Competition Etc
COMPETITION ETC
D. RANDY RIGGS
A CHAMPION RETIRES
It was always a special treat to watch him qualify on a mile dirt oval. He had a commanding sort of style...very smooth, yet at the same time...spectacular. So in that sense he was different, because few spectacular riders are smooth. But even the ring of sound his engine produced was his own. The V-Twin chimed its loudest gong the full circle around the race track. It was his style.
That style won him a Grand National Championship, although not singlehandedly. Style had help from perseverance; it had assistance from total dedication; it was solidified with devotion. Those -combined factors allowed seven National Championship victories in a relatively short professional racing career. A career in which he reached the top in one season, the top that many only get to dream of. And still there was much more to him than that.
Off the track...away from the job, that style continued...unabated. The Champ represented his sport in a manner that made us all proud. Again...that dedication...and lots more. And then came, what would you call it, fate?
The Daytona crash of the man and machine with the Number One plate created, in a way, a sort of hollow, empty season. After just two and onehalf races, our Champion was taken out of the contest. He could no longer defend his title, he could not represent the Harley-Davidson factory team, thousands of fans would not see the man they had read about...or heard about...or wanted to see again, and most of all, he would not be able to carry the plate he had worked so hard for so many years. It must have been more difficult than any of us could imagine. Picture winning Number One and then not being able to ride with the number. Recuperation and therapy would be just as tough, particularly with the crushed left hand.
So after the operations, the time off, relaxation in Alaska, a new season was ready to roll. 1974. Now the black number on the white plate was a bold “6,” and the rider bore the scars of that previous empty year. But maybe it wasn’t empty after all. Because in that time he discovered how many people really cared and how many friends he really had. It was only empty in the sense that he couldn’t race motorcycles.
Fully recovered he wasn‘t, nor was the return to racing blessed with instant victory. Nonetheless he was smooth as ever; that command of spectacular riding remained. It was that style.
Then came the second disaster. This time at Columbus on the half-mile. Again, the victim of somebody else’s mistake. A victim still the same, with serious injuries and death close at hand. He made it though, and now recuperation time is here again. It will take about two years and several operations to get the hurts straightened out. But there will be no more racing.
Time now for some school and preparation for the forest service in the outdoors of Alaska. Time to heal. Time to think. Time to enjoy.
So now we’ll no longer be able to watch the guy who carried the numbers 87, 1, and 6 do his thing; it’s a special treat we’ll miss a bunch. He showed us all what true champions are made of and he filled a notch that’ll remain empty without him. We know he’ll keep in touch though. That’s part of Mark Brelsford’s style.
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Grand National Championship Series
1974 Final Point Standings American Motorcycle Association
A NEW BOOK WORTH READING
The Motorcycle World by Phil Schilling, A Random House/Ridge Press Book, $17.95.
As a book collector, there are books that I read and stash away on the shelves, perhaps never to look at again. Then there are those that I read and reread.. .books that are special and cher ished. Few books on motorcycling or about motorcycling have ever struck me in this manner. So few are special and so many are mediocre. That's why it was so nice to add Phil Schihing's new masterpiece to my library. It's like no other that has ever come along.
Phil’s love for motorcycles and motorcycling shines through in his work, and he takes you down the road of two-wheeling’s finest hours. Lots of exciting history; the most classic machinery; a chapter on superbikes that puts across to the reader what they’re all about, even if he’s never ridden anything but a moped. There’s a long hard look at the mechanics behind the scenes of professional racing, a bout with motocross and the best exploration of the late ‘60s off-road explosion that I’ve ever come across. Cover to cover it will keep the reader entertained over and over again.
And setting the work yet another step up from the rest, is some of the absolute finest motorcycle photography that you’ll ever stumble across. Much of it was done by Douglas Wharton Mellor, who has captured on film what Schilling has put down on paper. The large format and high quality printing add the final touch of class to the type of book on our sport that’s been long overdue. I don’t keep my copy on the shelves, it sets out for the whole world to see. Check it out at your bookstore.
ROOKIES CRACK THE TOP TEN
To suspecting veteran racers, Rick Hocking and Hank Scott had more than proved themselves as Junior-class riders. But so often top Juniors fall by the wayside when they step into the Expert ranks. The men in the know looking over the Hocking/Scott situation were skeptical.
Hocking was a charger, the "Slam, Barn, Thank you Ma'arn" kind of rider who showed no fear and could get himself into hot water with that kind of riding amongst the big boys. Scott, on the other hand, was more like his brother. Smooth, controlled, but maybe not quick enough. Both came around toward the season's autumn. Hank Scott adapted to his Harley-Davidson nicely after some initial sorting out; Hocking settled down and became a thinker as well as a charger. Result? Hank captured the Syracuse, N.Y., Mile National, while Rick walked off with the last two dirt biggies of the season. Hank wound up 8th in the standings; Hocking was 9th. Better things are in store for both next year if the trend continues.
The season's disappointment? John Gennai. John just couldn't seem to grasp the peculiarities of his big H-D. Maybe he should have stuck with some thing more similar to his Triumph, on which he was quite successful.
