Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Three men played major roles in the Grand National Champ ionship in the mid-seventies - (left) Jay Springsteen, (right) Gary Scott and (below) Kenny Roberts. growing na rrower. Springs teen, too, ran rou t of race track and struck th e slower Scott. Then he hit him again, this time so .,h ard th at Scott expected h im, Sp ringsteen, to fa ll. But to Sco tt's surprise ,Sp ringsteen go t aw ay wi th it and va nished onward in the direction of Keener. ; Scott finis hed third that da y . But ,Roberts' fading Yarnahas were getting left behind , and Sco t t was th e new leader of the Na tiona l Championship. ,. The fighting Gary Scott of earlier seasons was a memory, And the new Gary .Scott of 1975 w asn't racing with the no r~ma l ch ip-on-the-shoulder attitude of a bullying age nt of the H arl ey-Davidso n L facto ry, but with the patien t an d discip line d m a nner o f a rch no n- HarleyDavi dso n N u m be r Is as Mann an d Nixon. 2 To Sco tt it was a ll very simple. For th ree ba ttling , cras hing yea rs he'd merelly been runner -up to Nu mber 1 - o nce to Bre lsford, tw ice to Roberts. Th e way to capture N umbe r 1, he decided, was to ou t-score Roberts on di rt tracks .but also L k e pa in s to pre vent h is exubera n t ta teammates from unin ten tion ally piling ~ i m up in a duel. h '( Scott's ca u tio us stra tegy, ho w ever, "w as unpleasin g to Harl ey-Davidson. It wa n te d o ne of its m a chin es to wear -N um ber 1 all rig ht, bu t at the sa me time ex pected its p aid g u ns like Scot t ou t ' th ere battling to the limit, going down in flame s rather than comp rom ising. lJ The situa tion deteriorated at the Indi.,:,n apolis Mile, won in a huge upset by j ~oberts, Scott go t a chewing out for fin, is h in g a beaten bu t so li d fo u r th in a J.'la tio n a l wh os e hi ghli ght had b e en Kee ner and Springsteen being so caug ht .y p in the ir own private leader s' wa r th at they ign ored the danger o f Rob erts m u s cl ing up fr om far b eh in d o n a Yam ah a pa vement four-cylinder diabolica lly rigged for d irt. , Some m onths lat er at San Jose, ano th~ r inauspi ci ou s fourth-pla ce finis h earned Scott the cham pionship poin ts to clinch Number 1, but Dick O'Brien , the tea m manager, a cted as if th e a w a rd .w ere tainted . He gave his congra tu latio ns instead to Keen er, Springsteen an d .Be a u ch a m p . They' d du e led a t thei r usual tempo, ye t for poor, ever-battered Beau cha mp, the ou tcome w as ty pically bittersw eet. Although he fina lly m an-aged to get ahead of Sp ri ngsteen an d Keene r and win the National, in the heat ,of combat he'd also m anaged to badly hurt himself again by riding over h is foot. e • Ta ki n g the N u m ber 1 plate fro m ,Yamaha and bringin g it ba ck to HarleyDa vidson for the first tim e in three sea' so n s didn't bring Scott th e ac cla im o r fin anc ia lremu ne ra tio n he'd ' expected: he thought Harley-Davidson was go ing to make a big d eal of himself as Yamaha had ma de of Kenny Roberts. Negotiations between himself and the fac tory for 1976 sta lled . Finally there was a big blow-up and Scott quit to become an independent. Whic h se t the stage for 1976. There's never been another season like it. Battling pa cks made up of factory Harley-Davidsons, Scott's private one, . a nd Roberts ' lo n e ly Yamaha were we dged to geth e r closer than ever before, At six Nationals the margin of victory was a Harley-Davidson leng th . An d at the photo finish of another one an official inquiry was req u ired to name a w inner . Gary Scott was everywhere, Resuming the n o- q u a rte r-g iven tactics he'd flashed a t the 1973 Sa n Jose Mi le, he gra pp led with Harley-Davidso n factory rid ers on th e track, fist-fought its perso nne l off the tr acks, and used the ru le boo k to claim its hard ware whenever he nee de d it. Roberts too was pressuring. On the Col u mb us h a lf -m il e h e raced Jay Sp ri ngsteen so ha rd he gave h im an . unintended elbow smash to the face, And non e of it m attered . In th e most warli ke Harley- Davidson ma n ne r, Sp ri ngsteen took cha rge . He was the fastest rider in th e tou rn am ent and th ere was no need to di scuss it. Win';ing six N ation als o u trig h t, taking secon d in ano ther s ix, and landing am on g the top fi v e p lace s an a st oundin g 15 times, Springsteen wa s the Nu mbe r l -apparant that Harley-Da vidson had been searching for since Mar k Brelsford . ·A n d if ne ith e r Scott n o r Robert s .co u ld s to p Spri ngs te en, wh o in th e wo rl d co u ld? The answer, of co urse, was the h is torica ll y obvious: o ne of Springstee n's very own Harley-Davidso n teammates cou ld . Th e scenario bega n un folding late in the season o n th e Syracuse Mile. Scott, Rob erts and Springsteen were join ed in battle by Rex Beaucham p who, as u su al. was reeling fro m inju ry - h e' d broken h is collarbone fou r different times in six m onths. Yet he was as fast as ever and at the finish Beauchamp and Springsteen fl a sh ed acro ss the fi n is h in w ha t appeared to be racing's first ge nui ne tie since Billy Huber and Bobb y Hill deadlocked at Reading a generation earlier. But then Beauchamp w as named th e . w inner and was brou ght to the winner's podium. Mom ents afte rwards, track officials anno unced there'd been an unfortunate error. Sprin gsteen wa s the winn er. Beauchamp, of course, had no use for National championship points; he was well out of contention for Number 1. Springsteen, o n the othe r han d, d espe ra te ly need ed th e m if h e was to s tay ahead of Scott and Roberts . But ex isten ce on the Harley-Davidson factory team is complica ted. Bad ly wanting the prize m on ey for firs t place, as well as the tr ad it ion al $2000 w in ner's b onu s fro m Ha rley-Davi dso n ; Be auch amp recklessly put up $25 to officially p rotest his own teammate. But the p rotest did not cause Springstee n to become angry at Beau ch amp. And subseque n tly losin g his protest, his $20 00 winn e r ' s bonu s, a n d h is $25 prot est fee , a p pa ren tly d idn 't ma ke Beau champ like Springsteen less th an he already did. You had to be a stu de nt of Ha rley-Davidson to understand it. Spri ngs tee n and Beauchamp traveled together from Syracuse to the follow ing weekend's Nationa l at Tol ed o, w here Springstee n won ag ain. Next they proceeded cross-country to the Wes t Coast, w here Spri ngs teen w on hi s s ix t h Na tional of the year, and third consecu tive one, by tearing a half a minu te out of the track record at San Jose. He wasn't eligible to com pe te at th e following Sunday's Riverside roa d race, won by Roberts. A n d s udden ly, still controlling the point sta ndi ngs, Sp rin gsteen was co nfro n te d by 1976's fin al Nation al - 20 laps aro und Asco t Pa rk . .It sho uld have bee n a cinch. Springstee n liked Ascot, and h is chief ad versa ries, Scott and Rober ts, both were o n the ro pes, exha us ted and reeling. If anyth ing was going to knock out Spring- steen, it wo uld have to be fate. And fate was exactly what struck. Sprin gsteen w a s s p eeding along a st raig htaway - just as ye ars before Mark Brelsford h ad been speeding along a , s traig htaway - 'when another , HarleyDavi dson just ahead of him went swerving out of control.lt was Beau champ'S. Springsteen h it the wreck a nd got well th row n. Jump ing up, he dis played with alarm his th ro ttle hand w ith one finge r m angled out of p lace. Bill Werner, his mechanic, came running up. " W ha t' ll 1 do?" Sp ri ngsteen de man ded. Im p ro b a b ly e no ug h, i n another life 'before becoming a tu ner at Ha rley-Davidson, Werner had coached a high school wrestling tea m. He jerked hard on Springsteen's finger to pop it back in place. It was th e usual cold Ascot night. Making crash repairs on the motorcycle, Werner ordered Spri ngsteen to walk aro u n d le st h is "Yell- b ruised b od y become stiff. The ben t finger was n' t Springsteen's on ly concern. Legend has it t ha t the fa ll had also a ffec te d his vision, causi ng him to see double. Riding in his qua lifying heat race, he wo n. But Scott, su dden ly reinvi gorated by Sp ri ngsteen's p lig h t, ro de a stro ng heat h imself. An d Beau champ - jus t as sore and bruised as Springstee n - psyched himself into doing a heat race a full three seconds faster th an any body else. "Lo ok at my hand," Spri ngsteen said, s howi ng a h and fu l of ice cube s . It looked purple and swollen. And what if he, like o ther Harley-Davidson as pi ring Number 1 like George Roeder in Oklahom a City in 1967 or Fre d Ni x at th is sa meAscot in 1968 ended up losing in this very last National? No t to worry, fortunately for Spri ng- . steen. He m ad e a perfect s ta rt, ro de a perfect National. his hand held up, and at 18 he becam e the second-youngest Number 1. He also sta rted a d ynasty for himself and Werner. A nd now Scott Parker and Wern er are bidding to begin, ano the r d yn asty in 1995. Co nsi dering th e havoc th at HarleyDa vid son te am m embers hi storicall y man age to bring to bear on one another, th e bes t news that Parker and Wern er h ave received is that their fri end and o range-and- b lack sou lma te Chris Carr will next year busy himself road racing (:.'\' instead of dirt tr ack for Nu mber 1.

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