Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127698
· . .INTERVIEW Five-time Grand National Champion Scott Parker ---------------'-h e first championship took 10 years , but the secon d , third and fourth came in s uc cessio n . Then' came the two-vear hiatus. A crash and subsequent kn-ee in jury foiled ' the first year, and a remarkable comeback of an other racer ruined the second. But then came the third year... In dirt tra ck racing circles, 1995 will go down in history as the year of Scott Parker. Alrea dy the sport's winningest rid er, Parker reb ounded from a pair of "o ff" seasons and silenced his doubters as he romped away with a record-sellin g fifth Grand ational Championship title. ever before in the 40-year history of Grand ati onal racing had a rid er won five titles, and Parker' s triumph will most likel y g o on un ch allen ged for many, many years to come. Tho ug h he won an imp ressive eig ht Nat ion als - bringing his wi n total to a whopping 60 - Parker di dn' t win his most recent title in runaway fashion. A stri ng of late-season mishaps kept things int er est ing until the very end . Parker's teammate and long time rival Ch ris Carr nabbed the series point lead righ t from the start - but Park er slowly but surely closed in. Parker claimed the lead at the two- thirds mark, but he failed to qualify for the Castle Rock TT. Na turally, Carr wen t on to win an d Park er found himself well behind his rival. But Carr suffe red a freak non-finish at the Sacramento Mile, and Parker sud denly found himself in the driver's seat. Could it be that easy? It ap p eared so, but in an ev en s tra nger twist of fate, Park er' s bike failed him at the following week's Pomona Half Mile. Entering the Del Mar Mile seas on finale, Parker trailed Carr by a scant five points. In order to win the title, Parker needed to win while hoping that Carr finished worse than second. Few doubted that Parker could pull off the win, and most ag reed tha t the fate of the '94 Grand alional Championship rested on the shoulders of Carr. From the flash of the green light, the race was Parker's . Ju st lik e he had so many times in the past, Parker rose to the occasion and elevated his level of ridi ng to a notch above the others ', winning the ina ugu ral Del Mar Mile in ru naway fash- . ion. But what abo ut Carr? He stru ggled to come to term s with the new track and finished a disappointing fifth. The championship was Park er' s, and the 33-year-old from Michigan became the first five-time Grand National Cham pion in hist ory, T How does your fifth Grand National Champio nship compare to your first, second, third and fo urth? I think th e fir st championsh ip will always be the hardest to beat. I had been shooting for it, and when I finally got it and broke the ice, it was a great feeling. Right from the beginning of my career, the first championship is something that I was shoo ting for. And then ther e' s the fifth one. I really, really wanted to win that one, but at the same time I had the content feeling from the four I had already won . If I had never won another race in my life, I would have been satisfied. The fifth title was exciting, especially with the mishaps at the end of the season. The title race went up and down, up and down. That was an awesome way to win the champi onship it was n' t just wrapped up all around one guy - it went down to the wire. 10 By Donn Maeda· Photos by Dave Hoenig and Maeda After becoming an Expert, it took you 10 years to win your first Grand Nat ional Championsllip. There were two years betw een your fourth and fifth titles how do those 10 years compare to these more recent two? I Lik e I sa id, if I nev er won another championship I was happy . You kn ow