Motor Racing / Shav Glick : Ermolenko Crashed Way Into Speedway Career

When Sam Ermolenko was 16 and a junior at Los Alamitos High School, he dreamed of becoming a world motocross champion.

The dream ended when Sam was riding his street bike along California 91 and a car turned left in front of him.

The accident sent Ermolenko to the hospital for two months with a broken left shoulder, a broken left elbow and a crushed right thighbone. He was off his cycle for more than two years.

When he thought he was ready, he tried motocross again in the Golden State Series of 1978 but he fell at Indian Dunes and ruptured his spleen.

“That whole deal pulled me down every which way,” Ermolenko said as he worked on his speedway bike for Saturday night’s national championship races at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa. “It screwed me up in school and it meant I’d never ride motocross, serious motocross at least, again.”

Ermolenko, now 24 and the fastest rising star in speedway racing, got into speedway because he couldn’t stay off motorcycles. In speedway championship races, four riders go four laps around a tiny oval on specialized high-speed bikes without brakes, sliding through the corners by using their left feet as stabilizers.

“I’d never seen a speedway race until I went to Costa Mesa one night in 1980,” he said. “I noticed you didn’t have to bend your right knee so much and that’s what I couldn’t do after my accident. I got so curious about it that I bought a bike from Bill Cody and took it out to Indian Dunes to get the feel of it.

“One day a guy I knew came in, practiced a couple of hours, and said he was taking off to Taft to race. I went up with him and ended up riding there five straight weeks. Toward the end of ‘81, I rode at Ventura to get my license to become a pro.”

During that period, Ermolenko attended Barry Briggs’ speedway training camp in San Bernardino and his determination and natural talent impressed Briggs, a former world champion.

Said Harry Oxley, the father of modern American speedway racing and promoter of Saturday night’s 18th annual national championships: “When he was racing in the second and third division, Sam looked out of control most of the time but Barry kept saying all he needed was some fine tuning, that he had all the moves of a winner.

“Sam has the attitude that even if he is in fourth place, dead last, he still has a chance to win. He never gives up.”

After only one season as a first-division rider, Ermolenko went to England to ride for Poole in the British League and did better than any American had ever done in his first European season.

Pleased with his success, Ermolenko planned to buy a house there for his wife and two children. But the Poole team went bankrupt and the Ermolenkos returned home, where Sam rode this season on the Southern California circuit.

“I was disappointed at not getting another year in England because I felt I needed more experience, but I really wanted to stay in the States for my family’s sake,” he said. “I’m pleased with the way things worked out this year, especially in the World Finals.”

At Bradford, England, in the finals, Ermolenko came within a wheelie--not his own--of becoming the longest shot in history to win.

It was only his first attempt and no rider had ever won in his first try, but he ended up in a three-way runoff with defending world champion Erik Gundersen and Hans Nielsen of Denmark for the championship. Each had 13 points, from a potential of 15, in the round-robin competition in which every rider races five times, meeting every other rider once.

“In my fourth heat, I drew Gate 2 with the Finnish rider, Kai Niemi, on my right and the Russian (Viktor Kuznetsov) on the inside. I thought I could get the jump on Niemi from the second spot, but the Russian wheelied off the starting line and when I looked up all I could see was a wheel in my face.

“Niemi had made a great start and was leaning on me and by the time I got myself sorted out, I couldn’t catch him.”

If Ermolenko had won that heat, he would have won the title with 14 points.

Ermolenko finished third in the runoff. Gundersen successfully retained his title, and Nielsen finished second. Curiously, all three had ridden in the same heat earlier in the competition with Nielsen winning, followed by the little-known American.

“I don’t think they knew I was there,” Ermolenko recalled. “I was on the outside, in the fourth box, and they were so busy watching each other they started bumping elbows. When Nielsen broke away from Gundersen, I came down from the outside and split them and got second.”

In the runoff, Ermolenko drew the inside, but got a poor start and never challenged the two Danes, who had also finished 1-2 the previous year.

“I learned a lot about putting it all together on one night, and that’s what I have to do Saturday night,” Ermolenko said. “Any one of those guys can beat me unless I’m on top of things. Costa Mesa is a track where the start is more important than at almost any other track and there are a lot of spoilers there waiting to upset the favorites.”

After the World Finals, Ermolenko came home and finished second to Steve Lucero in the California State championships at San Bernardino, then the next night won the U.S. Masters at Carlsbad.

“I’ve had a good year, now I want to finish it on top,” he said. “I just bought a house in Corona and it will make working on the place a lot more enjoyable if I can win the nationals. I don’t know anybody else’s strategy, but mine is going to be, go for it in every heat.”

The U.S. Nationals field, with hometown and age: John Cook, Roseville, 27; Mike Faria, Colton, 28; Sam Ermolenko, Cypress, 24; Kelly Moran, Norwalk, 24; Lance King, Fountain Valley, 22; Bobby Schwartz, Balboa Island, 28; Alan Christian, Huntington Beach, 29; Steve Lucero, Riverside, 21; Brad Oxley, San Clemente, 26; Robert Pfetzing, Santa Ana, 26; John Sandona, Colton, 29; Bob Ott, Oceanside, 22; Ed Castro, Santa Ana, 25; Keith Chrisco, Whittier, 28; Mike Curoso, Fountain Valley, 31; Mike Delacy, Vallejo, 24.

SUPERMODIFIEDS--Chuck Gurney and Wally Pankratz will resume their battle for the United States Auto Club’s national supermodified championship Saturday night at Mesa Marin Raceway in the 30-lap Bakersfield Nationals. Gurney leads Pankratz by 84 points with two races remaining, Saturday on Mesa Marin’s high-banked half-mile oval and Nov. 24 at Phoenix International Raceway. Gurney has won five races, one of them at Mesa Marin in May. Pankratz won there in March and also won the last race, Sept. 14, in Las Vegas. Indianapolis 500 veteran George Snider will also drive as the hometown favorite.

SPRINT CARS--After having been rained out last Saturday night for the first time at Ascot Park since April 1982, the California Racing Assn. will return for another try this Saturday night. Ron Shuman, three-time Pacific Coast Nationals winner on the half-mile clay oval, will drive in his first Kraco-CRA main event of the fall. He finished third in the World of Outlaws season. It will be a tuneup for Shuman in his hopes of winning a fourth Pacific Coast Nationals Oct. 23-26.

MIDGETS--Although Sleepy Tripp clinched the USAC western regional championship with a second-place finish last week at Madera, he and 1984 champion Tommy White will continue their Ascot Park rivalry in Sunday night’s midget main event. Also on the program is a National Midget Racing Assn. three-quarter midget main event.

INDY CARS--A. J. Foyt and Pancho Carter will return to CART racing Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway in the Dana 150, next-to-last event in the CART/PPG Indy Car World Series. It is the 40th Indy car race on the one-mile oval and may be its most significant as six drivers--Al Unser Jr., Al Unser, Bobby Rahal, Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi and Danny Sullivan--continue their season-long battle for the $300,000 championship driver’s bonus. Rahal, winner of three of the last four CART races, won at Phoenix last year. Al Unser has won there five times, but not since 1979.

STOCK CARS--Orange Show Speedway in San Bernardino will close its season with a big weekend. State championship races for street stocks, pony stocks and Figure 8s are set for Saturday night. Sunday afternoon’s program includes a 150-lap factory stock enduro with 99 starters, and a destruction derby.

BOAT RACING--The SoCal Speedboat Club will hold the Castaic Fall Regatta for inboard hydroplanes and flat bottom racing runabouts Sunday at Castaic Lake. Racing will start at 10 a.m. with national championship points at stake.

MORE SPEEDWAY--Dennis Sigalos of Huntington Beach, one of the world’s top riders who sat out this season with injuries, is in England to ride the final six races for Ipswich in order to be eligible for next year’s American Finals in Long Beach, which serve as a qualifier for the World Finals.