Larry Lawrence | July 18, 2021
Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
This Cycle News Archives Column is reprinted from the July 29, 2009 issue. CN has hundreds of past Archives columns in our files, too many destined to be archives themselves. So, to prevent that from happening, in the future, we will be revisiting past Archives articles while still planning to keep fresh ones coming down the road -Editor.
The Clincher
Three feet. After 33 Nationals that covered a total of 1143 miles, the 1984 AMA Grand National Championship came down to just three feet. That’s how far Bubba Shobert was behind Ted Boody at the line at the Springfield Mile in the final Grand National of the year. Had Shobert found 36 additional inches in the Springfield season finale, he would have completed the most dramatic comeback in AMA Grand National history. But there was no denying—that one yard was there. There was also no denying Shobert’s factory Honda stablemate Ricky Graham. It was Graham’s dogged determination and flat-out grit on that gloomy and cold late-October afternoon that earned him the title of National champ in 1984, in what many consider the most epic finale for the Grand National Championship in series history.
The AMA Grand National landscape was very different in 1984. It was one of the last years for the all-inclusive Grand Nationals where points from both road-race and dirt-track Nationals counted toward the championship. As a result, a busy slate of 33 races were on the calendar. The Sacramento Mile was to have been the finale, but as fate would have it, the Labor Day weekend Springfield Mile was rained out and rescheduled for October 28—a risky late date weatherwise for Central Illinois.
Harley-Davidson was attempting to win its 10th consecutive AMA Grand National Championship. Randy Goss had won it for the Milwaukee faithful in ’83, and he was carrying the number-one plate for the factory H-D squad. But this was payoff time for Honda’s enormous effort to win the AMA Grand National Championship. The team was unlike anything ever seen, especially in dirt-track racing. Graham and Shobert were the riders for the team operating out of the centrally located, motorsports-race-shop capital of Indianapolis. At each event, Graham and Shobert had two mechanics, two bikes and a truckload of spares and technical know-how.
Goss and Harley-Davidson did an admirable job keeping the Honda boys in sight. As late as September, Goss, who’d earned four National wins that year, was still very much in the Championship hunt. But a three-bike pileup with Goss, Hank Scott and Doug Chandler at San Jose left Goss with a broken leg and put him out for the rest of the season.
That left Graham and Shobert. The two were buddies, living in the same lakeside apartment in Indianapolis. Graham was 25, Shobert 22. It was salad days. Both were making their first regular paycheck in racing. Wild and crazy would be a good way to describe the two for the way they passed the time in Indy. A typical weeknight was hanging out at Sammy Ingram’s shop down the street, drinking beer, telling stories, getting into bench-press weight-lifting contest and eventually taking one of the cars from Sam’s used lot out for a test drive. One night, the two were gone what seemed like a longer than usual time, then out of the darkness they were seen flying up Highway 136 to Ingram’s place backwards! The transmission in the car had gone out and would only work in reverse, so that’s how they drove it, miles through Indianapolis side streets at 11:30 at night back to the shop. It was a minor miracle they weren’t stopped by the police.
Shobert’s season took a major hit on July 7 that year in St. Louis’ Busch Stadium. After a practice collision with Terry Poovey, Shobert, in a momentary flash of anger, uncharacteristically went over and punched his fellow Texan. For a couple of Texas short trackers, their dust-up was nothing more than a misdemeanor, but the AMA came down with the hammer, dolling out a severe six-race suspension for Shobert. He continued to ride while the suspension was under appeal and actually won the Hagerstown Half Mile during the interim, but he was later stripped of the victory when his appeal was denied.
With Shobert on the sidelines contemplating his fate and falling hopelessly behind in the points and Goss breaking his leg, one major magazine called the season over and Graham the champ. But it wasn’t over. Shobert mounted one of the biggest comebacks in AMA racing history. Shobert won four of the six Nationals leading up to the season finale at Springfield, including a most unlikely masterpiece in the road race National on a rainy Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course—a race he only went to in a desperate attempt to earn a few more points in an effort to catch Graham. It worked. Thanks to the Mid-Ohio upset, the man who trailed by almost 100 points was suddenly back in the picture, trailing Graham, 267-248, with two races to go.
The second-to-last race was on the Sacramento Mile. Graham led much of the race, but wore out his rear tire, allowing Shobert to pass and take the victory. In spite of Shobert’s amazing late-season push, Graham was still in charge going into the finale at Springfield. He needed only to finish inside the top 10 to secure the title. So, a conservative race would seem to be in order, but Graham was not a just “run in the top-10” kind of rider.
Graham threw caution to the wind, explaining it by saying the famous last words, “At Springfield you can run anywhere, and it’s pretty safe. If I’m running up front, I’m going for the win.” So, Graham spent the final mixing it up with Shobert, Ted Boody on a privateer Honda and Jay Springsteen on the factory Harley. He was less than two miles away from the checkered flag and the certain championship, when Boody drifted high and hit Graham’s front wheel coming out of turn two. Graham smashed into the hay bales at over 100 mph. Game over, Shobert’s championship, right? Not quite. Graham was beat up and staggered by the hard fall. Turned out, he’d broken his hand. But when he looked up, he saw that his bent-up Honda was somehow still running, Graham—full of adrenaline—ran over to his bike wrangled it back on two wheels with his one good hand and got moving again.
As Boody and Shobert came around for the last lap (Springer having dropped off the lead draft avoiding Graham), Shobert looked over to see Graham struggling to get back under way. Did the sight of seeing his rival seemingly out of the race break Shobert’s concentration? Was he trying to do the math in his head? Whatever the case, Boody squeezed past Shobert out of the last turn and held on to win by three feet.
Officials and scorers huddled, lap charts were double-checked, and numbers were being furiously pounded into the tiny keys of pocket calculators. Graham was still running at the finish and was credited with 13th-place.
The announcer keyed up the mic and declared to the waiting crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is unbelievable. Bubba Shobert has finished second, Ricky Graham has finished 13th. Ricky Graham is the 1984 Champion by the margin of one point!”
On the podium, Graham thanked Honda, forgave Boody and publicly praised his teammate and friend Shobert for his amazing comeback. Shobert in turn congratulated Graham and added, “It wasn’t so bad when I figured I was going to lose the championship by 15 points. But right now that one point is tearing me up.”CN