Phil Crump

Philip John Crump (born 9 February 1952) in Mildura, Victoria is a retired Australian Motorcycle speedway riderLawson,K (2018) “Riders, Teams and Stadiums”. who attained 3rd place in the 1976 World Championship. He also won the 1976 Speedway World Team Cup with Australia in the same year.

Career

Australia

Known universally as ''Crumpy'' or ''The Mildura Marvel'', Phil Crump started racing speedway in his late teens at his local Mildura track Olympic Park Speedway in 1970 and would go on to have a stellar career both in Australia and overseas.

Phil Crump first won his first Australian Solo Championship in 1975 at the famous Sydney Showground Speedway. He would go on to win another three national championships in 1979 at his home track (Olympic Park), 1984, again at Olympic Park. He won his last championship in 1988 at the Riverview Speedway in Murray Bridge, South Australia. He would also finish second on five occasions (1976, 1977, 1980, 1981 and 1985) while he would finish third in the championship in 1983.

Crump was in winning form in the 1983 championship at Adelaide's Speedway Park and had easily won his first three races, including setting a new 3 lap track record along the way. In his fourth race he came against three-time defending champion Billy Sanders who was also undefeated but had looked less convincing after only narrowly defeating Gary Guglielmi in his first race (Guglielmi had led for the first 2¾ laps before Sanders passed him in the final turn). The most anticipated race of the night ended early as the pair clashed in turn 2 of the first lap with Sanders going down. In a very unpopular decision with the almost 8,000 strong crowd, meeting referee Sam Bass excluded Crump and Sanders went on to win the re-run race (beating Crump's new track record by 5/100 of a second) and subsequently the championship after also winning his final ride. As a result of finishing 3rd in the championship, Crump missed a place in the Overseas Final.

Crump finished 2nd to reigning World Champion Ole Olsen of Denmark in the 1976 Australian title after the Dane was a controversial inclusion in the Final at the Liverpool International Speedway in Sydney, despite protests from other riders about his non-Australian eligibility. However, knowing Olsen's drawing power, Liverpool management Mike Raymond and Frank Oliveri successfully pushed for his inclusion in the meeting.

Crump had a stranglehold on the Victorian State Championship winning 13 titles between 1972 and 1988, winning every year except 1976, 1978, 1983 and 1987. He also took out the NSW State Championship in 1976 at the Sydney Showwground.

England

The Crump family had a home in Bristol while Phil was racing in the British League, which he started doing in 1971 with the Crewe Kings. He also rode for the Newport Wasps, Wolverhampton Wolves, Oxford Cheetahs, Hackney Hawks, King's Lynn Stars, Ipswich Witches, Bristol Bulldogs and Swindon Robins during his British career.

In 1974, Crump won the "Westernapolis" meeting at Exeter and later won the meeting for a second time in 1978 and again in 1984. He also won the inaugural Yorkshire Television Trophy meeting at The Boulevard in Hull in 1974.

After retiring from British League riding in 1986, Crump, who had continued riding in Australia including winning the national championship in 1988, made a comeback for a single season with Swindon in 1990 joining his young protégé from Mildura Leigh Adams.

International career

Early in Crump's international career, New Zealand's four time World Champion Barry Briggs predicted that he would be a future World Champion.

Phil Crump rode in three World Finals during his career. His first appearance in a World Final was at the famous Wembley Stadium in 1975 where he scored 10 points to finish in 6th place. He achieved his best placing at the Silesian Stadium in Katowice, Poland in 1976 when he finished in third place on 12 points behind English pair Peter Collins and Malcolm Simmons. Crump's final World Final appearance was in 1982 when he finished in a disappointing 14th place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. He scored 4 points in his five rides on the night, all third-place finishes in his first four races. Crump rode in the controversial Heat 14 which saw the clash between defending champion Bruce Penhall of the United States, and Englishman Kenny Carter.

Crump won his only World Championship when he was a member of the Australian team that won the 1976 Speedway World Team Cup at the White City Stadium in London alongside team captain John Boulger, Billy Sanders, Phil Herne, and reserve Garry Middleton. Australia scored 31 points in the final, with Crump the top scorer with 11. His only loss was to Sweden's 1974 World Champion Anders Michanek in Heat 9.

Teaming with South Australian champion Boulger, Phil Crump would finish in second place in the 1974 Speedway World Pairs Championship held at the Hyde Road Speedway in Manchester, England. In 1975 they teamed again to finish in fifth place in Wrocław, Poland. Crump would team with Billy Sanders to finish in fourth place in 1976 in Eskilstuna, Sweden, and seventh in 1977 in Manchester. He teamed with Queenslands John Titman to again finish fourth in Vojens in 1979, and another Qld rider in Steve Regeling to finish sixth in 1985 in Rybnik, Poland, and ninth in 1986 in the West German city of Pocking. The 1986 World Pairs Championship was Phil Crump's last appearance in a World Final as a rider.

World Final Appearances

Individual World Championship

* 1975 - London, Wembley Stadium - 6th - 10pts
* 1976 - Chorzów, Silesian Stadium - 3rd - 12pts
* 1982 - Los Angeles, Memorial Coliseum - 14th - 4pts

World Pairs Championship

*1974 - Manchester, Hyde Road (with John Boulger) - 2nd - 23pts (14)
*1975 - Wrocław, Olympic Stadium (with John Boulger) - 5th - 19pts (10)
*1976 - Eskilstuna, Eskilstuna Motorstadion (with Billy Sanders) - 4th - 16pts (10)
*1977 - Manchester, Hyde Road (with Billy Sanders) - 7th - 12pts (10)
*1979 - Vojens

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