In the AMA Flat Track Championship record book, Gary Scott is remembered for accomplishments aboard Harley-Davidson racebikes. But Scott, one of the most successful racers of his era, began and ended his career aboard Triumphs, including this machine, one of the last competitive British bikes in series history.
Scott raced this Triumph during the 1983 season. Starting life as a 1977 T140 parallel twin, the bike was modified with a Trackmaster frame, Fox shocks and Ceriani forks. Fitted with other race bits, such as Barnes wheels and Airheart brakes, it gave Scott his last top 10 in the AMA Flat Track series.
Scott burst onto the professional dirt-track scene 11 years earlier with one of the most amazing rookie seasons in AMA history.
Scott qualified his Triumph for 21 of the 24 Nationals, earned two wins, and finished the season as runner-up to Harley factory rider Mark Brelsford. That earned Scott Rookie of the Year honors for the 1972 season, and a second-place finish behind Kenny Roberts in ’73 got him a spot on the Harley factory team.
In 1975, that combination paid off with a title over Roberts and a hotshot rookie named Jay Springsteen.
Returning to privateer status for the 1976 season—and his trusted Triumphs for TT events—Scott remained competitive, finishing second that year and third a year later.
By 1983, when he rode this machine, Scott was nearing the end of his successful career, and a new crop of youngsters, like Randy Goss, Ricky Graham, Bubba Shobert and Scott Parker, were taking over. Still, he rode well enough to finish in the top 10 for the 12th consecutive year.
Scott was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum at AMA headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio, in 1998. And his Triumph machine, shown as it was last raced by Scott at the Peoria (Illinois) TT National on August 21, 1983, is currently on display just a few feet from the plaque commemorating his career.
Courtesy of the Motorcycle Hall of fame
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