Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ment as a Harley-Davidson facto ry ride r, as he fell victi m to the fin ancial woes th a t pl agued the co m pany in th e m id '80s . " It wa s a little fu nn y the wa y that it actu ally ha ppened ," Goss says. "A fter I got hurt I stayed out West for a while. They called me up from th e facto ry and s a id , ' We d on 't wa nt yo u to wor ry, you've got a job nex t yea r." But then a month later whe n I called them back up, they w ere in trou ble. Th ey were strugg li n g a b it for m one y, a n d it wa sn't exactly w hat they had told me. I was basica lly left on my own." Wh en 1985 season ro ll ed aro u n d , Goss w as a pri vat eer again, but with a slight tw ist, as he joine d u p wi th Dou g C h a n dle r to r ide RS75 0s fo r the Gos s l C ha n d le r SuperTrapp Ra cing Team, wh ich wa s ba cked by Jer ry Griffith , on e of the key players in th e develo p men t o f th e fac tory Hondas d u ring 1984. The team would also receive assistance from no ne othe r than three -tim e Wo rld Champ ion Fredd ie Spe ncer. O n pa per th e concep t w as good, but Goss ad mi ts th at the team never lived up to its po tential , and he w as ba ck on his own XR750 before the end of the season, finishing ou t of the top 10. " It started ou t real good," Goss says. " We basicall y too k th e Honda engines a nd put th em in Kn ig h t chassis. The main goal be hi nd it wa s that Freddie Spence r was going to get us parts fro m a fac to ry so u rce in Ja pan, b ut th at deal was cut off at the pass. I'm not sure what . ha p pe ne d . But it was just a real long season fo r u s . I h urt m y leg agai n at th e Ascot TT, and just went like tha t for the rest of the season." If 1985 was di sa ppoin ting. the n 1986 was ev en m ore so. Goss st r uggled a ll year aboard his own XR750, but a lack of fina ncial su p port m ade the title chase ro ugh going . It showe d, as Gos s again finished ou t o f th e to p 10. Goss' fina l Nationa l w in came at the sp ring Ascot Half Mile, and it gav e him th e all-time record of five half mile wi ns at the now deceased venue. " I lik ed g o ing to Ascot ba si call y beca use I w on th ere and I alway s did .r e a l go od th e re ," Goss s a id. "But it always sca red th e heck ou t of me. The place was really tough to do good at . To w ards the end there - when the track h ad changed from th e first time I ever wen t ou t there - you just reall y h ad to drive it in hard an d hang o n, and just physically make th e b ike turn. I th ink that physical conditioning wa s the key to wi nning th ere." A n d it was also true that Goss the m echanic a lw ays seemed to h ave h is bike dialed in to the As cot su rface. He kn ew w hat it too k to m ake the bik e compe titive th ere. " Yo u h ad to h ave something that really accelerated off the corner th ere," Goss says. "You had to have some steam and so me thi ng tha t handled . You also had to have good brakes . Everybod y remembers th e da ys when they d id n' t run brakes the re, but it was really a key fac tor. for winning th at place. I alw ays liked coming to the West Coast. I loved pl ac es like Sacra men to a n d San Jo se, even though I stru ggled there." A self-avowed stock ca r racing fan. Goss tried to make a br eak into the fou rw heeled ranks w ith his own N ASCAR La te Model in 1987. He ra n the car for tw o yea rs, but the move p ro ved to be a ste p in the wrong d irect ion . "A s far as the money and the effort it ta kes, it (the stock ca r) was just ab out five times worse than bikes," Goss sa id . "And prize money isn ' t even a consi deration . I put a lot of money into that. It would cost yo u $400 a week just for tires if yo u wanted to be competitive, and it wasn' t like racing bikes, w here if yo u have slower bike, yo u can still run up fro nt." . 'Ra th e r than co n ti n ue to compete, Goss elect ed to pu t his mech anical tal en ts to use by w renchin g on them for so m eo ne else . He joi ned the Ca rs and Concepts SCCA Trans- Am team in 1989 to w rench o n driver Tom Kend all ' s Chevrolet Berettas, then moved ove r to M.T.1. Racing to w rench on the Chevrole t Intre p id IMSA GTP fo r two yea rs before joining Roush Racin g. w he re he n o w se rv es as t he crew chi e f for Kendall ' s SCCA Tra ns-A m Fo rd Mustan gs. "It' s kind o f th e sa me thi ng as th e b ik es , " G o s s s ays . " It' s a cl os e- kn it g ro up, and everybody knows everybody else . It's al ways the sam e peopl e w orking on the same stu ff. There's jus t a different sign on the door." A s crew ch ief, C o ss , n ow 38 , is res po ns ible for the week-to- week dealings with th e car, lik e ge tting it in the tru ck on tim e, an d orga nizi ng the crew. During the races, he is in constant rad io contact with Kendall, monitoring the car for any s igns of trouble. He ha s show n the sa me ded icati on in his new job as he has thr ough out his racing caree r, and he says he enjoys the wo rk . "It' s a steady p aycheck ," Goss says. " An d it has kept me close to racing and in the technical side of thi ngs. " Goss no d ou bt shows the same commitmen t to his family, which he sta rte d . long befo re he had given u p the gri nd of the d irt track wars. "My daughter Jan ice is 11 now, Goss says. "She is in th e sixth grade an d plays g irls basketb a ll. She d oes real good in school. My othe r daughter Tracy is four now. Th ey really could care less ab ou t racing. and that's fine ." Wife Vicky ha s been wit h h im throu gh good and bad , and has been one of the few pe opl e who cou ld match Goss in his determination to go where he has been. "Yo u tal k about d ed ica tion," Goss says. "She has sho wn the same dedication from that en d. When I first got married, w e bought my wife a $300 wedding rin g. and a new se t of cylinder head s for my mile bike for $900. So th at sho ws yo u how dedicated she his, I keep telling her I'll mak e it up to her next year ." And he still keeps up on the di rt tra ck scene, ca tching as many races as possible on TV and calling to find out the res ults of each Na tio nal. And both Randy and Vicky Gos s have m ain tained a sm all conn ec tion b y assi sti ng Michi ga n racer Mark Wyskiel at se lected N ation al s in the Midwest durin g the '94 season. " We di d n' t make a Nationa l," Goss says. " Bu t we kind of got o ur feet w et again and go t to see everyone." Desp ite his absence, Goss says th at di rt track racin g never co m p letely left h is sys te m . In fa ct , Goss says h e wou ld n't mi nd running a few se lec te d races if everything was just right, though he d ou bts it will ever happen. And even if it d id, it's possible th at people might no t really notice the qu iet, hard working. forme r National Cha mpion. It wo u ldn't b o th e r him, it ne ver h as, and m ay b e th at's th e reason for the virtua l di sappearing act he pu lled u pon retiremen t. "I nev er really was all that flamboyant," Goss says. "Sprin ger was just a legend on hi s own, th e g uy never pa ss ed any one on th e insid e . My riding style w asn 't th at exciting. I wa s pr etty much to the poi nt, try ing to sco re points and m ake money." In the end, perh aps it' s better to let the record of Randy Goss speak for itself. He alwa ys di d . l:'i 43

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