Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

wha t I'm say ing ? I'm not saying I d idn't wa nna put ano ther th ree h und red and ten percent into win ning the fifth one - I just wasn' t gonna let it agonize me. That first one was like - I gotta win it, I gotta win it. My fifth one was impo rtant, but not as "do or die" as the first. Okay, so you tried extra hard to w in yo ur firs t title, and pretty ha rd to get y our second, third and fourth cham pionships. Ha d it become easy? Did yo u slack off? ' You mean , is th at why I didn't win my fifth title in 1992? Well, the reason I didn't win tha t one is pretty obvious , I got hu rt and missed two races. That's why I didn 't win that one . And I was still only a few points shy. And then there's last year - the year Ricky Gra ha m wo n everythi ng . Well, I was right there in the thi ck of thin gs at the begin n in g of th e yea r. Bu t w h am, w ham; wha m - I lost a point here and th ere, but then my bike brok e in Lima and I lost a bunch. You never wanna lose 20 points like that, I think Ricky won and Chris got second. Then the next week at Hagerstown I knew I had to do good to gai n some points back. I pushed it a little too ha rd and bu sted my ass . So there I was - I fell off and Ricky wo n aga in and Chris got third - an d I'm down 4Q points. I guess looking back now I can admit that I los t some of my incenti ve right there. So w hen you fo und yourself mathematically elim inated from th e title chase, that's w ilen the w ind left YOllr sails? No, I think it even started happening befo re tha t. I guess maybe it's because I had pushed so hard in '92 trying to get my fifth title and ended up losing by only two points. When I started ge tting behin d in , , . What's'the key,to Parker's' su~c~ssJ Well, the obvio us' reason is that he goes :. fas t, real fast'. But wha t keeps the ' frien dly rid er from Swa rtz Cree k! , Michigan, on top ?,We asked a number offormer Grand:National Ch ampions w hat they thou ght the ." key" to Parker's success was.: ' successful. He is wi lling to sacrifice to 'go t hat extra bit. You can be the best ,rider and have cra ppy eq uipmen t, or , be a crappy rider with the best , equ ipmen t, b u t Scotty has the best of both worlds ." , GaryScott (7 5) - 'ilt is 'so incred ible Dick Mann ('63; 7 1) - ''I'm s~re there's that Scott was won 60 races and five a key, but I doubt that you can ' , .titles. As aracer, 1 can only say that he attribu te it 'to only one thin g. Certainly is incredibly d etermined and if yo u only ha d one thing goi ng for . consistent. I saw hi m whe n he was yo u, cou ldn' t wi n so,ma ny races and yo ung. still develop ing. He had a lot of cham piO talent, bu t h e took it bey on d that. I've ,,nships. Scotty has a lot of drive, the right attitude an d a , seen talent misused and th rown away, tre mendous amount of tale nt." b~ t h~ kee ps it in his back ~cket." , Gary Nixon ('67, '68r "He's always , , trying. when I first saw him , he could , , only ridea cus hion and couldn' t ride a , ' , groove. Now h e can ride anything; He's adaptable. Someti mes I see him in practice and heain't worth a crap, but in , the race he .can win. He never gives up." Mert LawwiII ('69) - "Dedication! If an ybody re~lIy knew what hisedge was, they' d all be doing it. He has . na tural ab ility ru nning out of his ears.. he concen trates hard, a nd kee ps doing w ha t he d oes well. We were on the factory at the same time at one' point , (1977), and eve n then, it was obvious ' that he wa;; going to be a future star, a " rea l th reat to ~veryone: " " Jay Springsteen (76, '77; 78) ~ "His determination, Bill Werner, ice rating , and Michigan'water! I 'd on' t know, how' s that ? He's a good ride r, his .eq u ipment is real good; and his com munication between he an d Bill is good. I'm not trying to take nothing away fro m him, he,rides the crap out of his bikes, and he's the king of comer s peed ." Mike Kidd ('81) - " Bill Werner is Scotty 's bes t asse t. On, he has a lot of ' .na turalta lent, b ut I think the keyto his ' success was ge tting hooked up wi th , We rner carl yon." , ' 'Bubba Sh obert ('86;'86, '87) " "He's , good, 'an d he's bea t thebest, but I think ' , , G~ne Rom'era (70) C"It' s a, ' " the competition isn' t what it used to be : combi nation of things. You have to " , Not taking away from what he's , ' have the talent, good eq uipment, ~nd a. , accomplished, but I th ink the tou gh est , , goo" mech anic. But you still have to ' " competition was in the early SO's. Back , have determination and the will to win. ' .when I was racing against him, I'd say , .~at' s·wha:t's madeParker so hisstrength was hisaggressive l1 CS5. " ,, ' '93 and things we ren't going my way, I so rta just said "Screw it," and backed off. I thi nk maybe I need ed tha t break - not being in such a high-pressu re pos ition. I just needed to go out and ride the motorcycle without worrying about a title. W as there ever a tillle in '93 uihen yOIl doubted yOllrself, and figu red tllat you had already done all yOIl were capable of? No. I never d id . Even thou gh I on ly won one race that seaso n, I was second a bunch of times. We were in the hunt. For yOIl, what makes th e difference between finishing second and w inning? I g ue s s I jus t nee ded to be m or e agg ressive off the line. I needed to get off the line hard er an d rid e hard er in th e openin g laps. I got into a rut where I jus t wasn' t. Th is year, I s ta rted d oi ng th at again. We can all come from the back to the fro nt on occasion, but no on e can come from the back to the fron t wee k in and week out. Starting slo w jus t pu ts mo re press ure on yourself and makes' it mo re of a struggle. TIlis year, def ending Grand N ational Champion Rick y Graha m w as absent th rougho ut most oftire season. Does that ta int tire tlrrill of v ictory at all ? It don ' t to me. Every one is out there rating the motorcycles, and I beat everyo ne w ho was th ere . Ricky jus t w as n' t there - for health problem s or wh atever. How can I let that bo ther me? You still go lla go o ut a n d r a ce and d o g oo d, whether or not the ~ampion is there. Grahalll made a brief appearance in the middle of the seas on, winning the Hagers town Half Mile after onl y one preoious race. What did yOIl think of that? I was happy to see Ricky back. I was happy to see him win. The track suited him at Hagerstown, and he won. The next week, Graham and Kevin Atlrerton bumped on the fi nal lap. Graham w ent on to fi nish thi rd, uihile A therton crashed. You were quite vocal in the riders' protest against Gralram. Wh y ? I didn't actu ally see the incid ent , but I had seen Ricky run it in too hard behind Kevin earlier in the race. It looked like he had to do every thing he could to not hit him. My point was that Ricky does that, week in and week out. He always pushes it right out to the limit. If yo u give him a half inch, he takes an inch. He does it all th e ti me. St uff happ en s a ll th e time aroun d Ricky Graham. 'o t that he's a bad ride r, he's just too agg ressive. I d on't like to race that way. I like to race every weekend . I'd rath er be more safe. If I can' t get by, I can't get by. I play it safe. No t tha t we d on 't all mak e mi stak es, thou gh - we' re all guilty of doing st uff like that at one time or ano ther. Graham was put on probation after that incident, and proceeded to stay aw ay fr om tire series lin til late in tire season, Yeah, I don 't know what his situation was exactly . My op in io n is th at th er e we re a few inc idents like tha t back in 1993 tha t the AMA could have taken the same actions over, but the y di dn't wa nt to make it look like they we re showing any favoritis m towards Ha rley-Davidson. You kn ow, like "They set Ricky out a week, so that Scott y an d Chris cou ld catch back u p." I th ink that 's why we didn't see an ything like that an y earlier. Ricky is a per fectly talented motorcycle racer - he doesn' t need to tou ch nobod y. When you see him do it all the time , you just have to say something. You just have to do something. But why wo uld I care? Well, me and Ricky ar e gr eat buddies. Wh y should I care? Well, I have to look out for everybody's well-being. So if I have to be the bad guy, I have to be the bad guy . ~ 8 a ~ 11

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