Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

00 0') Randy Goss made his dream of winning the AMA Grand National Championship/Winston Pro Series come true by making all but one of the National dirt track main events. and then winning when he had to. Subtract the 3 from his number plate for 1981. By Gary Van Voorhis For nearly every rider on the Winston Pro Sen'es trail, becoming AMA Grand National Champion unU always be a dream. In Randy Goss' case, the dream came true. By the closest margin in 17 seasons - one point - Goss grabbed the title from a very determined Hank Scott to become the 15th n'der to wear the crown in the 27 year history ofthe championslup. Even in unnning, Goss was his characteristic self -- he was elo.ted, but in a somewhat subdued manner. His wife Vickie is the vocal, ecstatic halfofthe family. The long, hard road to the title paid offfor Goss in at least one sense, it enabled him to recently purchase a new home. "I finally have a place to have a workshop, " said Goss about his new home. "The 110,000 bonw I got from Harley-Davidson for un'nning the title and the 123,'00 in Winston Pro Series point fund money sure helped make the decision to buy an easy one. " Throughout the interview Goss wes the term "we" rathem than "/" for he feels his effort was a collective one combining himself, Vickie and his tuner Brent Thompson. That combination, Goss hopes, will carry lu'm to his second title in 1981. What were you thinking when you received the Number One plate from Steve Eklund at the awards banquet? It's hard to describe. It felt awfully good. I guess it was like a dream come true. It was the best way to end a long year. Were you being conservative during the first part of the season? Not really. If you write down all the races and look'at my finishes from the halfway point on, we took off and did a whole lot better. We had to make a few changes. If we had had our first half going like the second half of the season we would have been a lot better off. We weren't trying to be conservative, we were just trying consistently to win races. We never did although we came close a few times. We certainly weren't trying to just sit back. What changes did you make? Brent and I did a lot of testing and changed around the engine and chassis combin.ations to suit me a bit more. It just took awhile to find the right combination. What are your plans for neit season? We're going to try to not make the same mistakes next year that we did this season and work on a few weak points. The plan is to hammer away at everybody and be Number One at the end of the season. What do you feel were mistakes? There were just small things like not being as prepared at the track as we shoul~ have been on a couple of occasIons. What do you feel were weak points? My stans, for one. I have to work on getting better starts. We also have to work on the TT effort because of those stinking 500s. There are some tracks, like Santa Fe, where the track dries out and the 500s have a real advantage. You know, there's a big weight advantage there also. Would you like to ride a 500? I think it would be nice if we had one. Will the title defense be tougher than winning it? I think it will be because it's going to be more competitive. I don't know if the points chase will stay as close. There are so many good riders that il will come down to how good a rider; program is a.t the end of the season. Who do you see as your biggest threat? I think Jay (Springsteen) will be a lot of trouble if he stays healthy. For the rest it depends on their program. I think Scott Pearson could be trouble. Do you figure Hank Scott will have as good a year? Hank's p;oing to be trouble. But there are so many guys out there that could do it. You can't count anybody out. Hank and Steve Morehead are so dam hard to predict. Steve turned his program around this year from what he usually does. He usually is a slow starter and ends up fast, so this year he starts fast and ends up a bit slow. Ricky Graham could give everyone a lot of trouble. Billy Labrie is a strong rider and could be stronger with a good program. Scott Parker is going to be working hard. I don't count anybody out. Did you have any doubts that you could win the title? There was always a reasonable amount of doubt. but we had a lot of confidence. Tulsa hun us pretty bad. It was a bummer of a day. We'd een in so nlany main events in a r W that it was really. really hard to take. Losing my 16 point lead didn't help either. However. I think il was good for me. You know.· you can get all settled down aft-er you get. really pissed off. It helped my d termination. How did you feel after winning San Jose? Confident. We just hoped nothing really tragic happened at Ascot. Weren't you a bit worried at Ascot 15

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