Cycle News

VOL. 56 ISSUE 6 FEBRUARY 12, 2019 P105 ship, with the possible exceptions of Gene Romero and David Aldana. Road racing truly was beginning to peel away from dirt track ever more and few of the dirt track experts never even bothered to enter road races for the extra points by 1980. Eklund was quickly out of the running to defend his number-one plate after a disastrous start to his 1980 campaign. He failed to score a single championship point until the Ascot Half-Mile in May, six rounds into the season. Springs- teen continued to be hampered by nagging digestive disorders, which sapped his strength. That meant two of the leading contend- ers were mostly out of the picture before the series was a quarter of the way through. In somewhat of a surprise it was Alex Jorgensen emerging as the series leader by the end of May, with Hank Scott right on his tail. Those two were well ahead of the rest of the pack. The midway point of the year came in late June with the Road Atlanta road race (won by Rich Schlachter, the only road racer in the top-10 in the standings at that point). In a showing of parity, eight different riders had scored victory at that point. Hank Scott, with a series-leading three wins, was the series leader and took home the $10,000 midseason payout from Winston. Scott had 92 points at the halfway point with Morehead and Goss (77-73 points) locked in a tight battle for second. In the second half of the sea- son, Hank Scott continued strong outings with victories at the Du Quoin Mile and Topeka Half-Mile. Goss hadn't won a race all season, but continued to be consistent at each round and Ricky Graham began clicking into a groove taking victories at the Indy Mile and Tulsa Half-Mile, putting him into conten- tion. Tulsa was pivotal. Not only did Graham score the victory over Hank Scott and Scott Drake, but series points leader Goss missed making the main when rookie Rob Crabbe stole the lead from him with two turns to go in their semi. Scott's runner-up finish put him into a tie with Goss for the lead, with Graham's victory putting him a close third, just six points back. The final two races of the 1980 series were in California, the San Jose Mile and Ascot Park Half- Mile. Those two events would decide the title. Goss bounced back from his Tulsa disappointment with a key win on the San Jose Mile. It was his first time he stood atop the podium all year. But the points haul from Goss' win was blunted somewhat by the fact that Hank Scott finished second, putting him just four points behind Goss. Graham's surge and shot at the title came to a crashing end when he fell on the seventh lap at San Jose. The two weeks between San Jose and Ascot had to be excru- ciating for Goss and Scott. For his part, Goss said he just tried make it simple. He said he tried to put the math of his four-point lead and all the various scenarios out of his mind. Scott knew his best shot at the title was to go for nothing short of victory at Ascot. He ripped in time trials and set the fastest time. It seemed like the pressure might be getting to Goss. He was nearly a full second off Scott's time and that would put him on the second row of his heat race. Not to worry though, Goss used the power of his Brent Thompson-tuned factory rig to move up to finish third in his heat, safely putting him in the national. In the main, Scott and Goss were running midpack and moving up together. Goss then decided just to park it on Scott's rear tire, knowing if he finished right behind Scott, no matter what, the title would be his. That strategy worked for most of the race, but then Scott forced his way past Springsteen to move into third behind Labrie and Eklund. If Scott could pass Eklund, the championship was his. Unfor- tunately for Scott there were just three laps to go and in spite of clos- ing the gap, he couldn't get close enough to challenge Eklund. "I didn't even bother this week figuring out what place I had to get," Goss told Cycle News re- porter Dale Brown after the race. "I just came to do the best I could. Hank knew, when we came around the corner he looked back and he knew I'd gotten it. Then I knew." Goss said a big grin came across his face as he took the checkered flag and scored what, before the season began, seemed like a long- shot championship. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives

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