Bruce Lee Penhall is born in Balboa, California. He was a World Speedway Champion racer riding for the successful Cradley Heath Heathens speedway team in the UK from 1978-1982.
The 1981 Speedway season proved to be Penhall’s all conquering year. Racing at the World Final at London’s Wembley Stadium, 92,479 people witnessed Bruce Penhall come from behind to beat both former World Champion Ole Olsen of Denmark and later another Dane, Tommy Knudsen, on the finish line. Also in 1981, Penhall partnered fellow American Bobby Schwartz to win the World Pairs Championship in Poland and, alongside fellow 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.
He 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.
If you think you recognise Bruce but never had an interest in Speedway, it may be because he played cadet-probationary office Bruce Nelson in the TV series CHiPs in 1983. One episode. “Speedway Fever”, concentrated on his character winning the 1982 World Final at the LA Coliseum. Scenes were shot in the pits in between races and actual footage of the final was shown in the episode.
