Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

The Outsider 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 walking away from the fact ory and de fending his title as a privateer. It marked the first and only time that a factory-backed champion has parted ways wi th Harl eyDavidson in such a manner. So how did it happen? "I've got an interesting theory on that," says SCOlt , now 51 , retired and living in Pho enix, Arizona. "It was kind of an odd situat ion, and peopl e will ob viously have diffe rent opin ions abo ut it. ':At t he en d of 1972, my rookie year, [Harley raci ng manager] Dick O 'Brien o ffered me a ride with Harl ey- Davidson . I already had tie s with Triumph, w ho had he lpe d me with a ro ad rac e ride th at ye ar, so I w ent to Pete Collman [Triu mph's ra cing ma nager], and he o ffered me a bit more mo ney. I felt loyalty to Triumph , so I agreed to ride for them, and I ca lled O 'Brie n back and to ld him no . He was really upset over t hat . I don't think that anyone had ever turned him down before." Loyalty or no, Scott would not see the top of the podium aboard a facto ry Triumph in 1973, and although he was able to repeat the consistent season-long performance of his rookie year to finish second in the po ints standings for the second time in two yea~, he knew that a long -term relationship with Triumph was not in the cards. "Th e next yea r, Dick O 'Brien called me again, and he offered me a lot more money, so I went w ith Harley-Davidson," Scott recalls. " But I think there was a lot of res entment between me and him. I was trying to make the best decision at the time [in '73] , but I thi nk he never let go of t he fact tha t I turn ed him down , and him ca lling me back was more a case of him not having somebody who could do t he job fo r him t han anything." Scott made the mo ve to Harley at a time w hen a fac tory wa r betw e en Harley and Yamaha was at a feve r pitch. Yama ha had taken t he AMA Grand N at io nal title with Kenny Ro berts in '7 3, an d Harl ey was on the ro pe s. Robe rts would repeat in '7 4, in no small part due to a su pe rio r road racing program that paid off with three additional w ins o n the season . Even though he was a d irt o nly rider, Scott scored t hree wins and was st rong en ough once agai n t o land second in the standings . Even after proving himself on the Harley, Sco tt says he fe lt no respect from O 'Brie n. "It was just a really strained relationship ," Scott says . " Most of the Harley After winning the AMA Grand National Championship with Harley·Davidson in 1975, Gary Scott rode with the number·one plate as a privateer in 1976. B 30 YE4R!i" A 60. .. May 28. 1974 On the cover Kenny Roberts squeaked past Gary Scott for the win at the firstAMA Grand NationalChampionship mileof the year. Man of the dirt y track legends were in attendance, including Mert Lawwill, Jim Rice and Gene Romero. On that same day 13 men broke the track record of 39.46 seconds... In the World MXChampionships Jim Pomeroy was beaten by factory KTM rider Gunnady Moisseiev. Pomeroy lost when he began to fade in the later stages of the race, due to a poor suspension choice... An ad appeared for the famous Mammoth Mountain Motocross. The race was offering $5000 in cash and prizes. Today, Mammoth is in its last year due to environmental concerns. guys w ere from Michigan, and I w as the ou tside r from Ca lifo rn ia, and I was making more money than t hey we re . Th ey d idn't like that." More focused than ever, Scott came back in 1975 and had what is arg uably t he best season o f his career. In the e nd, even though he on ly added two more win s to his tally, Scott became the 1975 Grand National AMA Champion. In light o f his ac co mplishment , it would seem a foregone conclusion that SCOlt and Harley would be back together to defend th e number-one plate in 1976. It didn't tu rn out th at wa y. ':Aft er I got nu mber one, I went back and tal ked w ith Dick O' Brien ," SCOlt recalls . "T his was back in the days w hen it was all verbal contracts. I never signed a co nt ract w ith anybody. So I went back , and he o ffered me a deal, and I said , 'We ll, I know that you 're go ing to do a lot of extra PR stuff with me, so I'd like to get a little extra money for t hat. " I went home, and he d idn't call me, and the n it go t to be the midd le of Dece mbe r, so I ca lled him. He tol d me tha t I didn' t have a ride." It was mor e mutual than it sounds, says Scott, who neve r felt much in the way of moral support from the factory w hile he was there. "We just d idn't get along , but w hat I really thi nk hap pe ned is that in o rder for O 'Brien to get the big bud ge t he wa nted , he had to have a reason for it," Scott says. "So it was, 'Oh, Gary Sco tt has left, and we do n't have the nu mber- o ne plate. Now we need the mo ney to go get it because this basta rd guy ran off and left us.' To this day I believe t hat' s how he justified it." Maybe Scott's argu ment has merit. After all, Harley did come bac k in 1976 126 MAY 26, 2004 • CYCLE NEWS 20 YE4R!i" A60•. . May 30. 19 8 4 w ith an army of factory riders - including a new hot rookie talent, a Michigan kid named Jay Springsteen - and for wh at ? History shows that almost wasn 't e no ugh, as Scott put together a gaggle of bikes co nsisting of his ex -facto ry Harleys and Triumphs for d irt trac k racing and a Yamaha road race r to defend his title. He even w ent so far as to claim two motor- cycles from his co mpetito rs during the seaso n in the hop e of sw inging the title race his way. Ultimate ly, though, the number o ne went back to t he Harley camp. "T he bo tto m line is that they were just damn lucky that Springsteen came along when he d id," Scott says. "He had so much natural ta lent. I raced as har d as I co uld that year." Scott co ntinued on through t he 19B5 season, but he never got his title bac k. Even so, today he says he has no regr ets. "I had some great o ppo rt unities and ma de so me good money," Scott says. "I came along w hen it was a real professio n, and it was good. I look back and see that the re are a few situa tions where I could have been mo re d iplomatic, but that comes w ith age and wisdom. I was and still am just a mirror of what comes at me, and back then it was stand up o r tuck your tail and go ho me." Sco tt Rousseau 40th Anniversary We took a look inside the factory Honda RS750s. After Ricky Graham won the Sacramento Mile on an RS750, everyone began to take notice of the powerful bike... Rick Johnson was at the top of his game back in 1980. He took his Yamaha to the top of the podium; however, it was after a hard-foughtbattle with Honda-backed Ron Lechien... The prominent DeAnza Cycle Park was fighting to expand its land and add many new tracks, one of which was a lighted supercross track. Today, as environmental restrictions increase, DeAnza has been closed to off-road recreation... Dirt track racer Gary Scott allowed us to take a closer look at his custom Harley-Davi son dirt track bike, d whichhad a single shock frame design. His main goal was to create a bike that was easy to maintain but was still competitive. ra YE4R!i" A60. .. May 25. 1994 Some 20 years after Kenny Roberts appeared on the cover winning on his dirt track bike, and 10 years after Bubba Shobert was on the cover for winning on hisdirt track bike, Scott Parker showed up on the cover of Issue #20, sliding his factory Harley-Davidson around the Pomona Fairplex... In the World Trials Championships, IS-year-old Doug Lampkin won his first-ever World Championship event. Lampkin was able to outlast his competition duringthe wet and rainy Scottish Six Days event... Our In the Wind section told that Shawn Kalas won the White Brothers World Four-Stroke Championships on his bigHusaberg. Today Kalas still races on a regular basis and has a ride with TeamGreen Kawasaki.

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