CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
P126
THE OUTSIDER:
GARY SCOTT
Loyalty or no, Scott would not
see the top of the podium aboard
a factory Triumph in 1973, and al-
though he was able to repeat the
consistent season-long perfor-
mance of his rookie year to finish
second in the points standings for
the second time in two years, he
knew that a long-term relationship
with Triumph was not in the cards.
"The next year, Dick O'Brien
called me again, and he offered
me a lot more money, so I went
with Harley-Davidson," Scott
recalls. "But I think there was a
lot of resentment between me
and him. I was trying to make the
best decision at the time [in '73],
B
ig news shook the American
racing scene in 1976 when
it was revealed that AMA Grand
National Champion Gary Scott,
who had won the 1975 AMA
Grand National Championship
with the factory Harley-Davidson
racing team, would be walk-
ing away from the factory and
defending his title as a privateer.
It marked the first and only time
that a factory-backed champion
has parted ways with Harley-Da-
vidson in such a manner. So how
did it happen?
"I've got an interesting theory
on that," says Scott, now 51,
retired and living in Phoenix, Ari-
zona. "It was kind of an odd situ-
ation, and people will obviously
have different opinions about it.
"At the end of 1972, my rookie
year, [Harley racing manager]
Dick O'Brien offered me a ride
with Harley-Davidson. I already
had ties with Triumph, who had
helped me with a road race ride
that year, so I went to Pete Coll-
man [Triumph's racing manager],
and he offered me a bit more
money. I felt loyalty to Triumph,
so I agreed to ride for them, and I
called O'Brien back and told him
no. He was really upset over that.
I don't think that anyone had ever
turned him down before."
Gary Scott won the
1975 AMA Grand
National Championship
riding for Harley-
Davidson. After winning
the GNC title in '75,
Scott left Harley-
Davidson the following
year to defend the title
on his own.
