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sion for Shobert. He continued to ride while the suspension was under appeal and actually won the Hagerstown Half Mile dur- ing the interim, but he was later stripped of the victory when his appeal was denied. With Shobert on the side- lines contemplating his fate and falling hopelessly behind in the points and Goss breaking his leg, one major magazine called the season over and Graham the champ. But it wasn't over. Shobert mounted one of the biggest comebacks in AMA rac- ing history. Shobert won four of the six Nationals leading up to the season finale at Springfield, including a most unlikely master- piece in the road race National on a rainy Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course—a race he only went to in a desperate attempt to earn a few more points in an effort to catch Graham. It worked. Thanks to the Mid-Ohio upset, the man who trailed by almost 100 points was suddenly back in the picture, trailing Graham, 267-248, with two races to go. The second-to-last race was on the Sacramento Mile. Gra- ham led much of the race, but wore out his rear tire, allowing Shobert to pass and take the vic- tory. In spite of Shobert's amaz- ing late-season push, Graham was still in charge going into the finale at Springfield. He needed only to finish inside the top 10 to secure the title. So, a conserva- tive race would seem to be in order, but Graham was not a just "run in the top-10" kind of rider. Graham threw caution to the wind, explaining it by saying the famous last words, "At Spring- field you can run anywhere, and it's pretty safe. If I'm running up front, I'm going for the win." So, Graham spent the final mixing it up with Shobert, Ted Boody on a privateer Honda and Jay Springsteen on the factory Har- ley. He was less than two miles away from the checkered flag and the certain championship, when Boody drifted high and hit Graham's front wheel coming out of turn two. Graham smashed into the hay bales at over 100 mph. Game over, Shobert's championship, right? Not quite. Graham was beat up and stag- gered by the hard fall. Turned out, he'd broken his hand. But when he looked up, he saw that his bent-up Honda was some- how still running, Graham—full of adrenaline—ran over to his bike wrangled it back on two wheels with his one good hand and got moving again. As Boody and Shobert came around for the last lap (Springer having dropped off the lead draft avoiding Graham), Shob- ert looked over to see Graham struggling to get back under way. Did the sight of seeing his rival seemingly out of the race break Shobert's concentration? Was he trying to do the math in his head? Whatever the case, Boody squeezed past Shobert out of the last turn and held on to win by three feet. Officials and scorers hud- dled, lap charts were double- checked, and numbers were being furiously pounded into the tiny keys of pocket calculators. Graham was still running at the finish and was credited with 13th- place. The announcer keyed up the mic and declared to the waiting crowd, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is unbelievable. Bubba Shobert has finished second, Ricky Graham has finished 13th. Ricky Graham is the 1984 Cham- pion by the margin of one point!" On the podium, Graham thanked Honda, forgave Boody and publicly praised his team- mate and friend Shobert for his amazing comeback. Shobert in turn congratulated Graham and added, "It wasn't so bad when I figured I was going to lose the championship by 15 points. But right now that one point is tear- ing me up." It was a stunning conclusion to one of the truly magical sea- sons in AMA racing history. CN This Archives edition is reprinted from the July 29, 2009, issue of Cycle News. CN has hundreds of past Archives editions in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road. -Editor CN III ARCHIVES P116 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives