CN
III ARCHIVES
BY LARRY LAWRENCE
S
cott Pearson was a great flat track racer, but
he showed perhaps even more promise as a
road racer. He topped Harry Klinzmann and Randy
Mamola to win the AMA National Novice Road Rac-
ing Championship in 1976 and on the strength of
that performance he was signed to a factory Harley-
Davidson contract, mainly with an eye towards devel-
oping Pearson into a GP road racer. But his budding
career on the pavement ended almost as soon as it
had started and an injury forever changed the trajec-
tory of Pearson's career.
Pearson grew up in a
big family. They moved
from Michigan to Califor-
nia when Pearson was 11
years old. Out of the nine
kids in the family, Scott
says he was the only one
who wanted to pursue it as
a career. As a kid in San
Jose, Scott and his broth-
ers Dennis and Paul used
to hitchhike to watch races
on the weekends. The
Pearsons had neighbors
who raced scrambles and
they saw that Scott was
interested in trying racing and they even went as far
as to buy him a minibike so he could learn to ride.
His first race bike was a Suzuki 90.
"From that point on I mowed lawns and delivered
newspapers to help pay for my racing," Pearson re-
calls. "My neighbors would take me along to all the
scrambles and I raced all over the Bay Area, from
San Jose to Vallejo."
It wasn't long before Pearson was picking up
sponsorship from San Jose Harley-Davidson dealer
Sam Arena H-D.
"My neighbor Ben Mosier was building the bikes
and Sam Arena pretty much footed the bill for it,"
Pearson said. "That's where it all started."
By the time Pearson was 16 he raced up and down
the west coast and he called Ascot Park his
college.
"That's where I got my education," he laughs. "It
was definitely a demanding, ballsy racetrackâwet
and heavy."
Along the way he was doing club road racing as
well on Kawasaki Triples. "They were evil han-
dling, but had some good power," Pearson said. "I
ended up doing really well and a local enthusiast
offered to let me ride his 250 GP bike. I never
even got to try it until Loudon in my first pro road
race and I ended up winning it."
That was '76 and Pearson went on to win the
Novice division of the AMA National Road Racing
Championships that season leading to the offer
from Harley.
A SNAP OF THE WRIST
P100
(Above) Pearson even made the cover of
Cycle News. (Left) Pearson in 1980.
