Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1542339
* Nf,ES Hardly a I a I a Triv a Triv I n the world of racin8, distiflctions are quite differ- ent than records. While records are often more glo- rious than distinctions, they are usually more fleet- ing. Records, after all, were made to be broken, while distinctions often stand the test of time. Such is the case with former AMA Grand National number- 95 Scott Pearson, who never set a whole lot of records during his l3-year Grand National career, but who achieved two impo.tant distinctions, one of which can never be taken away. For Pearcon, who was transPlanted from his native Michigan to San Jose, California, in the late '60s, motor- cycle racing was something he thought he wanted to do, but like many top flat-track racers who sprang up from his generation, the classic Bruce Brown movie "On Any Sunday" was the spark that iSnited his comPetitive fire After seeinS it, he knew what he wanted to do. "That movie still inspires me to this day," Pearson says. "l wanted to race before that, but when I saw that movie as a kid, I said, 'That's it. That's what l'm going to do. l'm going to be like Mert Lawwill.' And I iust went and chased my dreams." Pearson's dream path took him from the amateur mnk to the AMA Grand National Championship Series by I 977, a year in which he rode well enough to eam Rookie of dre Year honors. He would crack the toP l0 in the series points standinSs in 1980 by landing in a three-way tie with '79 AMA Grand National Champion Steve Eklund and '79 Rookie of the Year Scott Parker for eighth place. "lt was really competitive then, because there was such a big chunk of riders that you had to comPete against," Pearson said, "The '80s was just amazing. The '90s were also good, but nothing compared to the '80s." It was at the turn of the '80s that Pearson earned his first career AMA Grand National win. After leading 20 laps of the fabled Peoria TI only to finish second in 1979, Pearson claimed the 1980 Peoria TT on a potent Yamaha XS750 twin built by Harry Ullie. Pearson was untouchable in the main eYent. 'Actually, though, I remember that we had some engine problems earlier that day," Pea6on recalls. "we twisted a crank or something. lt kePt slowing down in the heat race, so they swapped out the enSine, and it worked really well." One year later on August 9, 1981, Pearson and Lillie came back for more, and Pearson won the Peoria TT for a second straight year. Pearson's victory was another relative cruise, except for the fact that one of the spark-plug wires on the cantankerous twin kept falling off over the lumP, forcing him to constandy reach down and stuff it back on, nearly electrocuting himself several times in the process. "Putting the pluS wire back on and getting the hell shocked out of me didn't feel very good, but then they stopped the race because some guys crashed, and Harry was able to tie it up so that it would stay on in the later part of the race," Pearson remembers. " Harry was a very thorough mechanic who built some Sood Yamaha twins " No one knew it at the time, but that l98l Peoria TT win would earn Pearson the first o{ two major distinc- tions in his career: lt marked the last time that a Yamaha- twin mounted rider ever crossed the finish line first in an AMA Grand National main event. ln fact. Pearson was the last Yamaha rider to win any AHA Grand National dirt-track main event until Yamaha-mounted Tommy Hayden won the Springfield TT on May 28, 2001. "l didn't realize the part about the Yamaha," Pearson says, "l think that's great- Those were great bikes, those Yamahas. lwish they still had 750s on TTs. lt took a lot of effort to ride those things, but it was a lot of fun." Pearson scored another win on the Tulsa Half Mile and finished acareer-high flfth in the Grand National standings in I 981 , and that result contributed to a factory ride with the fledgling Honda team in 1982. Pearson was called in to race the dubious Honda NS750 twin, which sported an engine based on Honda's CX500 streetbike. "That was a bitteEweet time," Pearson recalls. "The guy who was wo.kinS as my mechanic, Dan Maurel, was a great man- He wanted to try some different things that he knew would work for me, but his hands were really tied, and he wasn't able to do them- lt was a real exper- imental program - an R&D thing, Those bikes weren't the easiest thin8s to ride. With the carburetors hanging out of them, you couldn't move around on them very well - but it was a good experience." lndeed, the experience provided Pearson with a sec- ond and more permanent career distinction. On a blue- grooved Half Mile in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 5, 1982, Pearson gave a Honda twin its first AMA Grand National dirt-track win. Furthermore, it stands as the only win that Team Honda ever attained with the NS750. "Louisville is almost a big circle," Pearson recollecs. "lt's not a place where you have to get off the comer because you're able to keep a lot of momentum around ttle whole track so, that Honda was able to work on a track of that natur€. I iust 8ot the holeshot and won it, Not only that, but I set the 20-lap track record there that night. Again, I think if Danny had been able to do what we warted, we would have won a v/hole lot more that year." Unfortunately, Pearson never got another chance, as Honda dropped him in favor of Texas rider Terry Poovey for the 1983 season, the tim- ing coincided with Honda's unveiling of a brand-new engine that would ultimately dominate the sPort - the R5750. While Pearson says he doesn't have any regrets in his career, he would have loved to take a factory RS for a spin. "l feel that I wasn't treated right by Honda," Pearson says. ''Their team coordinator already had somebody else in mind. I feel like I deserved the chance to ride their good engine, and I feel like I deserved the chance to try their road racers. I know in my heart that I had the abil- ity to be successful on those things. But that's the way it goes. lt didn't work out.'' lnstead, Pearson planned to rejoin Lillie in 1983, but that reunion wa5 postponed due to an injury from which Pearson never fully recovered. "PracticinS on my motocross bike on Easter of 1983, I wasted my right knee," Pearson says. "l misted a year and a hall and when I came back I only had 9o-degrees range of motion in my knee, which is all I'll ever have." Pearson would win only one more Grand National main event after coming back, the fucot Half Mile on September 22, 1984. He finished a solid sixth in the 1985 series standings, but that would be his last top- l0 before hanging up his leathers for good in I 990. Today, Pearson,48, is a maintenance manager for Emmet Counry in the northwest part of nonhern Michigan. He makes his home in a rural area outside of Alanson, Michigan, with his wife, Heidi; and sons, Scott, Daniel and Billy; and daughter, Hana- "We having a lot of fun on snowmobiles here," Pearson says. "We just got back from a two-day, 400- mile trip up in the Upper Peninsula [of MichiSan]." Pearson says that he still reads Cycle News today, and he keeps track of some of the happeninSs in the dirt- track scene- "To see what dirt track is doing nowadays is pretty sad to me," Pearson says. ''But I would still recommend to anybody wanting to do it, to follow their heart and their dreams. lf they have the abilit/ to do it - and eveh if they don't - never give up." You iust never know the distinctions that it misht brin8. Ct. BY Scorl RoussEAU P- t 4 \ lr lr I ,/ v FI c fI on nol he 198 I o r E t tF-- f t |- 7_ I l i l 86 TEBRUARY8,2W6 . CYCLE NEWS