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VOLUME 56 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 20, 2019 P115 on a factory Yamaha. Triumphs and Yamahas stood on equal footing with Harley at the TT throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Jay Springsteen wrestled the Peoria crown back to the Motor Company in 1979 after a four-year drought, the longest ever shutout for Harley at Peoria. Then Randy Goss won it on a Harley XR750 in 1982 after two years of Yamaha wins with Scott Person. Then came the 1983 national. Little did anyone know at the time, but it would mark the final Peoria win by an American-made Harley- Davidson. It was the 35th annual Peoria TT and change was in the air—11 of the 17 starters in the '83 race were racing single-cylinder machines. According to riders, the track was extremely tacky that day. So much so that Jay Springsteen set a new track record in timed qualifying on his factory Harley XR750, but he wasn't the only one. A total of 38 riders came in under the old record set by Brad Hurst the year before. Even though the track was perfect for record-setting times, the fact that that many riders broke the record shows just how com- petitive the field was. One of the keys to Springsteen's speed was the fact that tuner Bill Werner actually took away peak horsepower from his rider's XR that day in favor of more torque down low. "It made the bike come off the corners great," Springsteen said before adding as any racer would, "but I didn't have enough power coming down the front straight." Springsteen nearly put himself into a major hole. He accidentally started his heat race in third gear, almost burning up his XR's clutch in the process. The odor of burnt clutch plates still permeated the air at the start-finish line when "Springer" came home winner of the heat ahead of Ronnie Jones on one of the new Wood-Rotax race bikes—the motorcycle that eventually would go on to domi- nate Peoria for years. Springsteen's heat turned out to be the fastest, and he sat on the pole. Knowing that the start was critical on the track that, by the main, had established a fairly nar- row groove, Springsteen aligned his XR right on the groove for the start of the national, hoping to get the holeshot. Springer said it was very important since the lighter weight singles surprisingly got off the corners better than his XR. After the dust cleared through the first turn at the start of the main, Springsteen might have thought his shot of winning was gone. Ricky Graham got through to the front on his XR600-based Honda single. Springer was fourth behind Randy Goss and Mike Kidd. On the fourth lap, Goss hit tire to tire with Graham, and the two bobbled. Kidd dove to one side to avoid what looked like an almost inevitable crash, and that allowed Springs- teen to third. But a lap later Shob- ert, on a Can-Am single, pushed Springsteen back to forth again. At the halfway flags, it was Goss, on his XR750, leading Graham, Springsteen and Shobert in a four- way battle for the lead. Goss then bobbled, and Graham and Spring- steen swapped the lead back and forth over the next few laps. Fans came to their feet and roared when Springsteen passed Graham with five laps to go. Graham, on his Honda single, was faster over the jump, but he over-jumped trying to get back by Springer and got totally out of shape landing, bashing his helmet into his handlebars. "I hit so hard I thought I broke some teeth," Gra- ham said. "That pretty much cost me a shot at winning the race." Once clear in the lead, Spring- steen set a pace neither Goss nor Shobert could match. He had about a 50-yard advantage at the checkered flag. "I was just stuck in the pack," Springer said. I didn't get the start I wanted, so I waited around for everyone else to make mistakes so I could take advantage of them." On that hot August day in 1983, Springer and Goss raced the XR750 to a one-two, but the hand- writing was on the wall. The next year, Graham won on a big-bore Honda single and 15 of the 17 start- ers in the national that year were on singles. Scott Parker managed a third on an XR, but a twin-cylin- der bike would not win the race again until a rule change brought back the Twins in 2017. A genuine Harley-Davidson at least has a chance to win Peoria again. It can't come soon enough for the Milwaukee faithful. They've been waiting 36 years and count- ing. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives