Bruce Penhall was in CHiPs season 6, and also the CHiPs 99 movie. He played Bruce Nelson, the speedway champion brother, of Ponch's partner Bobby Nelson, he was featured in season 6, and appeared as 'cadet nelson.' During the season his popularity grew and he replaced Bobby (Tom Reilly) as Ponch's partner, this was the start of a perfect partnership, but sadly also the end of 'chips' as season 6 came to an end so did the series.

Penhall Info.

Name: Bruce Lee Penhall.
Birth place: Anaheim Los Angeles, California
DOB: May 10th 1957.
Family: He has 1 brother 'Jerry' and 1 sister Called 'Connie'.

Bruce Penhall Vital Stats:
Height 5'7

Eyes:
Blue

Hair:
This ones debatable Bruce is best known for having blonde hair but he's actually naturally brown and at present time is Dark brown

Scars:
Bruce has a small scar under his left shoulder from an operation to correct a shoulder injury.

Beverage:
Apple Juice.

Food:
Lobster followed by Jello.

Pastimes:
Bruce still enjoys an active life since leaving behind the world of Speedway, and Powerboating he has also played around with Desert car and Airplane racing, he also enjoys surfing (maybe leaves that to the Penhall Juniors more these days) Skiing water and snow, and well any kind of motorsport either as a spectator or taking part our Bruce never likes to sit still for long the phrase "i feel the need the need for speed"! could almost have been written with Bruce in mind.

What was Bruce like as a child?
Very much like he is now very sweet and caring once rescuing a mouse from biology class in the eleventh grade which he was supposed to feed to the class snake aww sweet but with a little bit of a naughty side too after he and his brother Jerry pestered their neighbours in Anaheim into cleaning their pool and when they did the brothers Penhall returned later to throw lumps of dirt into it.

Bruce was in the fifth or sixth grade when he received his first Honda 50cc for Christmas the start of a long and happy relationship with Motorcycles!

Bruce started riding speedway in 1973 after his father sponsored another top American rider Rick Woods, sadly for Bruce just 2 years into speedway career and with a promising
future in the sport ahead of him both his parents were killed in a private plane crash, and in his own words from that moment on he dedicated himself to winning the World Championship!
After touring Israel, Australia and New Zealand he was tempted to Britain in 1978 and signed for the Cradley Heathens where he captained them to league championship in 1981, and in the
same year was both World Champion and rider of the year.

After retaining his title on homeground the following year in L.A he retired on the podium and went straight into filming 'CHiPs'! but what the 'CHiPs' fans dont know is that so desperate were the producers to fill the void left by Larry Wilcox, who played Jon Baker, that they actually asked Bruce to join the show THREE times!!!
The first offer coming halfway through the 1982 season they offered Bruce a part playing himself as a special guest, he had no acting experience so in-between races he attended acting classes in London. Bruce says "after another one and a half months they said they would like me to play the leading rider alongside Erik Estrada" who plays Ponch".... but as they wanted him to quit speedway 2 months before the end of the '82 season he said "no thanks" but did they give up? nope just TWO weeks before the final at the L.A coliseum they called him AGAIN telling him they had written a part for him involving him winning the final and retiring to be a 'Chippy' just as well he won then huh? imagine the pressure he must have been under?

After 'CHiPs' ended Bruce took a little break to re-evaluate his life and get back to racing bikes a little while later he met and married his wife Laurie with their first baby Ryan coming along in 1986, Bruce also made the movie 'Bodycount' the same year, daughter Mackenzie followed in 1989 and youngest son Connor in 1990.
Bruce also has another son Devin 21.

After making 8 movies for director Andy Sidaris he quit acting to take up Powerboating and between 1995 and 2001 he and partner Dennis Sigalos won 5 world championships!

In Between all this he also ran two successful business's, one relandscaping golf courses and another 'Penhall Opticals' selling top designer sunglasses t the biggest stars of stage and screen.


What is Bruce up to now?

'He is happy working in the demolition industry and spending time with his family in between times he commentates on powerboating events and with his sons Ryan and Connor now riding motocross and junior speedway he spends alot of time
with them helping them out and organising races for them, he also says he still makes the odd commercial for company's like Kawasaki, he's still registered as an actor, as for the future well his biography :Penhall World Speedway Champion is due out March 12th 2005, copies will be available after that date!

Bruce is eyeing a return to top class speedway as a Grand Prix promoter he is currently involved in plans to bring a GP track to the U.S next year and that is about as upto date as it gets.

Some links for Bruce below..

Bruce INfo..
Cradley Speedway Site..

More about Bruce Penhall on imdb