Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

, l-o C1.l ,.0 E C1.l u C1.l Cl interview: National Trials CbamRlon Scott Head Two feet up on the .nation By Len Weed Three wins in one weekend. A real triple-Header? The tag seemed apt this past Labor Day weekend when Scott Head swept the final three trials nationals to join Lane Leavitt, Marland Whaley, Bernie Schreiber, and Curt Comer as an AMA/NATC series lihampion. One less stop in Wyoming would have enabled Head, 22, to sweep the final five events. His last three victoties, by margins of 11,18, and 21 points, broke a deadlock with two-time Canadian champion Stan Bakgaard. Head rode his first trial in 1976, transferred to Expert a year and a half later, and finished SoCal number two in 1979 while ranking eighth in the nation. He topped the SoCal series a year later while finishing runner-up to Marland Whaley for national honors. . Head spent the next two years in Italy under contract to Italjet. Injuries marred his '81 campaign, but he ranked 13th in the wor(d in 1982, scoring top-10 points in four t:Uents, becoming only the third Ameican (be~ides Schreiber and Whaley) to SCOTe FlM points overseas. Returning to his home in Placerville, California after the '82 season, Head decided to retire from world competition and concentrate on college studies. Riding just four of the best-five-of-eight series, he ranlted seventh nationally in 1983. School again limited his practice time in the 1984 season, but daily summer sessions enabled him to win four of the final five rounds and become America's first champion on a sub-300cc machine. Currently a student at American River Junior College, Head plans to transfer to a four-year school to pursue a bachelor's degree in engineering. ,6 Your dad was a car racer, wasn't he? He was national champ in super stock class for a couple of years in the 50s. I never got into that. He didn't quit drag racing till he was 50-something but even then I was still a little twerp. We'd always had motorcycles around. I Slarted rjding around seven. How did you first become aware of trials? I used to trail ride my Honda XR75 in the hills next to my house. I got to the . [K!~1'!t_ ~!t!!'" L~~I,!~~.t? ra~ m?tc;>-_ cross. My dad had gone through that with my brother and he wasn't interested in the hassle again. So, for my 14th birthday, he bought mea brandnew Suzuki RL250. That was 1976. ' There I was with a new bike and I had no idea' what trials was. All I knew was what I had'seen in On Any Sunday. So I tried to race on it but it didn't work very well. Finally, Joe Ige from the VOTE club came outlO my house and show~ me what trials .. ~a.s-,~l! a~~~. •. , _. , _ I What kept you with the sport? At first, I wasn't into trials that much. I was into going out and messing around aIte.r school. But then I made Amateur and gota new '78Bultaco that my dad had promjsed me. I rode one trial and got a seventh. Then I won the next trial and all of a s.udden it was like: My gosh, I beat these guys that I was so far behind. How did I get here all of a sudden? And that's when I decided to stick with it. And after that I started practicing with Bernie Schreiber. How did your contract with ltaljel come about? Bernie had put in a good word for me when he signed with ltaljet so I had a contraa to ride here. In April of 1981 I went by to see the distributor. He (Keith Mullins) had the AMA on the phone asking them to release me from my license. His assistant told me: You're going to Italy in 48 hours. I just kinda fell on the floor. Then I found out why they brought me over. Their Ital ian rider bad decided to leave and they had no one to ride the Italian championship. Fantic had already imported a Spanish guy to ride so I guess ltaljet just followed that lead. Just two years earlier you had been very shy about going to your first national and there you were in Italy. What was that like? We put a six-month clause in the contract that if I didn't like it overseas, I could get out. or course, that didn't happen. It was just a matter of adapt or go home. I've always heen adaptable and 1 stuck with it. A lot of riders haven't been able to do that. I really like it, being an American in Europe. The Italians love Americans. Almos.t everyone has some relatives here. What was nice was saying: I ride trials and have them say: Oh, yeah, trials. Here, you have to go into an ~our-Iong explanation of what trials .IS. You had several injuries·during '81 and '82. The street bike crash happned early in '81. I had a Suzu.ki GS450. I think . with the current bikes I could have made that turn, but I was going too fast for the bike. Then in Italy I pulled a groin muscle and that was worse than the back injury (compressed vertebrae) I got on the street 'bike. I only rode one world round, in France, when I knew I shouln't because of the groin pull. It was so bad then I packed up and went home to specialists in San Francisco. I was on my way back to Europe in January of '82 when I stopped to see some friends in Tennessee. I was a passenger in a head-on crash on an icy bridge. That redid my back. I went to Italy, didn't do anything for a month, got on my bike and aweek later finished ninth in Spain. And then I got really super serious and finished like 32nd in Belgium. I couldn't figure that out. And then in June I was a passenger in another head-on back here when a drunk driver came around the wrong side of a turn. I missed the Canadian world round because of that. • You didn't go back in '83. Why not? Italjet offerd me a contraa but I told them I wouldn't sig!) it until I went home and thought about it. I decided the'situation wasn't right to go back. What were the factors? My biggest concern was that I couldn't get the special Michelins. Would you have gone back if you could? . Yeah. That was probably the biggest factor in my decision. During my first year over there I had decided that I was going to college when I was done racing. But had the situation been right to stay, I would have gone back. ., Were you on your own in Europe going to events? Basically. I went with the team manager to the first three. Then 1 went to the next four with an English rider, Peter Cartwright. The last rounds, Sweden, Finland, and Poland, I went by myself. I was the only ltaljet entry at those three rounds. So living overseas didn:t play much of a factor in your decision not to go back. Oh, not at all. If anything, it was one of the factors that would have made me go back. I really enjoyed it over there. I had thought about switching bikes and going back in '83, but that was right at the height of the recession over there and nobody changed , rides that year. Not that I thought the Italjet was bad, I just wanted to try the series on something else. Both Keith Mullins here and Mr. Tartarini overseas, treated me great. Probably one of the reasons I stayed the Lull two years of the contract was because ,I got along great with the people at the factory. And eventually the bike became much better. I felt that the last bike I rode was not holding me back. It was other circumstances, majnly the tires. The thing that depresses me about the whole deal with ltaljet is that t!te bike never got a

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