Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

• WI lr) .... It> ...0 E It> > o Z a: UJ i: UJ ::l 1: Z 1: a .., > CD Ul a ........ --II ~ f- a Number Two really does try harder By John Huetter Gary Scott IS so professional it's scary. But he was not riding the last professional AMA National event of the 1974 season; the Ascot half-mile. His foot was bro ke n worse during the Albany Mile than most people at first suspected. Gary knew something 12 was broken; that it was all ove r for him for this season. He was des tined to fin ish Nu m ber Two in AMA Grand Natio nal Ch am p ionship standings fo r th e th ird year in a row, eve ry year since he turned Expert. We talk abo ut it at Gary 's house in Baldwin Park, a few mi les east of Los Angeles. (I always imagine that my he roes, indeed, all public figures whether in sports or politics, live in exotic, inaccessible places. I'm amazed when I d iscover Steve ~IcQueen had a house a few blocks from where I lived or that U.S . Sen ato r Alan Cranston does, too . It seems equally- improbable that I can drive righ t up to Gary Scott's ho m e on a quiet. su burban street in the flat, smoggy L.A. suburbs.) He hobbles out to gree t me on fresh new crutches with white p laster encasing his right leg fro m t hig h to toes . "Hi. I'm Gary Sco tt," he says modestly like this was so me thi ng most people wo uld n't ho nestly know. He is only 5'6", thi n but we ll-proportioned wit h broad shoulders and large scabby forearms and hands. He is not really small by professional racer standards, lie has a face of sharp angles with very blue eyes and hair so light it just misses being blonde. He looks and moves like a good football scatback, or a surfer, or that particular type of Southern California motorcycle racer. Even on crutches , his moves are very positive. Sitting on the co uc h in a trophy-stuffed living room, I try to phrase the question . It's kind of like asking, "Are you a virgin?" There's no un embarrassing way to ask. So I blurt it out: "What does it feel like to be Number Two .. . for three years in a row?" Gary is no t embarrassed. He co nsid ers for about a millisecond, th en answers w ithout undue emotion. "Well, I was pretty pleased with getting Number Two th at first year. That was almos t entire ly a p riva te eftort and I tho ught it worked o ut OK. Last year, we ran a little sho rt on equip me n t and tha t h u rt us. Just di dn't have the bik e." (It hu rt you, Gary! my mind screa ms . It maybe kept you from the goal of your life as a racer.} "This year, it's obvio us, we d idn ' t have the ro ad racer. Tha t costs in points ." If there ever was any doub t in my mind before that Gary Scott will have a Number One AMA plate someday, there isn't now. It is all so logical: the reas ons it didn 't work before and with inconsiderable insight and thought, the reason it will work when he has the dirt track ride (The Harley XR suits him well. "The best fo r the most tra c ks ," he says.] and a co m pe tit ive road racer, Gary Scott will be Number One. He believes it. And now I believe it too . It 's almost like he's just tuning up. He is 22 years o ld . With the fatalistic view of age 30 that all young men 22 have, Gary thinks he will stay "maybe five mo re y ears " on the National circuit. "You were talki ng about getting ready for Asco t," he says. [ I was, befo re I kn ew he couldn't 'ride it. ) "Let's go over beh in d th e dam to th is place whe re we tes t th e b ikes. My broth er's there wi th his t une r wor king o n h is bike." We motor p ast Irwi nda le Raceway wher e so me dragster s are no isily making practice run s and foll owing Ga ry's caref ul direc tio ns we are soon bouncing over a gravel pi t thro ugh so me deserty underb rus h u n til we see a van tha t has " Scot t Racing Team" painted on it and people standing aro und in bike shop T-shi rts. By the ti me we 're o ut of th e truck? you can hear the distinctive roar of a Harley -Davidso n V-twin XR before we see little brother, Han k Scott, co me zipping around the corner. " Hey , , almost hit a fox. Da mn thing was this big and ran right out in front of me across the road." Hank is shouting and big-eyed as he pops off his Bell Star. "It was probably a coyote ." Gary remarks. "The biggest fo x I'v e ever seen. Hey, the bike is fast." But it turns out that the wildlife en counter is not their major problem . The XR is blowing a lot of oil out of the breather tube and the level in the oil tank drops to almost nothing whenever the engine is started. . Hank 's tuner, Carl Patrick, is concerned. He turns to Gary. "How much oil are you supposed to run in this engine?" h e asks. Gary is though tful in rep lying, "Mert (Lawwill) runs as little as two ounces in his . I run up to four-six but my engi ne has different sump ing and oil passages." It soon becomes clear tha l Ga ry Scott un der st an ds th e wo rking and req uir em ents of th e 750 . V-twin better than anybody else the re . "Hell, I'm running maybe eight ounces be cause th e oil tank level keeps dropp ing . You think that's too much? It must all be in the bottom end. No place else for it to go ;" Carl is clearly unhappy about the current state of affairs. "Except out the breather tube," allows Hank, wiping oi l off the rear ti re. "Think we should plug it up or put a rag over it?" So, I think, this is how National Championship dirt trackers get tuned. Well, it worked good enough for Hank to win th e Svracuse Mile, his first National victory, b~ck in Xew York. Another experimental run down the road reveals that the engine is sounding very strong, Hank is pleased wit h the power and gea ring, but the oil problem has refused to go away. Everybody is baffled and don't really know what to try next until Gary suggests that th ey have his mechanic, Bill Werner, look at it when he gets back from delivering a photo albu m of Cal Rayborn to Cal 's you ng widow, Jac kie. Bill la ter sp ends most of a day wo rking with Car lon th e Har ley and Han k rides it to win his heat an d ta ke t hird with a come-from-beh ind rid e in the Asco t National. G ary has o ffe red a numher o f ca refully considered sugge st io ns and co m me n ts to im prove th e runni ng o f Wha t becomes the m a ch i ne. imm ed iately obvious is that he is strictly no- B.S. He speaks with an accurate knowledge of t he engine, the fra me, th e exhausts, anyth ing . Or else he doesn 't say much at all. There is a lo t o f tho ught a nd little banter. Han k 's friend, Bob, has taken a bad spill racing Hank's XR on his minibike

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