Larry Lawrence | August 28, 2018
Archives: Big Man Gray
Maybe it was because he was built more like a linebacker than a motorcycle racer, perhaps it was the way he burst onto the scene over-performing on an underdog Superbike, or it could be how he suffered some spectacular crashes but always seemed to walk away ready for more, or raced one of the best known road race machines of all time, or took on the best in the world on a hopelessly outclassed GP machine. Whatever the reason, Scott Gray earned a huge fanbase especially for a guy who won only a single AMA national road race during his entire pro career that ran over a dozen years starting in the mid-1980s.
Archives: Big Man Gray
When Gray showed up at Sonoma Raceway for the MotoAmerica race a couple of weeks ago, he’d barely changed since his racing days. So even though he tried to keep a low profile at the race, looking the same as he did 20-plus years ago gave him away to a number of longtime fans who got a big grin on their face when they recognized him.
From his teen years living in Santa Rosa, California, Gray was interested in racing. His dream was to be an auto racer, but his parents nixed the idea when they refused to buy him a used SCCA Formula car while Gray was still in school. “My parents, a fire chief and a real estate broker, hated the idea that I even had a Honda 100,” so on the subject of the racecar it was, “‘Oh, negative. If we’re paying for school, you’re not getting a racecar.’”
But Gray was also watching motorcycle races at Sears Point (now called Sonoma Raceway) and he decided he could do that without his parents knowing.
“I bought a set of leathers, totally unbeknownst to them,” Gray smiles. “Came out to the riders’ school and raced the next day. I was running fourth and I was like, ‘Wow, this is fun.’ And then I low-sided up at [turn] two. Remember the banana pipe on the old ’76 [Honda] Supersport? No ground clearance. Right on the pipe. I had no clue what I was doing as usual. And even when I fell off I was having a blast. It was just a low-side, so I was like, ‘This is awesome!’”
Gray was off and running. The next race he and his partner, Brian Manley, won their class in an AFM endurance race. This was Gray’s second road race and never mind that they were DQ’d for a pipe that was too loud, in their minds they won the race!
He first got noticed on the national level when he entered the AMA Superbike National at Willow Springs Raceway towards the end of the ’84 season. It was a crazy notion to even race the event. Gray had been on a financially-induced break for the better part of a year and had raced his home national at Sears earlier that season, doing decently before a flat tire forced him out. The fact remained, the nearly stock 1980 Suzuki GS750, owned by Jack Redmond, was woefully out of date and should not have been competitive at all on the horsepower-hungry Willow Springs. Gray ended up stunning the crowd with his 5-7 finishes in the two-leg race to take sixth overall. He beat established AMA Superbike riders like Rueben McMurter and Roberto Pietri. The feat was even more impressive considering Gray’s old GS got into a terrible high-speed wobble each lap.
“Nabe (Yoshimura Suzuki’s Suehiro Watanabe) came up afterwards and said, ‘You ride shaky bike?’” Gray was confused at first and said “What.” Nabe then reiterated with the motion of hands on handlebars moving back and forth, “You know, shaky bike!” Gray smiled and admitted that was him. “Good job.” Nabe said.
Gray began dominating West Coast club races, setting track records and winning contingency money on a Yamaha FJ1100. Yoshimura was impressed enough that they built a motor for Gray to compete in select AMA Superbike rounds in ’85, even though they’d just hired a young Texan named Kevin Schwantz. When Schwantz was hurt and forced to sit out the Sears Point National in May, Gray got the call to fill in. He won his heat race over McMurter and Jimmy Filice and then led much of the race before crashing terribly in turn nine. Even though he’d crashed, Gray had shown his talent at Sears Point. So impressive was his rise that he was even given an invite to race in the ABC Wide World of Sports Superbikers at the end of ’85.
In ’86 Gray got to ride a special Yoshimura Suzuki in the Willow Springs Formula USA Series. He won a round and would win many more, emerging again as champ in ’87 and winner again when WERA Pro took the series over and went national. Yoshimura built a big-bore GSXR and dubbed it “Big Papa: and Gray’s most famous victory came when he simply ran away from the Vance & Hines Yamaha Superbikes of David Sadowski and Thomas Stevens at Willow on the bike. Also, in ’86, Gray raced with Vance & Hines Suzuki at the Sears Point AMA Superbike round and battled among the leaders before the bike sprang an oil leak and he crashed breaking an arm and ankle.
Gray won the pole in the Sears Point National in ’87 on a Yoshimura Suzuki-built bike, but more hard luck. He suffered a crash in a collision with Larry Shorts in the Camel Challenge and then had to pit in the national when a side cover came off the bike.
Gray finally got a full-time factory ride in AMA Superbike with Yoshimura Suzuki (alongside Doug Polen) in 1988 and it proved to be his best season in the series. He scored four top-five finishes including runner-up to Honda’s Bubba Shobert at Mid-Ohio. That would ultimately prove to be Gray’s best ever AMA Superbike result.
He finished ‘88 ranked fourth in the series behind Shobert, Polen and Doug Chandler, but again his home track held bad luck for him as he suffered his most infamous crash. In the Camel Challenge of the series finale at Sears, Gray lost the front end coming into turn 9, the fastest turn on the track, and piled into an old tire and haybale covered bridge abutment, exploding the bike and everything else.
Gray raced mainly F-USA in the early ‘90s, but then out of nowhere he qualified second and claimed a second-career AMA Superbike podium with a third at Sears Point in ’93, racing a rented Ferracci Ducati. Finally, some good luck at his home track! The big man admitted to being 220 pounds that weekend, easily making him the heaviest rider ever to score an AMA Superbike podium!
Earlier that year Gray earned his sole AMA national road race win by scoring a dominating 13-second victory in the Harley-Davidson 883 TwinSport Series at Loudon.
Gray closed out his career racing 500cc Grand Prix in 1995 on a Harris Yamaha, but it was a difficult season. He only finished two races.
“It was tough coming in as American trying to get support with all the politics,” Gray said of his GP season. “Plus, honestly I was 195 pounds and I didn’t realize how much of a disadvantage that would be. I rode a Suzuki GP bike at Laguna in ’85 and went fine. That was my only reference. But you know, I gave it a shot.”
Today Gray is a commercial pilot and is also invested in a family-owned wine vineyard. He seemed happy to be at the track at Sonoma. It was the first time in 12 years he’d been to a road race. Here’s to hoping we’ll see the big man more often in the future.
You can read about Gray’s racing career on the pages of the Cycle News Archives by clicking: https://www.cyclenews.com/cycle-news-archives/