Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

TIME REMEMBERED (Above) Who rode who?: Brelsford and Goliath. In all , he won three Ascot IT Nationals aboard the beast, whi ch was based on a 900Cc Harley-Davidson Sportster. (Left ) Brelsfo rd circa 1972. Despite start ing the season with a serious points deficit, it was to be his year, as he won three events and became the first rider to earn a Grand National Championship aboard a Harley -Davidson XR750. 38 Na tiona l title after a sudden-dea th battl e wi th Dave Alda na, Dick Mann and Jim Rice at the 50-la p Sacram ento Mile. Even so, Brel s ford m an aged to captu re his only win of the yea r at the season finale Oklahoma City Half Mil e, and he al so impro ved b y o ne s po t in th e s eries stand ings at ye ar's end, fini shing se ven th. Brel s ford co nti n ued to m atu re in 1971, sold iering on wi th underachievin g factory 750s despite Lawwill's best spin- • d o ctorin g, s to mping th e co m p etition a boa rd Gol iath at the Asco t TT a nd , more importantly to himself, overco ming his fear s and blossoming as a road raci ng ta lent. His first wi n came at th e th ird roa d circu it of the season: Loudon, New Hamps hire. "Loudon was my very first roa d race in '69, and it was in the rain and I se ttled for third," Brelsford says. "And in 1970, I flat pu t it on the field and had a hal f-alap lead ove r second place right nea r the end w hen th e mag we nt ou t. Th en I wo n it in 1971, and I got seve nth in the series, w hich was q uite an accom plish men t with those cast-iron engines . It was just fail u re after failure . It was total chaos. But ro a d r a cin g was easie r tha n I thought it wo uld be." If no t a year of ou tright fame, 1972 was certainly Brelsford's most productive yea r. Just as O'Brien and the Harley race s ho p had p rom ised , th e iron XR was history, superceded by the all-alloy motor th at do minat ed di rt tra ck racin g to the point that upd at ed ve rs ions are still king today . Brelsford got th e ball roll in g, ho w ev er , as both h e a nd th e u nt est ed a lloy po w er pl an t were u p to the cha llenge. . "Harley d id n't tell anybody, but they ac tua lly brought th e firs t eng ine to the fina l ro ad race of the year at Onta rio, Ca liforn ia," Brelsford said. "We blew all of our cast-iron stuff during the race on Sunday, but we hung around o n Monday to tes t the new one . Whe n I go t ou t th ere on it, it di dn' t feel that much more power ful, but it was a little quicker, and m y lap tim es were qu icker because the re w as less w eight up top to bo ther yo u in the turns. I put 200 miles on it, an d then Cal (Rayborn) put 200 mil es o n it, and I lov ed i t be ca u s e I kn e w t h a t it was go ing to be reliable. . " It was ge tting dar k ou tside when we wer e finishing up, an d O'Brien comes to me an d he says, 'Mark, you have to go ou t there an d blow it u p.' I said, 'Wha t?' He said . 'We ha ve to know where the wea k lin k is in th e thing, so we want yo u to go out there and blow it up. Nex t time yo u come around , instead of running it in high gea r, run it in third.' So I come out of the firs t tu rn jus t scream ing it by them . Fina lly it po pped and quit. It d ropped a va lve, bu t they wen t back an d cha nged th e design before they released the m to th e race tea m ." Armed with th e knowledge tha t he cou ld push the bike on the track wi thout ha v in g to la ter pus h it off the track, Brelsfo rd was d ressed for success in 72, and aided by bo th the presence of fam ily and a calculated men tal approach to the task at ha nd . "At the end of 1971, my brother Scott was the hottest Novice in the cou ntry aboard a semi- factory- ba cked Yama ha, " Brelsford says. "Ha rley was bri ngi ng the new XR ou t in 72, an d they asked Scott to join the factory team as a Junior. Th ey ga ve h im a ll the equipm en t, and my new tun er, Jim Belland (who took over fo r La w wi ll, w ho. w as swam ped w it h the pr ep ar ation of his own equipment), wo uld work on both our bik es. "I re member th e scenario (for the cham pions hip) a ctua lly s tarted that wi n ter, befo re th e start of the season . Scott and I sa t aro un d the kitche n table an d pulled ou t the results from the 7 1 season. We spent hours trying to ant icipate a sce na rio for the upcom ing season. We tried to figure ou t w here everyone was ou tstandi ng, the ir fa vo rite race tracks, wher e their equi p men t worked w ell. I work ed ou t a bo u t 10 di ffer ent po ints sce n a r ios - m y s e lf vs . Me rt Lawwill... Gene Rom ero ... Bart Markel... Ga ry Nixon... Palm gren . I just w orked it ou t an d reali zed tha t with my road racing capa bility, w ith the XR being able to fin ish and with a d ecen t mil er, th at if th in gs w orked o u t anywhe re ne ar m y favor, I coul d co me o u t of it with th e titl e. Beca use by then , a ll my Harl ey teamm at es were ge tti ng up into th eir 30s. Eterqone was ge tting up the re a bit." At the Houst on season opene r, Brelsfo rd was load ed for bear. Actuallv, he was a little overloa ded . "We di d n' t eve n make th e main for the short trac k - [ rod e the Sprint in that," Brelsford says . "I think I was fast qualifi er for the TT, but things go t a little w ild . For the TT, I brought a cast-iron 750 to ride, and to ge t a little advantage, I tried to pu ll a fast one like the NASCAR guys, where if yo u can ge t an edge, you pull it until you get caught. This was the only time that I eve r atte mpted to do this in my whole racing career, but w ha t we d id was... Dick O' Brien had sent my mechanic so me experimental aluminum barrels years earlier, an d he had 'e m on the shelf. They we re abou t fou r pounds ligh ter, but mo re im p orta n tly, they wou ld really redu ce th e top -end weig h t, a nd th at wou ld mak e a real d iffer en ce w he n it came to slashing the thin g aro und, eve n thou gh it d idn 't give it any more horsepower. "So we pu t the things on there and pain ted ' e m blac k," Bre lsfo rd says . "Nobody even knew they exis ted exce pt the guy at th e fact o ry w ho b uilt ' em , Dick O'Brien and m v mech an ic. But th e barrels had to be do w n a bit to mak e cut them fit rig ht, so we took them to a loca machini st, w ho we lat er fou nd ou t kne Jim Rice. SoJim knew 1 had 'e m, and w go t there a nd qua lifie d goo d . Th e O'B ri en ca me over a n d said, 'I d on ' k now if th is is a rum o r, M a rk, b u Dan ny Maseas, the guy head ing the Tri umph team, says tha t you' ve go t iIlega barrels on that thi ng. Is that tru e?' I sa id ' Well, yea h , D ick . [ d o .' H e sa id, ' I tha t' s the case, then yo u' d bett er pu l ou t or else they're goi ng to protest yo u a nd if yo u' re ill egal, th en yo u' ll los yo ur licen se for a yea r.' " I was broke, and I really tho ug ht could w in, so I told Dick that I could n' pu ll out. Finally he ca me over, and h agreed to pay me seco nd- or thi rd -plac mon ey to pull out. When he ma de tha offer, I said, 'Okay, I wo n' t ride .' But th bigges t thing was that [ lost -a lot of points Then Harley-Davidson announce d th a they weren' t even going to go to the Day to na 200 as a team in 1972. Th at wa another missed opportunity, and that pu me in the hole big- time." Whatever the defici t, Brelsfo rd was semi-correct in his assessment of th season. He scored three wi ns in 1972: H and Golia th claimed the TT, again; h wo n on th e cus hioned half m ile a t Louisville, Kentucky; a nd he wo n th ha lf m ile in Salem , Oregon, Wh en all was sa id a nd d on e, Brelsford clinched th e title two races before th e end of th e season. "Salem w as ac tua lly advertised as a mil e, but so me how it comes ou t now. as a ha lf mile," Brel sf o rd says. "I thin k what hap pened was tha t it measur ed ou t at seven-e igh ths of a mil e on the ins id e pole and a full mil e on the ou tside. I was loo kin g fo r th e grand s la m, bu t as it turned o u t, I wou ld n ' t ha ve gotten it becau se I di d n't eve r wi n a short track. But I always thought I go t at least one mile, bu t I wasn' t credited w ith it."

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