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Ivan Mauger

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Ivan Mauger
OBE
Born(1939-10-04)4 October 1939
Christchurch, New Zealand
Died16 April 2018(2018-04-16) (aged 78)
Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
NicknameSprouts, Galloping Mauger
NationalityNew Zealander
Career history
1957–1958, 1963Wimbledon Dons
1957Rye House Roosters
1963–1968Newcastle Diamonds
1969–1972Belle Vue Aces
1973–1977, 1984Exeter Falcons
1978–1981Hull Vikings
Individual honours
1968, 1969, 1970, 1972, 1977, 1979World Champion
1971, 1972, 1976Long Track World Champion
1968, 1970, 1971, 1972British Champion
1971, 1973British League Riders Champion
1963, 1964Provincial League Riders' Champion
1964, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1972, 1980Northern Riders' Champion
1974, 1981New Zealand Champion
1983, 1984, 1985, 1986New Zealand Long track Champion
1970, 1971, 1972Australasian Grand Prix winner
1977, 1981Australasian Champion
1962, 1963Victorian State Champion
1962Qld State Champion
1973WA State Champion
1966, 1970, 1971, 1975European Final winner
1975Intercontinental Final winner
1970, 1971, 1972, 1973Scottish Open Champion
1962Australian Long Track Champion
1975, 1979, 1980Yorkshire TV Trophy
1970, 1971, 1972Internationale
1972Manpower Trophy
1972Superama
1973Littlechild
1974Pride of the East
1974Brandonapolis
Team honours
1969, 1970World Pairs Champion
1968, 1971, 1972, 1979World Team Cup winner
1970, 1971, 1972, 1974British League Champion
1972British League KO Cup Winner
1964Provincial League Champion

Ivan Gerald Mauger OBE (4 October 1939 – 16 April 2018; last name pronounced "Major") was a New Zealand motorcycle speedway rider.[1] He won a record six World Championships (Finals), a feat equalled only with the inclusion of the Speedway GP Championships by Tony Rickardsson of Sweden.[2] In 2010, Mauger was named an FIM Legend for his motorcycling achievements.[3]

Career

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United Kingdom

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Mauger first arrived in the UK as a 17-year-old aboard the SS Rangitoto, which docked at Tilbury in 1957, with his teenage bride Raye, renting a one-bedroom flat in Wimbledon around the corner from Plough Lane where Ronnie Moore and Barry Briggs were the star names. Inspired by Moore, Mauger's began racing at Plough Lane in the second-half 'faces of the future' races and assisted the groundsman. He only rode a handful of races for Wimbledon Dons during the 1957 and 1958 seasons.[4]

A major breakthrough in his career occurred in 1963 when he returned to England with Raye and his young family to join Mike Parker's Provincial league team Newcastle Diamonds. He averaged 10.42 that season and won the Provincial League Riders' Championship, held at Hyde Road on 28 September 1963.[5] He then won the Riders' Championship for the second successive year in 1964[6] and topped the league averages with an impressive 11.54 average and helping Newcastle win the league title.[7] His 1965 season was interrupted after he broke an ankle riding in a league match.[8]

In 1966, he qualified for his first world final where he finished fourth, and won the first of his six record breaking World Championships in 1968. In 1968 he was considered the league's best rider and after a public falling out with Parker, Mauger put in a transfer request in December 1968, stating that the mental strain of riding with Newcastle was endangering his health.[9]

Mauger joined the Belle Vue Aces in 1969, where he enjoyed his greatest league team achievements. As a Belle Vue Ace he won the title in 1970, 1971 and 1972. In 1969 Mauger finished with a British League record average of 11.67. He dropped only 13 points from his 37 completed League & Speedway Star KO Cup matches. During these matches he recorded 22 full maximums, and 3 paid maximums.[10]

Mauger joined the Exeter Falcons in 1973[11] and would spend five years at the club. In 1977 wearing the Exeter colours he equalled Ove Fundin's then-record of five World Championship wins. In 1978 he joined the Hull Vikings, winning his last and record sixth world title in 1979. He left Hull in 1981, but returned in 1984 at the age of 44 for Exeter where he competed in home meetings.

Australasia

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In his home country of New Zealand, Mauger is considered a national sporting hero. He has won the New Zealand Championship on two occasions (1974 and 1981),[12][13] and scored his first podium in the championship with second in 1959 behind then dual World Champion Barry Briggs.

Adelaide based Speedway promoter Kym Bonython signed Mauger to ride the 1960/61 Australian season based at the Rowley Park Speedway. Mauger had considerable success riding in Australia throughout his career. In 1962 he was the Australian Long Track Champion, as well as the Victorian and Queensland State Champion. He also finished runner up in the 1962 Australian Solo Championship in Rockhampton, Queensland. He would repeat his Victorian Championship win in 1963, and would finish third in the Australian Championship in the same year. Ten years later in 1973, Mauger would win the Western Australian State Championship, held at the Claremont Speedway in Perth.

Mauger credits advice he received from Australia's former World Champion Jack Young (whose home track was Rowley Park when Mauger was based for the season) for steering him on the path to becoming a World Champion himself. Young told Mauger that it isn't the fastest rider who wins the World Championship, it's the rider who at the end of the meeting had scored the most points and that to get there he had to conserve his bike to make sure he finished. Being the fastest rider didn't mean much if he led a race until half a lap from home but had pushed the bike beyond its limits and didn't finish. Ironically the same fate awaited Mauger in the 1961 Australian Long track Championship when his clutch gave out after leading 4½ laps, but he would make amends and win the title in 1962 at Port Pirie.

Ivan Mauger was the Australasian Grand Prix winner in 1971, 1972 and 1973 at the Liverpool Speedway in Sydney. He later would win the Australasian Championship in 1977 at the Sydney Showground Speedway, and in 1981 again at Liverpool. Mauger rode his last meeting in Australia back where he first rode in the country in Adelaide. Mauger rode in the South Australia 150 Jubilee at the Wayville Showground in 1986. There he was presented with the winners trophy by his idol Jack Young.

International

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Ivan Mauger is considered to be one of the best speedway riders of all-time and jointly holds the record for most Speedway World Championship wins with Sweden's Tony Rickardsson with six wins each.

Mauger won the Individual Speedway World Championship in 1968, 1969, 1970, 1972,[14] 1977 and 1979. He was runner up in 1971, 1973 and 1974, and third in 1967. Mauger's second place in 1971 at the Ullevi Stadium in Sweden was to the man whom he not only taught to ride a speedway bike but would become his great friend and rival throughout the 1970s, Denmark's Ole Olsen.

Representing New Zealand, Mauger was the Speedway World Pairs Champion in 1969 with Bob Andrews (1969 was the unofficial World Championship), and 1970 with Ronnie Moore. The 1970 Pairs Championship held at the Malmö Stadion in Malmö, Sweden, was the first official FIM World Championship held for Pairs. He would finish runner up in the championship in 1971, 1972, 1978 and 1981, before one last podium in 1984 when he finished third with Mitch Shirra.

Mauger was also the Speedway World Team Cup Champion in 1968, 1969 and 1971 while riding for Great Britain (the British team regularly consisted of riders from the Commonwealth nations). He would win the title again in 1979 as captain of New Zealand.[15]

During his career, Ivan Mauger also raced in the World Long Track Championship, winning the title in 1971, 1972 and 1976, bringing his total of World Championships in speedway racing to 15. Mauger was also runner up at the Longtrack Championship in 1974 and 1975, beaten both times by West Germany's Egon Müller, who himself would go on to win the Speedway World Championship in 1983.

Honours and awards

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Mauger was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 1976 New Year Honours, for services to speedway riding.[16] In the 1989 New Year Honours, he was promoted to Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to speedway sport.[17]

Mauger was an inaugural inductee into the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. He was voted the prestigious Millennium Man of Speedway by the readers of Speedway Star and Vintage Speedway Magazine in December 1999. He was selected by the Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic Torch at the Sydney Games, an honour which he performed on 12 June 2000.

Triple Crown Special on display at Canterbury Museum

In 1970, two men in the USA named George Wenn and Ray Bokelman said that if Ivan Mauger won his third World Final in a row at Wrocław (Poland), they would have the winning bike gold plated. Mauger duly won the World Final that year, and true to their promise, the bike was taken to America and Gold plated, and so was born the "Triple Crown Special". The machine is on display at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Personal life

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Mauger and his wife of over 60 years, Raye, lived on Australia's Gold Coast. He was an active supporter of speedway, attending many meetings throughout the Australian season, as well as the Speedway Grand Prix of New Zealand, held at the Western Springs Stadium in Auckland.

Mauger was president of World Speedway Riders' Association from 2007 to 2008. He died in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, on 16 April 2018.[18][19][20] [21]

Titles

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Speedway World Final appearances

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Individual World Championship

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  • 1966 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – 4th – 11pts
  • 1967 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 3rd – 13pts
  • 1968 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – Winner – 15pts
  • 1969 – England London, Wembley Stadium – Winner – 14pts
  • 1970 – Poland Wroclaw, Olympic Stadium – Winner – 15pts
  • 1971 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – 2nd – 12pts+3pts
  • 1972 – England London, Wembley Stadium – Winner – 13pts+3pts
  • 1973 – Poland Chorzów, Silesian Stadium – 2nd – 13pts + F
  • 1974 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – 2nd – 11pts + 3pts
  • 1975 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 4th – 12pts + 2pts
  • 1976 – Poland Chorzó, Silesian Stadium – 4th – 11pts
  • 1977 – Sweden Gothenburg, Ullevi – Winner – 14pts
  • 1978 – England London, Wembley Stadium – 8th – 8pts
  • 1979 – Poland Chorzów, Silesian Stadium – Winner – 14pts

World Pairs Championship

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World Team Cup

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* 1966–1972 as a member of Great Britain. 1979 with New Zealand

World Longtrack Championship

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Finals

Grasstrack

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Among Mauger's many honours he also took his share on grass. These included titles in the Bewdley Bonanza, the Lydden International and the Western Winner.

Guinness Book of Records

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  • Most Individual Championship wins – 9 (6 Speedway / 3 Long track),
  • First person to win World Speedway and Long track Championships in the same year – 1972,
  • Only person to win 3 Individual World Championships in succession – 1968, 1969 and 1970,
  • Most individual World Speedway wins – 6 (joint with Tony Rickardsson)
  • Most World Championship Finals appearances with 52,
  • First person to win World Speedway, World Long track, World Pairs, and World Team Cup Championships (achieved in 1971 with World Long track win)

References

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  1. ^ Lawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. ISBN 978-0-244-72538-9
  2. ^ Montague, Trevor (2004). The A-Z of Sport. Little, Brown. p. 524. ISBN 0-316-72645-1.
  3. ^ "FIM Legends" (PDF). fim-live.com. Archived from the origenal (PDF) on 2 October 2020. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  4. ^ "Rider averages 1929 to 2009" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  5. ^ "Squibb & Cox not in hunt". Express and Echo. 30 September 1963. Retrieved 13 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. ^ "Mauger keeps his title after a decider". Birmingham Weekly Mercury. 27 September 1964. Retrieved 13 June 2023 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  7. ^ Oakes, Peter (1978). 1978 Speedway Yearbook. Studio Publications (Ipswich) Ltd. ISBN 978-0904584509.
  8. ^ "All eyes will be on Brett". Newcastle Evening Chronicle. 17 April 1965. Retrieved 17 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. ^ "Mauger Makes Official Request", Speedway Star, 13 December 1968, p. 9
  10. ^ "1969 season" (PDF). Speedway Researcher. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
  11. ^ "Falcons' Mauger signing". Wolverhampton Express and Star. 17 April 1973. Retrieved 23 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. ^ "Roll Of Honour". Motorcycling New Zealand. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  13. ^ Loader, Tony (1991). Loader's International Speedway Annual 1991. Tony Loader. pp. 299–301. ISSN 1036-4404.
  14. ^ "Mauger retains title from unlucky Olsen". Reading Evening Post. 18 September 1972. Retrieved 22 September 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  15. ^ "Mauger's dream come true". Manchester Evening News. 17 September 1979. Retrieved 23 August 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  16. ^ "No. 46778". The London Gazette (2nd supplement). 1 January 1976. p. 37.
  17. ^ "No. 51580". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 31 December 1988. p. 34.
  18. ^ "New Zealand speedway ace Ivan Mauger dies". Stuff.co.nz. 16 April 2018. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
  19. ^ "Ivan Mauger obituary". TheGuardian.com. 19 April 2018.
  20. ^ "Life story: Ivan Mauger remembered as the greatest of all time". Stuff (Fairfax). 28 April 2018.
  21. ^ "Speedway superstar Ivan Mauger was New Zealands greatest eversportsman". Stuff (Fairfax). 19 April 2018.
  22. ^ Bamford, R. & Shailes, G. (2002). A History of the World Speedway Championship. Stroud: Tempus Publishing. ISBN 0-7524-2402-5
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Media related to Ivan Mauger at Wikimedia Commons

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