Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

-tim ·W.R R E N W Two eGrand National Champion Randy Goss H . ETH Y· O ? E EA . By Scott Rousseau Photos by Mitch Friedman 42 rand N a tional d irt tr a ck racing has mor e than its share of heroes. Ask anyone connected with the sport and they might utter the nam es of an y number of form er - and current - d irt track compe titors who have colored the sport and shaped it into wh at it is tod ay. The more mature generation might point to rid ers like Markel, La wwill, Mann, Nixon, Alda na, and Romero as the definitive d irt tra ck ers, wh il e a y ou n g e r g ro u p of fa ns mi ght look to Rob erts, Scott, Springsteen, Park er or Graham as those most worthy of hero sta tus. The argument could rage forever, but it's a safe bet that the nam e Randy Goss would not be among those synonym ous with dirt track immortality. Perhaps it's becau se Goss, a two-time Grand National Champion and former member of Harley-Davidson's fact ory wreck in g crew, is probably th e lea st ch ro nicled man to carry th e titl e in recent years. He a rri ved at the Harley factory in 1980 as a hard-working rid er who kept his head down - preferrin g to let his skill rather than his peronality do the talkin g. Along the w ay he qu ietl y ea rn ed two number-on e pl at es in th e shadow of Jay Spri ngs teen, and left the spo rt just as incons p icuo usly in 1986. Look a t the ro ll call of past Gr and at io nal crown wi n ners si nce, sa y, 1976, and you will find that many of his fellow classmates, rid ers like current five -timer Sco tt Par ke r (1988-91, '9 4 ) th ree- ti m e cha mp Ja y Springsteen (1976-78) an d Ricky Graham (1982, '84, '93), continue .to compe te today. We all know too well the traged ies that befell fo rme r ch amps Bubba Sho be rt (19851987) and the late Steve Eklund (1979), and we know that Chri s Carr (1992) will tu rn into a part-timer in 1994, trading in his XR750 and steel shoe for knee pucks and a VRlOOO. Mike Kid d, the top man in the monumental 1981 cha mp ionship chase, now promotes the AMA National Arenacross Se ries . But what about . Goss? The Goss legacy may be further confounded bv the fact that when he was at the head of the RoIling Thunder Show, he accomplished the job of winning his Gra nd Na tiona l titles (1980, '83) in less than spectacular fashion. In a time when ma ny of his competitiors sported outgoing personalities, flashy ridi rig styles or record -settin g p erformances, Goss' clawha mmer-like reliab ility and quiet determination was lost on the dirt track set constantly in search of a new icon. Ironically, Goss is probably best remembered for the title that he lost in a threeway battle during his first defense. But more on that later. Befor e th e factory deal or the two ch amp ionships, Goss wa s just another privateer from the same Michigan dirt track hotbed that has spawned fellow titlehold ers Springsteen and Parker, as well as newer talents like Kevin Atherton . After turning Expert in 1977, Goss piloted privateer Harley-Da v id son XR750s tuned by father-in -law Larry Johnson . But 1979 proved to be a turning po in t in th e Highland, Michigand er' s caree r. It was in '79 that Goss took the checkerd flag first at three Nationals, all half miles. The wins caused his stock to rise rapid ly, enoug h to capture the attentio n of Harley-Davidso n Racing Team Manager Dick O'Bri en . The Milwaukee .rnarque was looki ng to add a rider to the team, and in the process, spell an ailing Jay Springsteen, wh o had take n ill with an enigmatic stomach ailment that continu es to periodically haunt the di rt track legen d today. "After having tha t good seaso n, Dick O'Brien called me ·up and hir ed me," Goss says. "They (Harley) were looking to step it up a bit." Goss rewarded O'Brien's decisio n by bringing Harl ey-Davidson a number-one plat e in his first year on the team, bu t he did so in typ ical Goss fashion, with little fanfare. In fact, the new champ won only a single race, the fall San Jose Mile, bu t it was his hard-work ethic and consis tent top five fini shes th at kept him in th e hunt all year . On e of Goss' ad vantages lay in the fact that though he cou ldn't al w ays defeat his title rivals on the race track, he alw ays went one better by kicking th eir butts in the garage. Alo ng w it h mechanic Brent Th ompson , Goss took an active role in the development of his own motorcycles . To gether with th e depth a ff o rded them by th e fac tory pa rts bins, Coss and Tho mpso n were a b le to make s ig n ifica n t me ch an ical imp rovements to the motorcycles, engineering them into not only more pow erful, but more reliable racers. In the end , tha t proved to be the d ifference, as Goss snatched the title from Hank Scott, the b ro ther o f 1975 cha mp ions h ip w inne r Gary Scott, by a single po int , 207-206, e ve n though the y o u n g e r Scott had scored five N ational wins during th e season. " It was really competitive back then," Goss says wh en reflecting on th e 1980 season. "Both Hank and Gary Scott were in there. Mike Kidd was in there. Steve Eklund was in there . Myself, Jay, Scotty. A lot of times there would be gu ys that wouldn't make a Na tion al wh o cou ld have won it. "I attribute that first title mostly just to the depth, and to my mechanic Brent Thom pson. There were a couple of yea rs there where we didn't have any failures. Even then (when Goss lost the title in '81 due to a mechanical mishap), the thing never really did quit." Goss' first title defense was yet another tooth-and-nail affair, and as the seaso n reached it s twili ght, Goss found himself in a three-way battle for the title. And his trad emark consistency kept him alive, barely, as a broken p ist on at the Syracuse Mile left him in a must-w in situation at the next round in San Jose. But the turn of events during the fall event at the fabled mile track spe lled the end of his hopes for a repeat, and at the same time left d ir t track fan s w ith perhaps their most inde lible memory of the twotime champ. During his heat race, Goss su ffered another failure, as his bike broke an oil line to the rocker box. Officials black flagged him d u ring the race, but Goss refused to pu ll off, finish ing in a transfer position . After a heated argument with AMA officia ls, Goss was d isqualified and with that any chances of h is hopes for a seco nd consecutive cha mpio nship we re d ashed. Goss was later quoted as saying, " If the Lord himself had been standing ther e w avi ng that flag, 1 don't think that 1 would have stopped." Goss can sit back and laugh about the inciden t now, but he still sticks by his decision to stay on the track. "We sho t all th e top- end oil out on everybody else and oiled 'em d own real good, " Goss says. "The problem was that if you pull ove r for the black flag, you can 't even argue the fact because you' re not in the National yet. We had to keep going and get in the position to get in the National and then at least you could argu e it. We lost the argument." Despite thundering to a con vincing w in at the season finale Ascot half mile that year, just as he had in the spring, Goss wound up third in the final points tally beh ind Kidd and Scott. The year 1982 would see Goss and the rest of the Harley David son factory te am, w hich by now incl u ded Scott Parker, chase a flying privateer named Ricky Graham d own the stre tch. Aided by the ho rsepower being genera ted by owner / mech anic Tex Peel, Graham won the championsh ip over a somewhat rejuvenated Springsteen and Goss . "We struggled all year racing against Ricky and Tex," Goss says. "I don't think tha t Ha rley had the fastest bikes then. There might hav e been a few reasons for th at. 1 think Dick O'Brien reali zed that you can 't keep running the pri vateers into the dirt. And Ricky was ridin ' real good ." Ju st th e sa me, Go ss land e d two National wins that yea r, the Peoria IT and the Ascot Half Mile. "Peoria, I th ink, w as th e tough est back in th e d a ys w hen we rod e 750s there and you had to go over that jump 20 or 25 lap s," Goss says. "Because a Harley weighs like 320 pounds wet, and you're hittin' the backside of that jump at about 75 or 80 mph probably. You had to hang on, boy . I always thought it was worth at least 20,000 bu cks to win that place." Goss rebounded in 1983, and again it wa s his con sist en cy that gave him the edge. Goss rod e to only two wins in '83, one at the Hag erstown, Maryland, Half Mile and the other at the Ind y Mile, but his abililty stay on or near the bo x all se aso n prevail ed o ve r a lat e- sea son three-race win streak by Graham to net Goss his second title by just eight poin ts over the defending champ. Yet, in keeping with his slightly leftof-center nature, Goss is quick to dismiss that title and boast more of his 1984 season, a year in which he lost the title to Graham and the factory Honda RS750. "I'd have to say that '84 was my best year as far as how good 1 was riding and how good we had our equipment running, " Goss says. "We really had gotten ou r program together. We had our IT bike working good and our short track b ike working good. Th e Hondas were reall y fast that year, but we had a mile bike that would run with those guys if we stacked enough gear on it. Ours was faster than. theirs a lot of the time. We were always covering it up or roIling off in the dr aft. I was in the hunt all the way u n til I broke my leg at San Jose that year." Coss' injury spelled not only the end of h is title hopes but also his employ-

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