Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1019648
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE M aybe it was because he was built more like a linebacker than a motorcycle racer, or per- haps it was the way he burst onto the scene over-performing on an underdog superbike, or how he suffered some spectacular crash- es but always seemed to walk away ready for more, or raced one of the best known road-race machines of all time, or took on the best in the world on a hope- lessly outclassed GP machine, but whatever the reason, Scott Gray earned a huge fan base, especially for a guy who won only a single AMA national road race during his entire pro career that ran over a dozen years starting in the mid-1980s. When Gray showed up at So- noma Raceway for the MotoAmer- ica race a couple of weeks ago, he'd barely changed since his racing days. So, even though he tried to keep a low profile at the race, looking the same as he did 20-plus years ago gave him away to a number of long-time fans who got big grins on their faces when they recognized him. From his teen years living in Santa Rosa, California, Gray was interested in racing. His dream was to be an auto racer, but his parents nixed the idea when they refused P122 PHOTOGRAPHY BY LARRY LAWRENCE BIG MAN GRAY Scott Gray had his best year in AMA Superbike in 1988 as a factory rider for Yoshimura Suzuki. next race he and his partner, Brian Manley, won their class in an AFM endurance race. This was Gray's second road race and never mind that they were DQ'd for a pipe that was too loud, in their minds they had won the race! He first got noticed on the national level when he entered the AMA Superbike National at Willow Springs Raceway towards the end of the '84 season. It was a crazy notion to even race the event. Gray had been on a finan- cially induced break for the better part of a year and had raced his home national at Sears earlier that season, doing decently before a flat tire forced him out. The fact remained, the nearly stock 1980 Suzuki GS750, owned by Jack Redmond, was woefully out of date and should not have been competitive at all on the horse- power-hungry Willow Springs. Gray ended up stunning the crowd with his 5-7 finishes in the two-leg race to take sixth overall. He beat established AMA Super- to buy him a used SCCA Formula car while Gray was still in school. "My parents, a fire chief and a real estate broker, hated the idea that I even had a Honda 100," so on the subject of the race car it was, 'Oh, negative. If we're pay- ing for school, you're not getting a race car.'" But Gray was also watching mo- torcycle races at Sears Point (now called Sonoma Raceway) and he decided he could do that without his parents knowing. "I bought a set of leathers, totally unbeknownst to them," Gray smiles. "Came out to the riders' school and raced the next day. I was running fourth and I was like, 'Wow, this is fun.' And then I low- sided up at [turn] two. Remember the banana pipe on the old '76 [Honda] Supersport? No ground clearance. Right on the pipe. I had no clue what I was doing as usual. And even when I fell off I was hav- ing a blast. It was just a low-side, so I was like, 'This is awesome!'" Gray was off and running. The