.
These injuries wrecked the Heathens chances of winning anything for the remainder of the season.
It was particularly devastating to go out of the KO Cup which we had won for so many years.
