Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

~Gary gScoll Continued fro m page 37 '- :J ...0 E u > o Z 42 As the pressbox starts to fill up with big names and ladies much more decorative than I, I join Gary in the pits where it imm ed ia tely feels more comfortable among the riders and mechanics. Gene Romero comes over and spends some time talking with Gary, apparen t1y genuinely co ncern ed about his former sometimes Triumph teammate. We talk with Corky Keener, who has won more half-miles this year than any other pro. lie seems like an even nicer guy than his press clippings would indicate b ut luck is against him all night in this National at Ascot. It 's nice to meet Corky . Gary talks with him just a little about racing back East, wh ich he plan s to start in the spring after he m o ves back to Ohio. Gary stands quietly, ba lancing on one foot near the top of the Ascot IT jump. We watch the first heat line up. I ask who he favors and he tells me the names of the three riders who will finish first. They do, as predicted. less than four minutes later. He picks the first two in the next heat. He's right again. In his brother's heat, after I prod a little, he figures Hank fo r top three. lIank wastes a couple of laps, then finally sets up just right coming out of Turn Two, doesn't wait to gas it, and wins his heal. "If Mark Williams gets a good start, he's abou t the only one who can stay with Kenny," Gary offers. "He rides this strange line which is really fast going in. It's down close to the pole bu t it's not one you can keep up for more than four or five laps." Everything goes as Gary Scott says it will. Roberts sweeps around everybody in the first turn, bobbling and correcting in Ascot's wet, tacky outside. Only Mark Williams can stay near him, riding his line that doesn't seem to have any exit point , and Rob er ts, who looks to be trying too hard , wins his heat. The crowd really digs it. Han k comes swaggering over, clumpy-footed with stee l shoe, a fe w seconds afte r his hea t. " Well, I di d it," he grins, ob vio usly very p lease d with him self. Gary is fairly pl eased for h im but is clearly more aware of the co m petition in the Main . "You're really going to have to ride hard the whole way to win it," he says. Hank is irr epressible. You can tell he is only half-listening, already watching the green flag in his mind. " I'm pumped!" he says and clumps off to h is pit. Carl Patrick is even more excited when he talks to Gary. " I think Hanky can win, don't you, Gary?" he asks with justifiable tuner's pride in a sttong-running XR that looks fairly ordinary and just a trifle ratty. "If he's going to win it, he's going to have to ride his ass off for 20 laps," Gary main rains. earl barely listens, can't quit grinning, and does a couple of lit tle sprints on the Harley down the back straight pit wall, ostensibly to see if the bike's pulling cleanly but probably for the sheer joy of it all. We never get back to the crowded pressbox and watch from the pit wall when Te rry Dorsch takes a Triumph to win the Trophy Final by maybe half-a-lap. After getting hot chocolate, I find Gary sitting on the wall tal king to Barry Sheene, the English road racer and Formula 750 World Champion on Su zu ki (though it seems like U.S. Suzu ki doesn' t know that). Barry is full of qu estio ns abou t half-m ile racing and Gary has a few about road racing in Europe. It t urns out t hat th is is one o f Ga ry's most so ught-after goals. lie would like to road race in World Championship Grands Pri x . Better than that, he wo uld like to be part of an American team that would compete in at least some of the World Championship rounds. lie sugges ts an oil company, o r so me co mparable ou tfit, as the mai n sponsor, with Ame rican riders o n th eir own brand of bikes in d ifferent classes. It cocc urs to me that Gary Scott could be 250cc Road Race Worl d Champion. "Maybe ... after I learn the tracks. If I co uld just do a few meetings ove r the re this next year, Then the year af ter that .. ," His eyes get very distant and hopeful. The idea gets some reinforcement when Erv Kanemoto comes over and talks for quite a while with Gary . Erv is one of the tallest Japanese.Americans I've ever met, well over six feet, and one of the best tuners of any extraction in the world. Gary remembers the job Erv did on the Rickmans for the Houston short track and is very impressed with his knowledge and complete dedication to the job. There is talk about Erv tuning for Gary when he road races in the Grands Prix. Erv is interested; Gary is interested. Some friends come over, including two attractive young ladies, and everybody starts to kid Gary . We swap some bizarre hospital stories and Gary smiles a lo t as the atmosphere gets looser. He later comments on how tacky the Ascot oval is staying due to the relatively high humid ity . "The outside is really sticky bu t you have to watch go ing out there because it's so wet, it'll stand yo u right up and then . . . h igh side." Most rid ers are able to ride the tigh t inside li ne and there are several good lines around the ova l all night, which leads to some good racing that draws ye lps of pleasure fro m Gary and wows fro m'me . Everybody agrees that the Main is tal ent-load ed, a very good National. It is Ken ny Rober ts' cha nce to co mplete a r gra nd slam of victories in every type of Nat ional eve nt bu t th er e is a general feeling in the pits, hard to pin down , tha t he wo n ' t. He doesn't. Brother Hank reads the starter perfectly and gets off the line first but misses t he shift to second going into the firs t turn an d drops back six or eight places. Gary and I watch Hank as he moves up steadily and quickly fro m about tenth to fourth, closing the gap noticeably on Mark Williams each lap. All our concentration is on the race for third. Gary thin ks Hank's over-revving it at the end of the straights. It does sound like it . There is little or no broadsliding on the tacky track. Everybody drives around the comers in their selected orbits. Hank times it just right. On the next to last lap, he tries a sligh t1y different line and finds it will get him by !\lark Williams. On the last turn, he goes all the wayan that line to finish third and carry the Scott family name into the winner's circle. A lot of people co me over to Gary after the Main. "IIey, what abo ut your brother?" "In the Main, he's just one of the pack," Gary notes quietly. "Wow , you're go ing to have to loo k out fo r him next year!" "There 'll he some interes ting racing," the olde r Scott says quietly . Gary asks fo r a ho t dog, gets a ham burger , from the in field concession stand. He buys me a beer. "Make it a large one ," he grins a t me, having gauged my Carta Blanca consumption at di nner. He munches cautiously at the Ascot doubleburger and negotiates the cro wde d pits carefully o n h is cru tc hes, stopping to talk to fa ns and friends , finally arriving at T er ry Dorsch's van. Th ey have been good bu ddi es for a long tim e an d th ey kid eac h o ther un mercifu lly, Te rry allowing as how if Gary co uld ride , he wo uld n't be wearing th at silly cas t. Gary gets in a few poin ted jibes of his own then we say good byeas the lights go out at Asco t , the las t National event of the 1974 season: the Hal f-mile that Gary Scott should have won. •

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