Name/Title
Hancock, GregEntry/Object ID
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By 2019, racer Greg Hancock was in his 27th season competing in the Speedway World Championship after logging a record 218 Speedway Grand Prix appearances. Hancock is one of the most-decorated motorcycle racers of all time, earning four FIM Speedway World championships, three FIM World Team Cup titles and eight AMA U.S. National Speedway championships in a career spanning four decades.
Born in Whittier, Calif., in 1970, Hancock grew up in an era when speedway racing dominated Southern California and produced some of America's top talent, many of whom cemented their skills on the highly competitive European circuit.
At a young age, Hancock's father, Bill, started taking Greg and his siblings to speedway races at the Costa Mesa Speedway in Orange County, Calif. Through his father, Hancock was introduced to racing stars Bobby Schwartz and AMA Hall of Famer Bruce Penhall, and Schwartz would prove to be an inspiration to him and a family friend.
"I was really fortunate because my dad was friends with all these racers, and I grew up watching them compete and hearing about their careers in Europe," Hancock said. "Plus, running around under the stands finding tear-offs, the smell of castor oil, bean oil, and methanol. Getting sprayed with dirt; it was like a drug."
At 8 years old, Hancock was already riding a speedway bike his dad built for him. By nine, he was racing in the Junior Speedway competition.
In 1981, Penhall became the first American to earn a World Championship in London since AMA Hall of Famer Jack Milne in 1937. That same year, Schwartz and Penhall won the World Pairs Championship in Katowice, Poland.
"When Penhall won, that was a huge feat and it raised the bar for American racers," Hancock said. "It also created the dreams for guys like me to go over there and try to replicate it. It felt as if I had the red carpet rolled out."
Hancock took the Junior Speedway National Champion title in 1985 — the first of many titles. In 1989, he made his British debut and connected with Lance King, an American who competed in the top tier of British Speedway racing.
"I struggled greatly my first year," Hancock said. "But Lance basically transformed everything I learned in the U.S. He was really tough on me for all the right reasons, and I ran the rest of my career the same way he showed me with a few yearly upgrades."
By 1992, when the Swedish, Polish and Czech leagues started to open up to American riders, Hancock began seeing success and nearly doubled the number of races he competed in by crisscrossing the European continent.
In 1997, Hancock reached the first apex of his young career, winning the FIM World Speedway Championship. The win was proceeded and followed by winning the 1992 FIM World Pairs Championship, and 1992, 1993 and 1998 FIM World Team Cup Championship. By the end of his career, he was also an eight-time AMA National Speedway Champion.
"It was everything to win the first world championship in 1997," Hancock said. "But, after that, I don't know how hungry I was to win another. To really want it."
By 2009, he was toying with the idea of retiring, and then his fortune turned. Following a race in England, he was randomly approached by Prodrive, a British motorsport and advanced engineering group focused on racecars.
"Despite these being car guys, in two weeks, I had my first prototype chassis from them," he said. "By 2010, we were finally starting to get somewhere. Then they made one adjustment, and the first time I rode the bike, I knew I could win the championship again. The next year, 2011, was the year of my life, and I won my second FIM World Speedway Championship. We won for every team I rode with that year in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, and Sweden. It was as if the stars had lined up."
He went on to win the World Championship in 2014 and 2016. In winning the World Championship in 2016, Hancock became the oldest title winner at 46 years, 130 days old.
Besides earning those titles, Hancock has at least 21 G.P. wins, has finished in the top five of World Speedway competition 17 times and in the top 3 eight times. His record for Grand Prix appearances includes a stretch of 177 consecutive starts, a staggering number and a testament to the mental determination and physical resilience of one of America's great racers.
In addition to his world titles, Hancock is the 1989 AMA U.S. Longtrack champion, and won the AMA U.S. National Speedway championship in 1995, 1996, 2000, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009. Hancock was also named AMA Athlete of the Year in 2009.
In recounting some wisdom Swedish motocross champion Lars Larsson once told him, Hancock said:
"Lars told me champions are not made in a year. It can take two years, five years, or longer, but I didn't believe him. It was not until I stood up and got my second title in 2011 that I realized he was right. I don't know if my mentors know if I used everything that they taught me or not, but I can say I did."
Hancock officially retired from speedway racing in 2020.
Hancock was inducted into the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 2022.Relationships
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Hancock, Greg