CN
III ARCHIVES
BY SCOTT ROUSSEAU
W
hen discussing the honor
roll of Team Harley-David-
son factory-backed AMA Grand
National Champions, Randy
Goss' name doesn't carry the
same chutzpah as that of fellow
Michiganders Bart Markel, Jay
Springsteen or Scott Parker, or
many others. Maybe it should,
though, because when the
factory needed him, Goss was
there, and he delivered.
Unlike the more flamboyant
personalities of Springer and
Parker, the soft-spoken Goss
was more reserved, more cal-
culated. Heck, he was arguably
easy to overlook, as unlike either
of the other two, it took two years
for him to score a Grand National
win after turning Expert.
But just like them, he did make
a statement. Goss' first win came
on the half mile at Middletown,
New York, on June 10, 1979. He
started the day by setting a new
single-lap qualifying record of
24.450 seconds, breaking Hank
Scott's two-year-old single-lap
record of 25.066 by more than
half a second. Goss then went
on to a wire-to-wire victory in the
race, pulling away from Scott and
Garth Brow in the main event.
"It's been a long three years
waiting for this," Goss told Cycle
P104
RANDY GOSS:
HARLEY'S UTILITY MAN
enough to attract the attention
of Harley-Davidson factory team
manager Dick O'Brien, who was
in desperate need of a potential
replacement for Springsteen,
who had struggled all season
with his well-documented but
equally mysterious stomach ail-
ment. If Springsteen couldn't win
the title, O'Brien figured, then
maybe Goss could.
And he would, but in the least
spectacular of fashions. Rather
than just pick up where Springer
left off, laying waste to the com-
petition with a series of wire-to-
wire and/or come-from-behind
wins, Goss earned the plate for
News reporter Gary Van Voorhis
after winning the race. "It was the
horsepower I had that won it for
me. Larry Johnson, my father-in-
law, and I worked 15 hours a day
for the past week to practically
rebuild the entire bike. It paid off.
Things are really starting to fall in
place."
Indeed, they were. Goss would
go on to win two more Grand
National half miles that season,
at Des Moines, Iowa, and As-
cot Park in Gardena, California.
and finish third in the '79 AMA
Grand National Championship
Series, behind Steve Eklund and
Springsteen. That was more than
