Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127974
"I we nt ou t there, and the firs t thing that I found ou t was that I was no mat ch for th e Euro pea ns, but with the Am erican s I cou ld han g in the to p five. Bultaco was debating abo u t w he ther or not they s hou ld spo nso r a r id er o n the Wes t Coast. Eventua lly they d id ." But it wasn't Brelsford, w ho decided that the Harl ey-Davidso n deal was the rig ht way to go despite reservation nu mbe r two. " I was afra id of road racing, but I had no choice bu t to do it if I wa nted to come on board as a factory rider," Brelsford says. "O'Brien said that they were hiri ng me to maybe someday carry the Grand National Championship, and wit hout road racing it was very unlikely that that wo u ld ever happen." Bre lsfo rd bi t the road racing bullet and took th e Ha rley deal, though he later learned that he may have ha d anothe r sho t with the Triumph factory. But, according to Brelsford , O'B rien and Triumph boss Pet e Coleman sor t of sea led his fate. . "I heard Triumph was in te rested," Brelsford says, "bu t what I fo und o u t lat er was that Pete and Dick we re good friend s, and in th ose d ays th ose g uys had kind of a mutual u nd er standing . They could p lay you at o ne en d , and. they were bot h p laying yo u, and they kind of knew where you were going to en d up . later on d o w n the road th ey pu lled a q u ick one on me when I was d etermi ned to s w itc h to Triumph or BSA beca use I wa s so fed up with th e Ha rl eys blow in g up. I' d had it, an d I told Harley th at I wanted off, and th at Triu m p h had approach ed me and told me that the y wa n ted me o n their team ." But that was down the road . Getting his start with th e factory team in 1969, Brelsford had yet to make his mark in the Grand Nationa l record boo ks, altho ug h he remembers leaving a hell Of a mark at the old Memorial Stadium short track, held the night before the Daytona 200. "The circu mstances were that someone had brought my Sprint down, and I wanted to ride it," Brelsford sa ys. "I felt real goo d, but in the semi, a rider in the back of the pac k fell down in tum one. In those days, they let anybody and everybody stand in the infield. Consequently, yo u coul dn' t see around the corners. I came into that comer, and the guy that fell down had uprighted his bike and was trying to get it off the track. And here ca me myself and about 10 o ther guys, so he dropped his bike and ran right where I had committed myself to go. Rather than hit him, I hit his bike, and I hi t it at such an angle that it ca tapu lted me 30 feet in the air and another 50 feet straight into the concre te wall on the outsi de of the track. Some photograph er caught it and ... ma n, I was up there. It bro ke my leg and arm. I woke up the next morn ing in the hospital an d said, 'Ma n, w hat th e hell happened ?' Th en they showed m e that picture." Nee d less to say, Brelsford sa t o ut th e '69 Dayton a 200, but he did compete on the di rt, earning his first win at th e July 12 runnin g o f th e 50- la p Asco t TT Steeplechase. "Tha t win was wo nderful," Brels ford says. "I th ou ght I could win it, becau se I really had Ascot fig u red out. But th e thing th at I remember m ost fro m th a t yea r was my first race as an Expert, at the Hou ston TI. I was just so proud 10 b e in H arle y colo's. Harl ey had just given us their new 350cc Ae rmacchi fou r-stroke sing les to rid e, and 1 got ou t th e re a n d ju st ab out led th e wh ol e Nationa l. The only one even close to me was Sk ip Vanleeuwen. He was on a . 650cc Triumph, and I guess that he was being generous, becaus e he was goi ng a little bit quicker tha n I was, and instead of knocking me off, he w as just k ind enough to bump m e, as if to say, 'Get ou t of the way!' He just ke p t bump ing me , like he was ho nking a horn, and I finally moved oyer. l a ter he to ld me tha t he thought he was goi ng to have to knock me down, w hic h wo uld n' t have been ha r d, because h e w a s ca rryi ng about 40 mo re pounds around out there. But I'll never forget tha t and, in my very first Expe rt race, I got second place." The As co t wi n w as a lso special fo r Brelsford not so much for how he di d it, but because of what he rod e to victory: the notorious Goliath. "Man, I su re d id n' t look forward to riding tha t thing," Brelsford recalls. "See, in those days, Harley so ld 900cc Sportsters in their stores . It was a twi n-eylind e r s teel bar rel and h ead ... well , th e w hole top end was steel. Somehow, they were allowed to ra ce th e 900cc aga ins t the 650cc Triumphs and BSAs. The Triu m p h an d B5A g uys u s ed to a lw ays bit ch and complain abou t that, bu t th e fact is tha t Goliath was abou t 25 pounds heavier than the Triumphs, and it was all in the top end, so it was an ab solu te z ar to ride. And in a drag race it was slower. " Bu t it worked for m e for tw o di stin ct reasons . One was that Mert had bu ilt a s pecia l fr a m e that h e kept a secret. He lowered it so that the engin e was as low as yo u could go wi thout di gging in the cases, and he lightened about 10 pou nds and cha ng ed the geome try. Daytona disaster!: Brelsford (1) Is enve loped In fi re a sp lit second after colli ding with Larry Darr in the ch icane during the 1973 Daytona 200. Although Brelsford received numerous serious Injuries In the crash, burns were not among th em. 50 it steered p retty good, but a no the r problem was th at the thing used to chatter the rear w heel so bad goi ng in to the comers th at it wo uld skid yo u right off the race track. It was terrible , bu t Mert devised a cab le th at went d o w n th e clu tch m echanism - he called it a "clu tch worm" - and when you'd press o n th e rear brak e, this cable would d ise ngage the clutch pa rt of the way, so it alleviated the chatter. Nobody ever p icked it up - no t even our competitors w ho parked their b ik es right next to us. Mert did such a great job of concealing it. It was fu lly lega l. A nyway, the b ike wor ked very good. It had so much more torque th an anythi ng else out there. I wo u nd up winni ng all three of m y Ascot TIs aboard Goliath. I a lso rode it at places like Cas tle Rock and Peoria, and it did very we ll th ere, too ." Brelsford wen t on to the finish the '69 s eas o n in ei ghth p la ce in th e s er ie s s ta nd ings , san d wiched between Ga ry Nixon and Larry Palm gren , after suffering another season-in terrupting injury at a non-Na tional TI in Hinsdale, llIinois. Meanwhile, his teammate Lawwill we nt on to win j he title for Harley-Davidson. But Brelsford's styl e both on and off the track was quickly beginning to earn th e attention of his peers and m ot orcycleracing fa ns, and 1970 would be Brelsfo rd' s "s te p p in g-o u t" year, bring in g .. .. ~ t.::: G8 ~ ~ 35