Ivan Mauger
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Ivan Mauger, OBE, MBE , (born 4 October 1939 in Christchurch, New Zealand ) is a Motorcycle speedway rider. Mauger is regarded as one of the greatest riders in the history of the sport. He won a record 6 World Championships. He rode for British teams, Newcastle Diamonds,Belle Vue Aces, Exeter Falcons, and Hull.
- World Champion: 1968,1969,1970,1972,1977,1979 - R/Up 1971,1973,1974
- New Zealand Sportsperson of the Year ( Halberg Award ) 1977 and 1979.
- World 1000m Longtrack Champion 1971,1972,1976 R/Up 1974,1975
- World Pairs Speedway Champion 1969,1970 R/Up 1971,1972,1978,1981
- World Team Speedway Champion 1968,1971,1972,1979
- Guinness Book of Records
Most Individual Championship Wins 9 (6 Speedway / 3 Longtrack), First Person to Win World Speedway and Longtrack in same year, Only Person to Win 3 Individual World Titles in succession, Most Individual World Speedway Wins 6, Most World Final Championship Finals 52, First Person to Win World Speedway, World Longtrack, World Pairs, and World Team Cup, Championships (Achieved 1971 with World Longtrack win)
- European Champion 1966,1970,1971,1975
At an early age he excelled at most sports, and represented his country in rugby and hockey at schoolboy level.
For Ivan, speedway became an obsession, his main ambition wanting to be a speedway rider; his mother purchased his first bike at the age of fourteen, and Ivan practised for hours at the Aranui racetrack. It was to be the first stage of a riding career that lasted over 30 years and spread over four decades, which continues to this day as Ivan remains deeply involved and dedicated to the sport in the capacity of speedway promoter and statesman, from his base on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Not all went as to expectation in the early parts of his career, initial success with Wimbledon did not come. Ivan returned to his homeland in 1958, and following extreme hardship and dedication he began to receive the due recognition of his abilities as a rider competing in his home country and Australia.
Mauger first arrived in England as a fresh-faced 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 Moore and Briggs reigned as the twin 'kings of the cinders'.
"Without Ronnie, there would have been no Briggo and no Ivan Mauger; whenever he came home to New Zealand it was like the arrival of Elvis. He was our Pele, if you like."
Inspired by the deeds of Moore, from the age of 12, Mauger dedicated himself to becoming speedway's champion of the world, working as a delivery boy for a local chemist in Christchurch after school and in the holidays to save money for his first racing machine.
"Everyone thought I had wealthy parents because I could afford to buy a bike before I was 16 but for three years I never bought an ice-cream, a Coca-Cola or anything like that. After I left school I had two jobs - as did Raye - and that's how we saved enough money to come to England when we were little more than children."
Mauger's great adventure began at Plough Lane where he rode in the second-half 'faces of the future' races and assisted Mac the groundsman.
"I never, ever felt I was going to work for the simple reason that I just loved the atmosphere of being in Wimbledon stadium. I cleaned the dressing rooms, the toilets, the pits and the workshop. I helped Mac work on the track, I weeded the tulip beds and on Monday afternoons I had to cut the grass out in the centre before the speedway meeting. And not just any old cut would do for Ronnie. It had to be mowed in one direction then the other, just like Wembley.
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 Newcastle. In 1966 he qualified for his first World Final where he finished fourth, and after winning the first of six record breaking World Speedway Championships in 1968, Ivan joined Belle Vue, where he enjoyed he greatest league team achievements. As a Belle Vue Ace he won the title again in 1969 and 1970, thereby becoming the first and only rider to complete the 'Triple Crown' before joining Exeter in 1973. In 1977 wearing the Exeter colours he equalled Ove Fundin's then-record of five wins, before joining Hull in 1978, 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.
Ivan Mauger was awarded the MBE in 1976, the OBE in 1989, and was voted the prestigious Millennium Man of Speedway by the readers of Speedway Star and Vintage Speedway Magazine in December 1999. To complete these illustrious awards Ivan Mauger was selected by the Olympic Committee to carry the Olympic Torch at the Sydney Games, a honour which he performed on June 12th 2000.
In 1970, two men in the USA named George Wenn and Ray Bokelman said that if Ivan Mauger won three world finals in a row at Wroclaw (Poland), they would have the winning bike gold plated. Ivan duely 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 currently resides at Ivan's home in Queensland, Australia.
Ivan Mauger OBE MBE is widely regarded as the Greatest Speedway Rider of All Time.
