Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Parker Takes the Fifth ur ing a record-shattering career that bridged four decades , former factory Harley-Davidson dirt tracke r Scott Parker used to shame lessly state that he was never motivated by anything more than money. But even Parker learned that sometimes money doesn't matter when peop le are talking trash about you. After tying Carroll Resweber's record for the most consecutive AMA Grand National titles, Parker 's bid for a recordbreaking fifth consecutive title was stopped short in 1992, after his infamous Oklahoma City sh unt with teammate C hris Ca rr, who went on to win the t itle. Even after his shot at that fifth title vanished, Parker, now 42 , says that he never really thought much about its importance in the immediate aftermath. But that soon changed. "Y eah, I never rea lly did give it much thought until I started getting bad press from you f% @#kers ," Parke r says with a laugh. ''As soon as you guys [Cycle News] said I was all washed up.;." Indeed , that sentiment did exist, as Parker finished second to Carr in '92 and then dropped back to third place - his worst se ries finish since 1985 - behind Carr and the all-conquering RickyGraham in 1993. "Hey, I lost to Carr by two points , then in 1993 I got hurt again at Hagerstown, and there were two weeks in a row where I didn't get no points , and those guys finished one-two," Parker says. "That's when you guys pulled out the guns and said, 'He ain't gonna win any more, he ain't gonna do this or that .' But in '94, we just started back on a ro ll. I came back a little more positive, and we just treated those two years like a two year break, really, because that's what it amounted to. In '94, I just picked it back up and started rolling." A newly motivated Parker posted seven D wins to reclaim the number-o ne plate in 1994, then kept t he momentum ro lling with a banner 1995 season, in which he scored 10 victories and gave tu ner Bill Werner his 100th victory, after wh ich Parker remarked , "He's the one guy I can't catch . Seems like every time that I w in a self in a familiar posit ion, w ith a chance at a fifth co nsecut ive AMA Grand National Championship title. This time there was more motivation than just money. "This t ime we said, 'Hey, we have got to pullit off this year, because we ain't gonna get another chance like this.' We were pretty motivated, and we kept the hammer down." Parker got off to the right start. Just three weeks after late , great NA5CAR racing legend Dale Earnhard t won his first career Dayton a 500 , Parke r followed suit by winning his first career Daytona Short Track - a race in which he rarely ever made the main even t. He then reeled off two more wins in a row, at the Hagerstown Half Mile and the Springfield Mile. Parker was off to a good start, but there was a familiar foe standing in his way. Chris Carr had returned to dirt track after a disappointing stint w ith the Harley road race team. Now a privateer, Carr was equally motivated, as winning races was no longer just the icing on the cake of a lucrative factory contract but rather a matter of sur vival. And typical of Carr, what he lacked in wins, he made up for in hammerlike consistency, finishing on the podium week in and week out. Carr's consistency more than made up for days when Parker was a litt le off, and it would give him a narrow points lead late in the season. Yet, even when Parker was a little off, it seemed like divine intervention ruled in his favor. There was the incident at LakeOdessa, Michigan, where Parker was leadingwhen his shock broke . Gee Roeder II took over the race lead as Parker faded, but then young privateer J.R. Schnabel crashed, causing a red flag that allowed Parker's team to rep lace the shock. Instead of dropping out, he fi nished second . late in the season , when Parker appeared to be all but out of the las Vegas Half Mile main event - and the title chase - it happened again. Parker was running third in his semi, behind Schnabel and King, when Schnabel again provided assistance in the form of another crash that allowed Parker to advance. A seventh-place finish kept him just ahead of Carr in the points. "Good 01' Schnabel gave me an early Christmas present, " Parker remembers. "Then we went to a track that I knew I hauled ass on: Del Mar." It was do or die at the Del Mar Milein Del Mar, California, on O cto ber I I, 1998. Carr led Parker, 275 to 273, and he knew that he would have to beat Parker in order to alter the course of history. It would prove to be too tough a task, although Parker 's victory was once again not without just a litt le luck. "I remember that we were leading the thing, and the n they stopped it because the sun down the back straight was so bad that you couldn't see," Parker says. "Then we found out that we had a crack in our gas tank, and it was leaking. We didn't have time to change it, so Bill put duct tape on the gas tank for like the whole nine or 10 minutes that we were sto pped , and we were thinking that any time it was just going to burst the tape off. We were like , 'Let's go , let's go! The sun's not going to get any better than this.' So we finally took off, and I was just sure that the tape was going to break ." Parker, busted tank and all, won the race and rode into history as the first five-time consecutive AMA Grand National Champion. It was the 9 1st win of hiscareer, and this ninth title would also be his last, though he did win two more races before calling it career. These days Parker lives in Michigan with his w ife, Wanda; daughte r, Ashley; and so n, Austin. He occupies himse lf by building spec homes, something he always said he would do upon retirement. And altho ugh he has recently taken a strong interest in developing the career of Michigan youngster Nichole Cheza, Parker says that he himself has no desire to race again. "You might see me com in' to a few races now that I'm involved in this package, but I wo n't ride," Parker says. "Every once in a w hile, one of the guys w ill call me and say, 'Y u shou ld come back and ride.' I just tell o 'em, 'The last thing that you want is for me to co me back and ride . I'd just kick your ass all over again.''' S COTT ROUSSEAU CYCLE NE WS EiI . , . J , u.s. Speedway Championship t hat was held in Costa Mesa, California. He beat Jeff Seeton and Mike Bast at the event , after it was delayed one week due to rain... Roge r DeCoster won a very muddy TransAMA race in Wh itney, Texas. He won by being consistent and finishing sec ond in both motos... We visited CanAm 's manufact uring plant in Valcourt, Quebec. It was definite ly an interesting visit to see how it manufactured the bike that National Motocross Champion Gary Jones raced on. 20 YEARS AGO••. November 2', '984 Jimmy Adamo showed up on the cover aboard the Cagiva Pa ntah . We got a chance to go in depth into how Cagiva's factory road racing team operated . It cons isted of Adamo and Reno Leoni... There was a story on former 250cc World Road Racing Champion Kel Carru thers. Back then, he was inst rumental in he lping Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson become successful in World Championship Road Racing. Carruthers worked with Roberts for I I years and lawson for two... Ter ry Cunningham took the w in at the Delaware National Enduro , while current points leader Mike Melton finished third overall... Three-time 500cc World Road Racing Champion Kenny Ro berts retired from motorcycle racing, and we paid tribute to him with a three-page photo spread. to YEARS AGO.. . November '6. '994 Carl Fogarty won t he World Superbike Championship with Phillip Island, Australia. It was his first championship... Steve Hatch was crowned Nat ional Enduro Champion at the final rou nd of the Nat ional Enduro ser ies in Bear, Delaware. He won the nasty enduro, ahead of Kevin Hines in second and Mike lafferty in third... There was an exciting final GNCC round in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, w here Scott Ples singe r and Fred Andrews battled for the champio nship. In the end , Andrews won the race but Plessinger won the title... We interviewed World Championship Trialscontender Do ugie Lampkin. Since then, he has become World Champion many t imes over. In the absence of Carr, who had moved on to take a road race ride w ith the Harley factory for 1996 and 1997, there were other challengers to Parker's throne. Rich King had act ually wedged himself between Parke r and Carr to finish second in the 1995 series, and then Parke r' s fe llow Michigander and former factory teammate, Kevin Atherton, stepped up to give him a challenge that came down to t he last race at Del Mar in 1996. Atherton won the season finale Del Mar Mile, but Parke r finished second and claimed the title . The late Will Davis went all out in an attempt to stop Parker in 1997, but he, too, came up short. 50 it was that in 1998, Parker found him- NOVEMBER 17,2004 • . Steve Bas t again ~~~~~-~~. won the .. , a decisive win at race, he wins one too! " 86 30 YEARS AGO•• • November '9, '974 40TH ANNIVERSARY

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