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VOL. 53 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 18, 2016 P127 most of the dirt tracks, and he even dusted off his old Triumph for select TT rounds. Most pundits didn't give Scott much hope with his patched-together program, without backing from a factory, but the talented rider nearly proved the experts wrong. He would race his varied stable of machines to an amazingly consistent total of 23 top-10 finishes, in- cluding two national wins (one on his Harley-Davidson at the cushioned Louisville Half-Mile and one on his Triumph at the Ascot TT). In the end Scott was agoniz- ingly close to retaining the number-one plate, falling just 21 points short in the end. Roberts knew going in that he would be at a distinct disadvantage on the dirt tracks with his factory Ya- maha XS650-based machine shy of horsepower as compared to the V-Twin power of the Harley XR. He hoped to make up the difference on the short track and TT events, and of course at the road races where he had the awesome power of the Yamaha OW31 at his disposal. Springsteen hung tough with solid finishes most of the season, but he was forced to watch from the side- lines at the road races seeing precious championship points slipping away. With eight rounds to go Scott led the standings by six points over Roberts. Springsteen was 21 points back in third. Then Springer went on a tear. In a hot-streak during August and September, the Harley pilot won four of the five nationals to rocket into the series lead with 16 points in hand over Scott. He would need that cushion since he would not be racing the penultimate round at Riverside. Roberts kept his championship hopes alive by easily winning the road race at Riverside by over six seconds ahead of visiting Japanese rider Takazuma Katayama. Scott, meanwhile, earned enough points with his 11th- place finish at the final road race of the season to draw within 12 of Springsteen, who watched the race from the grandstands. Riverside was easily the most impassioned event of the championship. Skip Aksland (rumored to be prompted by Yamaha) protested Scott's Riverside finish, claiming Scott hadn't made the start of his qualifying heat race (Scott had entered his heat a lap down after his crew put tires on too late and pulled off before the race was over). The result was the infuriated Scott put up $4000 to claim Roberts' winning Yamaha engine and got into a dispute with Roberts' crew chief Kel Carruthers in the process. The Yamaha team filed an appeal, not wanting to lose a factory engine worth much more than the $4000 claiming price. A decision by an appeals board was heard a week later, on the morning of the season finale at the Ascot Half-Mile in Gardena, California—the 28th round of the season. Scott won the decision and got to keep the factory Yamaha road race motor and his points from Riverside. Still, all Springsteen had to do was finish inside the top seven to clinch the champion- ship, but in practice disaster struck. Rex Beauchamp got sideways coming onto the back straight and teammate Springer couldn't avoid him and down went the series leader. Springsteen had dislocated a finger in the crash, but a quick-thinking Werner gave it a hard yank and popped it back into place. Springsteen sat out the rest of practice with an ice bag over his hand and was only able to manage eighth in qualify- ing. With Springsteen ailing, the championship sud- denly swung back wide open. Being a teenager, seemingly made of rubber, Springsteen shook off the battering he took and came back and won his heat race on a backup bike. Making the main effectively eliminated Roberts from the championship. Then in the national, in spite of being ordered to race conservatively, especially con- sidering he'd burnt up a tire in his heat race, Spring- steen led the race, was passed by Alex Jorgensen and then, even though he didn't need to get back by, with three laps to go, Springsteen forgot about his injured hand, about his fading rear tire and about the number-one plate and charged back past Jorgensen and went on to win the championship in style with a victory. In the end Springer had beaten two of the best in former number-ones—Scott and Roberts—compiled a series-leading seven wins and 16 top-five finishes, this in spite of not being able to contest the road races. His bonus monies topped $100,000 (over 400,000 in today's dollars). Not a bad season of work for a teenager from Flint. CN Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives