Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

... f ... ,.. M - '" just rappin' w~h GARY SCOTT " ,' e II .., by John Bethea/Creative Images Mark Brelsford was clearly on. ~ Tucking into the turn flat out. his w Harley sent huge chunks of dirt flying Z back at the other riders. In second place W ...J was Gary Scott. the young rookie who U was trying to spoil every factory effort > U going. But. Mark was on and Gary was trying everything to get by. "On a Mile track. everything is so slow, really," Gary says. "There's so much time and room to compensate for a mistake. If you got off the groove it's easier to get back on than it is QIl 'a Half-mile. The Mile is more of a horsepower thing." This was a Mile - Atlanta, to be exact. Mark began to pull away. Five laps down. five to go in this heat. "I had tried eveything I could to get by," Gary recalls. "I tried slip-streaming and that didn't work. I felt miserable watching him starting to pull away." The fastest doesn't always come out the winner, however. Mark made on'e mistake: he lost his concentration. "When you lose your concenfration, you either slow down or fall," Scott admi ts. Mark slowed down. "f guess it kinda psyched him a little so I moved up on him again. When you lose the 100 percen t concen tration, it's hard to get it back real fast. Suddenly, he gave me an opening, and I took it and moved inside him. Well. he tried everything to keep pace, but it was in the turn. and he was on the au tside. and he slipped off the groove and nearly went into the wall. He dropped back to third and I made it to the Main with the win.'· It was the only real showdown between the pair all year. the closest they ever came at dicing. And here it was. the big one which was to decide it all. Gary had won their first confrontation. Off the line in the main. both Scott and Brelsford were at it again. this time in third and fourth. Weaving back and fourth on the long A tlan ta oval they exchanged glances and dices. Then came the heartbreak every privately sponsored rider feels. "The bike wen t sour on lap 19 aJld that was it: he had won the championship." Gary shakes his head slightly. "No. I wasn't really mad as mucn as I was disappointed because I had run a really hard race and it wasn't really anybody's fault. We had picked up a little rust on the points and lost fire. You know; minor stuff that happens once in awhile. Just like that. Scott had lost all chances at winning the Grand National Championship in his very first year as an Expert. No chance to relax. though. Breathing down his neck was ,Kenny Roberts and Gene Romero. "This really upset me," he relates; the fear of their presence provoking a rare glance an an emotional Scott. "It really got me excited. To finish in second as a rust-year Expert is one thing. but to drop in the last couple of races back to fourth would have been a little bit too much for me to handle. I had worked hard for where I was all season long. so I knew I had to do it as Ascot." If success under pressure is any indication. then Gary showed his truc grit at Ascot two weeks later by not folding under the weigh t. "Being a day race I wasn't sure if I'd do as well. but I had that 100 percent effort again - back on the coast and all. I was all over my aches and pains now and I was ready 'to race. We went out there and every thing worked smoothly and I had won another Natiunal and that c1inch.ed my second place in the point standings." With a huge grin. he adds. " ... and it made me very happy." • It didn't look as rosy when the season began for the 20·year-old West Covina residen t. He had just picked up partial sponsorship from Skip Clark's City Cycle Center in Pica Rivera. Calif. At that point. the only thing he had going was a PurSang he had gotten from Bultaco Motors. "Being a privateer I didn't have many bucks to spend on traveling or keeping the bike running. I have a few friends, like Wendy Briggs and Al Goslee over at Kawasaki and they called me up about a project for Houston. They wanted to build a 1T and flat tracker for both ,Dave Aldana and myself to race at Houston. Gary Stott as a Junior shows the style that catapulted him to the top of the Expert ranks the follovving year. "Since I didn't have anything going. this sounded great." Both Aldana and Scott tried out the bikes and both were highly impressed as many of the bugs had already been worked out of the engines. Both riders agreed to ride for Kawasaki so off they went "down to Houston to do some racin'." And race Gary Scott did. In short track trials. Gary did a sizzling 15.91. the first time anyone cracked the 16 second barrier at the Dome. When it came around to the main, however, he could only weave his way to fourth. The night before. fifth was his position in the 1'1'. "I could have' done better." he explains, "but the 350 just didn't have that explosive burst off the line to the first turn. This means we would be running near the back of the field and in that competition it is just too much ground to make up. But. it showed the capabilities of the machinery." Already on his way up the points ladder. Gary continued agreements with Kawasaki and headed for Daytona in March ...but. without a road racer. Riding the Big K, Gary won one short track and finished "fourth or fifth in the other. But I still didn't have a road racer." "Then I walked down the pits at Daytona while everyone was practicing. Oh, that's a horrid f~eling. to walk around a race track with nothing to race. GBrY returns to familiar grounds lit Photo. c.m. Evoking all the sympathy he could muster. he continued making personal appearances in the pits and finally it paid off. ~'I saw Scott and Don Autrey and they were good friends of mine we've ridden sportsman events together - and they offered their 350 Yamaha for me to ride in the National. There was only one problem. Autrey was going to ride it in the Junior Main. and [ wouldn't have very much practice on it!' That's putting it mildly. After Autrey finished 4th, they broke down on Saturday and replaced pistons and rings and put on a new rear tire. Race ready. Earlier, Gary qualified after only three laps practice. "~verything went pretty smoothly. I wasn't out to set any track records.. J didn't wan t to scratch up his new road racer. We made it all the way to about the 47 lap and the closest thing we could figure we were running about 12th ...which is very good for the effort we put out. Really. we were mainly concerned with points; I wanted the points to just stay in there and hold my own and not try and win the race." Ironically ,nobody else in the running for the National title scored points at Daytona. In fact. Eddie' Mulder. 15th in points at the final tally. is the only rider scoring points at Daytona in the Top 15. "A lot of it is due to the fact that it is the first road race of the year." Scott explains.· ..Also. it's one of the toughest. The only one I saw this year that was harder on the rider and machinery was Talladega and that was because of the weather. Talladega was torturous. At Daytona nobody was really ready for what they were going to nave to endure. such as tire wear on the big threes ... and the high speeds." As the season progressed, Harley and Brelsford emerged as the prime choice as the next champs. Mark, when he made the Main. was getting phenomenally high finishes. Scott, aI though making just abou t every National Main a rider could. was expetiencing the privateer woes: mechanical failures. Colorado Springs: After settting third fastest time. the bike went sour on lap three of the main. San Jose Mile: with a 150 yard lead on lap 17, the lower end ~Iew. Louisville: he took a third despite being undergeared ("My fault, In fact, I revved it too high in one tum and the engine sputtered. I thought to myself, 'There you go. man, you just seized the thing.' Then. it came on strong again and on I wenL.! could have won that one). Homewood Mile: broken seal. Then. of course. Atlanta Mile. "[ bad worked for it (Number one) all along bu t really did not realize I had a chance and how close I was getting until right after Laguna Seca. I had come up to within 10 points of Mark_ Everybody was really -excited but I didn't realize what they were excited about. They though ht I had finished up one place higher than I had and they thought I had taken over the points lead. Then it finally hit me and I was getting really excited about it." As quickly as the realization came was as quickly as it went. The circuit swung to New York's Roosevelt Park and Scott. after setting fast time. was way out in front of his heat when his chances for the title virtually ended. "Every once in awhile I get relaxed too much and I start thinking ahead too far. At Roosevelt I shouldn't have because of where I was at: the apex. of the turn. I had everything under control, more or less. and 1 was thinking about getting out on the straightaway ...and I thought this while I was in the process of falling down. Gary leaned forward to emphasize the point. "It wouldn't have happened if f had been concentrating on it. I was losing the fronl wheel and when I finally realized that I was definately in trouble. well, it was too late. "Actually. it was an easy fall. The bike didn't flip at all; it just bounced along the track like normal. The only reason I got hurt was because Teddy Newton followed me off the track and ran over me. I t's funny how you do that. I catch myself doing it once in a while. When I see someone falling I look out the corner of my eye. and I don't look at them. "So [ often nnd myself looking back or off to the side or at the people or something like that 'and it loosens my concentration. Before you know it you can't refocus your eyes fast enough and - BAM - you've had it. I'm sure this is what happened to Teddy. It's happened to me before ...bu t not lately. "When Bart Markel fell at Colorado Springs, he fell right in front of me and I missed him by about an inch, really. but 1 n'-"er shut off the gas. It's a hard thing to do, but you've got to do it if you're gonna win, You know people will be falling off in back of you. in front of you, and all around you ...but you can't watch it." After a long pause while we stared at each other, Gary finally added, "You've got to sense them almost." With the incident, he collected a broken collarbone. The pain was not too bad. however. so he raced the next National, the Homewood Mile and took 16th. The Peoria 1'1'. which followed. "was pure hell for me. Everying went wrong and I still took ninth. I earned every cent I got at that one." Then came the rain delayed Santa Fe Short Track. ''That really got me. Got a second behind Mike Kidd in the heat race and in'the second elimination heat I was running second and got bumped off the groove and before I could get back on I had dropped back to ninth. I fought back to seventh. but couldn't transfer so I ended up rmt alternate. ''That was pret~y ~ravating because . '

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