Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TIME REMEMBERED alki ng abo u t ho w hard it is to w in a stri ng of conse cu tive seasonal championshi ps, Bill Werner, w ho accomp lished it w ith Jay Sp ringsteen in 197 6, 77 an d 78, and w ith Sco tt Pa rk er in 1988, ' 89, '9 0 and ' 91, and w ho now has the opportunity to be g in anot her d yn a s ty with 1994 titlist Parker, was b lu nt. "The hardest th ing to d o," th e mechanic sa id, " is to keep yo ur gu y health y." . Exactly. Some thing like 50 percent of all Nationa l Cham pio ns ha ve man aged to term inate their reign by falling in bat tle th e follow ing ye ar. But the 13 who hav e won the Numbe r 1 p late for H arley-D a vid son h ave faced th e extra threat of being ta ken ou t Am erican Mot orcycl ist Association in 1972, Brelsfo rd wa s expected to continue d om inati ng in 1973 a nd beyon d . Bu t that March , wh ile accelerat ing alon g a s tra ig h taw ay a t D ay to na , o ne o f h is fourth-s tring teamm ates ap pe ared from o u t o f n ow here a nd in e xpli cabl y whacked into the sid e of him. The accident d ebilitat ed Brel sfo rd who was never able to race competitive ly again. And H arl ey-Davidson was left lookin g rid iculo us. Its XR wa s by far the fas tes t motorcycle - th e rival Yam aha twins we re hybrid producti on bikes and th e Triumph s and BSAs we re hot bu t ra p idly g ro wi n g se nile - ye t withou t Brelsford the team had the wrong combination of riders. It had Mert Lawwill. Former N umber 1, the mentor of Brelsford, and the rider w h o s e bra in for H ar le y - D a v id s on e n g in es we re une q u a ll e d , La w w ill see med to lack the bullying, every- ma nfor- himself Milwaukee credo. H a rley-David - smas he d into the same devouring ru t on the last lap; almost cra shed in tandem; b u t Rob e r ts re co v e red q ui ck e r a n d H arl ey -David s o n ex pe ri e n ce d th e humiliation of losing its first-ev er mil e Nati onal to Yamaha. And w hat had occur red at a prev ious mile Na tional at San Jose had been more aggravating still, Gene Romero on a Tri umph had wo n; and Gary Scott on a second one had been runner-u p, Wo rse, Scott was ph ysically pushing around and even roughing up HarleyDavid so n. He was accused of ma kin g Lawwill crash at 120 mph. A nd w h ile engag ing in extra- cl ose fighting w it h Bea uchamp d uri ng th e Na tio nal, Scott had in timidated Rex completely off the groove, an d , it seemed , almost s tuck into the fence. More ugly results fol- own',J",,::::::~~~~~~::::~""";!"'''''''''''''';;''':~'';;'' "<:I'l 0\ 0\ ...... t--:' l-< 0,) ..0 E 0,) u a; c 10 o ra nge -and-blac k brother s . It's a trad iand brought d own by one of the ir as ti on of free-fo r-all bra wling as old H arl ey-Davidson itse lf: team riders wi nnin g, team riders du elin g, team rid ers crashing . Two seas o ns ago, a t O k la hom a City, Parker himself joined the traditi o n . Bidd in g to m ake h isto r y b y b rea king ou t of h is tie with Carroll Resweber an d amass ing five consecutive titles, Par ker instead en de d up on his keist er after he and tea mmate Chris Ca rr ha d a co ll is io n th at cou ld h ave been con sid ered b iz arre had it h appene d to any racing team o ther th a n Harley-Dav idson' s. "It's the onl y policy we 've ever had ," a Harl e y -David s on s po k es m a n ex plained several years ago. " To g iv e maximum su p po rt to all our riders. If a rid er is really Number 1, he sho uld ea rn it that way." So H a rl ey-D av id son fac to ry riders have tw o responsib ilities. Th ey hav e to d efeat th e enemy . A nd th ey h a ve to defeat each other. "There've bee n tim es when I wis hed it wa s otherwise," the spokesm an, who is H arley-D av id son' s lo ng time ra cing overseer Dick O 'Brien , ad m itted. " And th is has cos t us the N u mber 1 pl at e in pa st years." The abse n ce of stra tegy su re ly cos t Milwau kee the Number 1 plate in 1963, th e yea r D ic k Mann won ju s t on e Nation al race, and fou r different HarleyD avid s on r id ers race d e a ch oth e r ' s br ains out wi nn ing seven, yet still lost to Ma nn in the point standings. And it cost H a rl ey- David son aga in in 1967 w hen five charging riders grew so bus y racing themselves th at th ey wo n eigh t tim es they won almost half of all the races yet Mil waukee lost agai n in th e point stand ings, this time to Gary Nix on. Stung by this especially bitte r loss, Harl ey-D avidson for 1968 took wh a t it thou ght were no chan ces. To knock out Gary Ni xon, it brought in new and powerfu l twin-carburetor motors and added , personnel to its alrea d y lar ge .squad ron, Th en the squad proceeded to w in th e Dayt on a 200, all four mile-crack Na tionals, seven of eight half-mil es, and 1968's la st eigh t race s in a ro w . Althou g h H arl ey-Davidson's six star rid ers su cces s fu lly beat up o n th emse lves, they failed to conta in N ixo n, who sli p ped through and got N umber 1 again. And perh aps 1973 ' s was th e m os t galling loss of them all. It had sta rted so w ell. The previ ous season, 1972, af ter tw o painfu l years d evelop ing the new alloy XR, H arl ey-David son at last had it read y, and also had so me body su itable to ri d e it . That w a s M a rk Brel s fo rd , Harley-Davidson's first 'com pletely ve rs a ti le ch a m p io n si n ce Re s w eb e r . Crow ned Grand Nationa l titli st by th e " so n 's o the r promin ent rid er , a semi refo rm ed hipp ie n am ed Re x Beauchamp, h ad th a t cre d o - he was al ways near the lead in big races - but it w a s freq u e nt ly cancelled o u t by Beau champ's habit of com m itting mistake s. By a s tra ng etwis t, th e tw o rid ers who co ul d ha ve got ten th e maxim u m ou t of an XR were both ra cing fo r th e opposi tio n . They w er e the yo ung Californ ia n s a n d A s co t P a r k g ra d u a tes Kenny Rob erts and h is ne mesi s Ga ry Scott. As ever, th e v ast mile tra ck s w ere su pposed to be the domain of HarleyDa vidso n . Bu t at Col orad o Spri ngs in th e Rockies th at summer, the bucki ng, swerving Yam ah a of Roberts battled the leading H arl ey-Davidson every lap . Its rid er wa s Bea uchamp . He an d Rob erts low ed , wit h onl y four H a rl e y -D a v id s o n victo ries in 1973's rema in in g 13 races . Roberts and Yamaha earn ed Number 1 by the lar gest point m ar gin ever. Gar y Scott and Triumph we re second . HarleyDavidson barely landed three of its rid ers in the top 10 at all. But Sco tt ' s fig h ting had impressed H arley-Davidso n, even thou gh much of it had been directed at itself . So to shore u p th ings an d streng the n th e team for th e rene w e d fig h t w it h Yam ah a' a n d Kenny Roberts tha t 1974 was certain to bring, Dick O'Brien invited Scott to join the roster. "But I d on't think yo ur riders like the wa y I rid e," Sco tt protested . "They do n't ," O'Brien agreed. " But I told them if they don't like Gary Scott's manne rs, th ey sho u ld tr y an d change the m ." Scott took the exchange to be com plimen ta ry, so he an d Harle y- David so n ag reed to a d eal. M atters go t off to a

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