Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE TAPES BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU hat is it about numbers, anyway? It's hard to argue against the fact that digits are part of the fabric that gives us our identity in modern society. We have driver's license numbers, social-security numbers, creditcard numbers, telephone numbers, numbered addresses, account numbers, PIN numbers, take-a-numbers... Stop me if you've had enough. Pop artist Bob Seger once wrote a song about feeling like a number instead of man. That Seger, a model for intelligent men the world over - not! But I digress. The point is that we are so often recognized by our numbers more than by our names. Richard Petty is number 43, Wayne Gretzky is number 99, Reggie Jackwn is number 44, God is number 7... Don't ask. There is perhaps no place that this rings more true than in Grand National dirt track racing, where the top riders and their numbers are spoken as one. National number 67 Mike Hacker; National number 21 Will Davis; Nummberr 9, Jayyyy Sprrringsteen ... Follow me? So I'm sitting in a dirt track buddy's garage the other day, and while we're mulling over the paint he's applying on his new Rotax and what parts we're going to need to finish my project Yamaha TT540 that has been stewing for the past 16 months, we start talking about what this National number or that National number is doing. It just so happened that during the course of the conversa tion, I noticed an old flier from some forgotten National, the primary use of the parchment now. being to clean paintbrushes or something like that. The photo on the flier was a goLden oldie, featuring then Grand National Champion Gene Romero alongside Jim Rice and Dave Aldana. "Pop quiz," I chortled to the other guys in the garage. "What makes this picture so odd and why?" None of them really picked up on it, so I continued. "Look at the numbers," I said. "Romero is number ], yes, but Rice 2 and Aldana 3?" I concluded with a refresher on how Romero carried the number-one pLate in ]97], and ·that was the year that the AMA dedded to award dirt track numbers based upon the points standings. Romero won the championship, so he carried number 1. Rice and Aldana were next, followed by Dick Mann (4), Don Castro (5), Mert Lawwill (6), Mark Brelsford (7), Chuck Palmgren (8), Tommy Rockwood (9), Gary ixon (10) and on down the line. It turned out to be wildly unpopular, as fans howled that the system made rider recognition confusing, and the riders themselves complained tha t they had carried the same number for so many years that it was part of their identity. So, for 1972 the system reverted back. W . Mann had won the title and got to wear the coveted number 1. Romero was back to 3, Bart Markel to 4, Mert took number 7, Nixon had number 9, and order was restored to this chaotic universe. This benign exercise got me to thinking about the guys who carried some of the low numbers and how they got those numbers. So I started calling them for my own edificafion and things snowballed, and so here I am telling you about it. For example, if you have ever watched the movie "On Any Sunday" (if you haven't, try stepping outside the cave), you know that Romero held number 3 before he ever won the championship. I found this interesting, because I came along in the era where everyone knows that the single-digit numbers are reserved for past Grand National Champions - it's the law. But a quick consultation with the person who would get my vote for "man that I wish was my grandpa if I hadn't had two of the coolest already" - Dick Mann : revealed that this wasn't always the case. "They (low numbers) were just given out on an arbitrary basis by (AMNs) Jules Horky," Mann remembers. "There was no set system. Of course, it was a smaller organization then. It was Jules' personal choice, but he was careful about who he gave them to. 1 was number 64, but after Dick Klamfoth retired, Jules called me and asked me if 1 wanted a lower number. I told him no, not unless I could have a smaller number than Al Gunter (3). I was just joking, but Jules said, 'How about number 2?' I told him that was fine." And that was the number that Dick Mann carried when he didn't carry the number ], except in '71, when he was number 4. I believe that number 2 is the number that most people associate with Dick Mann, don't you? Okay, so what about Romero, who so prominently carried the number 3? "I don't recall the ·exact circumstances," Romero says. "I was 22Z my first year, and then I got National number 20. But I guess I was an up-and-coming rider, so they gave me number 3. I remember that I got the design from _ some hippy who lived on Mulholland Drive (in Los Angeles). The guy handed it to me on a paper bag." Interestingly enough, Romero says he was one of tfle proponents of the 197] numbering system. "I pushed for that at an AMA board meeting in Las Vegas, because I thought it would be really simple, but I guess I was wrong," Romero says. "Looking back on it now, I do agree with it (the current system). My intentions were good, but I guess as far as everyone is concerned, Richard Petty is 43, Nixon is 9. I like being number 3." 30 YEARS AGO... APRIL 25, 1968 huck "Feets" Minert had his BSA tuned up and hummin' as he made the cover while dispIa ying great form a t the new Saddleback Motocross Park in Orange County ... Ron Nelson (Mon) got up from a nasty-looking fall to win two of three 500cc Expert motos at the Santa Maria motocross ... The ]968 Yuma Prison Run to Yuma, Arizona, drew nearly 1000 motorcyclists ... In the desert, Steve Kirk (Tri) was the. first Open Expert, but Larry Bergquist (Bul) took the overall win at the Lost Coyotes MC Hare Scrambles ... Mark Brelsford (BuI) beat Bob Grossi for the 500cc Expert victory at the Salinas scrambles in Northern California. C Mark Brelsford, who rode the alloy Harley-Davidson XR engine to its first Grand National title in ]972, chose number 6 because, as he puts it, "There might have been only two at the time, number 6 and number 8. I chose 6 because it hadn't been used for a while." Of course, in ] 971, Brelsford was number 7, and Mert Lawwill was number 6, a number that the 1969 title winner remembers hating. "That (6) was awful, because it was an awful year for me," Lawwill remembers. 'That was the year that I crashed and got hurt real bad. It (6) was just a doom-and-gloom ride. The number 7 was just a number I was partial to; there were no particular heroes associated. with it. But having 7 helped me, because it was just a fresh start for me." . Superstitious or no, Lawwill retired as number 7 in ]977, but thanks to "On Any Sunday," I'll always remember him more as number]. And that's the number that I most closely associate two other men with, one of them being Randy Goss. The quiet, two-time title winner ('80, '83) from Michigan told me that, like Brelsford, he chose number 6 because there just weren·t that many single digits to choose from. "I am more proud that I won the championship while 1 was number 13," said Goss. who started his Expert career as 30X. "So I ain't afraid of that number. In fact. when we got a truck chassis (Goss works for a NASCAR Super Truck team) with the number 13 on it. I'm pumped." More superstition? Who knows? But some single digits do have historical implications. such as Scott Parker (my third number 1 of number ]s) and Jay Springsteen (9). Parker, who has held number] almost as many seasons as he held his former number] 1, has a lock on number 2 - in those rare instances when he is not the champion - because Kenny Roberts carried 2. "Roberts was the man in all the magazines that I was reading in school when I was coming up." Parker says. "In fact, he gave me one of his number plates with that number on it. U you look at mine. it's exactly the same style as his." , Three-time winner Springer ('76-78), who was formerly National number 65X and then 25, got his number from salty 01' Gary Nixon, who was formerly National number 63, then 9, then ], then 10 (197]), then 9 again. . "I kept renewing my number for a long time because I was riding this one ice race where they were paying me every year," Nixon says. "After I quit, I didn' t want some idiot to get it, so I told Springer that if he lost the championship, then he should take my number. We had already been good buddies for a long time." "U he hadn't asked me to take it," Springer replies, "I probably wou'ld have taken number 4, because of Bart Markel." Can you imagine that? Nummberr 4, . Jayyyy Sprrringsteen. Sounds kind of funny. Then again. some numbers don·t necessarily have historical implications. Former champion and National number 20 Chris Carr ('92) chose number 4, and not because he was a Bart Markel fan. "I have a lot of respect for Bart Markel." Carr says, "but I chose number 4 because I was 4Y as a Junior and 4Y as a RookieExpert. I thought about number 6, because I liked Randy Goss, and 2, because of Roberts. Scotty beat me to that number." I regret that I'll never get to ask Steve Eklund why he chose number 8, or Ricky G. why he took number 3, but with regard to Graham, Romero says that he doesn't think it was a case of hero worship. "I would have been flattered if Ricky had asked me if he could use it." Romero says, "but he never did, and that's okay. His design was totally different, too. Ricky had a style all his own." Interesting responses, all of them. But the man who gave me the best response to the question of what and why was none other than the most reclusive of all AMA Grand' National Champions of the modern era, Gary Scott, who won the title in ]975. Scott just somehow seemed to tie it all together. "After I was number 1, numbers 4, 5 and 8 were available," Scott says. "1 seriously thought about talking to Bart Markel, just to be courteous, and ask about using number 4, but at the last minute I dedded to take number 5. I'm not superstitious or into numerology or anything like that, but that number turned out to be a lucky number. It wasn't one of my favorites. and I was a little cautious about taking it, but I don't mind being associated with it now." Scott then went on to explain, in a nutshell, what I think that the rest of the championship-winning riders that I talked to all feel in their hearts to this day. "A lot of people just don't realize how much power that number-one plate holds," Scott says. '1 have only one of my original' number-one plates left. It's authentic - it came off of one of my race . bikes. When I hold it, it has quite an effect on me. It's like you can almost feel the power and the aura from all the effort that you put in to win it. and feel what happened when you were on the bike. I almost threw it away once, but when I grabbed it, it felt awesome. I wouldn't give it up fot anything." Amen. (~ 20 YEARS AGO... APRIL 12;1978 10 YEARS AGO... APRIL 6, 1988 ob Hannah (Yam) won both nights of AMA Supercross Series action at the Pontiac Silverdorne in Pontiac, Michigan, and closed to within three points of series leader Marty Tripes (Hon)... Kenny Roberts (Yam) won the 250cc race. but broke in the 500cc race during the opening round of the World Championship road race series in Venezuela. Barry Sheene (Suz) took the 500cc win... Val Tamietti (Mai), Mike Bell (Yam) and Ron Turner (Suz) were the 500, 250 and 125cc winners, .respectively, at Saddleback's Saturday motocross races... Donnie Cantaloupi (Yam) won the]25 and 250cc classes at the Helvetia MX in Sacramento... Torsten Hallman Racing offered its "No Dive" front-brake anti-squat device. We haven·t seen too many since. . ick Johnson (Hon) swept both 250cc Pro motos and Erik Kehoe (Suz) put together 2-] scores in the 125cc Pro class, as each rider took an overall victory at the Hangtown National MX, round two of the AMA/Bel-Ray 125/25Occ MX Series... The Dans were dueling in the dez: Dan Ashcraft (Yam) beat Dan Smith (Hus) at the Searchlight, Nevada, round of the AMA National Hare & Hound Series... Fred Eiker (W-R) averaged ]08.2 mph to win the La Carrera Classic III road race in Mexico... Sweden's Erik Stenlund (Jaw) claimed the win at the World Championship Ice Speedway Final in Eindhoven, Holland ... Terry Vance (Suz) set a new elapsed-time record en route to winning the Pro Stock Bike class at the NHRA GatorMoonalsinGaines~~Aooda. . . B R 00 0\ 0\ ...... - 00 ..... l-< 0.. -< 71

• Cover