Cycle News Archives
COLUMN
Penned for greatness, the factory-backed AJS racer from California was denied by bad luck.
By Kent Taylor
They have been called the “absolute worst sports fans” in America, and Philadelphians can shamefully point to (at least) a couple of incidents that have helped them earn their infamy. In 1968, frustrated by a winless season, Eagles’ fans projected their anger onto none other than Ol’ Saint Nick himself, pelting poor Mr. Claus with snowballs and beer bottles during a halftime Christmas celebration at JFK Stadium. In 1973, some of the world’s top motocross racers experienced the same kind of disrespect when the football stadium was hosting a round of the Trans-AMA series. Before the final moto was even over, the crowd began rushing onto the track, resulting in numerous rider/spectator crashes. The late Tony Wynn centerpunched one fan, went down hard and was then himself centerpunched by another racer. As Wynn pushed his broken motorcycle off the track, a fan accosted him, wanting to know if he could have his Jofa mouthguard as a souvenir from this reckless, wreck-filled night.
When the track was cleared, the 500cc International class that night was won by Maico’s Gerrit Wolsink, with teammate Adolf Weil in second. In 250cc Support class action, Michigan rider John Borg rode a silver-tanked YZ Yamaha to the win, with Team Honda rider Rich Eierstedt in second. In eighth place in that same race was a Bultaco rider, an early pioneer of the American MX. His name was Doug Grant, and America’s first and only indoor stadium Trans-AMA round would tragically be the final race of his professional career.
Grant was born in Carpinteria, California, in 1951. His father, Campbell Grant, was an author and an artist, even working as an animator for Disney back when Walt himself was overseeing projects like Snow White and Fantasia. Campbell Grant never rode a motorcycle, but he saw that his son was fascinated by them. Doug began his riding career aboard a $10 Puch moped, rebranded in the U.S. as a Sears Allstate. He moved on to a Hodaka, “which, for a kid was almost a race bike,” Grant remembered. This was in the early 1960s, when “there really was no motocross to speak of. There was desert racing, and some guys were into something called hare scrambles. I started doing some local TT races, and I got hooked, not only on racing but every aspect of it. My friends and I would take the bikes apart and put them back together.
“We started to wonder what we could do to make them faster: bob the fender, take off the kickstand. That was fun!”
Grant took the mechanical skills that he developed while modifying his early motorcycles and parlayed them into a job in the industry, landing a job at Suzuki of Santa Barbara. The dealership also carried the AJS brand, and in 1970, Doug snatched up the very first AJS 250 Stormer sold in the United States. He entered and won his first motocross race on that bike.
While the AMA was still trying to decide what it wanted to do with the new-to-the-USA sport of motocross, California was already in fifth gear. Young riders like Jim West and Tim Hart were some of the first fully sponsored riders in the country. And they would soon be joined by 19-year-old Doug Grant.
“Jim West was the very first factory AJS rider…and I was the last,” Grant said.
The author’s son was not interested in making big money from the young sport, which was a good thing because there was no money to be made. “I won a Trans-AMA support class in 1971 and AJS sent me a bonus check for $50. But I made enough to pay for gas and living expenses to get to the next show. What else could a 19-year-old want? They didn’t have to pay me—I would’ve been doing it anyway!”
He was making a name for himself, and the folks at AJS (Albert John Stevens) decided to bring him over to Great Britain to test a punchy new AJS 500cc MX machine. Although he was still healing from a race injury, Doug headed to Europe. Unfortunately, another crash resulted in serious internal injuries, including the loss of four pints of blood. Injured too many times in too few races, he decided that was enough, and he pulled the plug on his MX career. At least, he thought he had.
“I told AJS that I didn’t want to race anymore,” Grant recalls. “So, I quit. I built my own house—and then it hit me: I had no job! I needed to do something, and I realized there was one thing I was good at.”
Grant called on his old friend Tom Rapp, who helped him find a ride at Bultaco. He and his good friend Butch Johnson headed out for the National circuit. Butch was “an enthusiastic guy, a friend, a companion, somebody to share the driving from race to race. He loved racing and for the price of dinner, he would change a plug and clean my goggles.”
When he returned to the MX scene in 1973, Doug found that the sport had changed. American Honda was now involved in a very big way. Yamaha had countered by bringing over Grand Prix veteran Pierre Karsmakers to remind the Americans that the Europeans were still the masters of the sport.
“The fun was starting to go away,” Grant said. “I just wanted to ride, and now guys wanted to make a living.”
On that crazy night at Philadelphia’s JFK Stadium, Grant had crashed hard during his race, snapping off the right handlebar on his Bultaco racer. But he had persevered, tucking the bar under his leg so that he could somehow twist the throttle and get to the checkered flag. Even the raucous Philadelphia fans took a moment to recognize a fighter.
“Look at the crowd, Doug,” Butch shouted. “Man, they’re cheering for you!”
Exhausted from the evening, Doug and Butch loaded their broken Bul into their van and headed out with Butch at the wheel. Doug had fallen asleep. And then, while driving down the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Butch fell asleep, too.
“I remember the race. I remember the crowd and then I remember getting into the van. After that, there’s nothing.”
He spent one month in a coma, having undergone extensive surgery for a brain contusion. The van was totaled. His friend Butch Johnson was gone. “My mind was pretty much blown away by everything that happened,” he told Cycle News. “It was too much to think about for a 21-year-old guy.”
It would be two decades before Doug Grant would return to the racetrack. In the mid-’90s, he was bitten by the bug of vintage motocross, and he found an AJS to ride. Racing against some of his old friends, like Tom Rapp, brought back the fun one more time.
“I loved racing. I didn’t do it for any other reason. My inquisitive mind was put to work, trying one more gadget to make the bike go faster. If I ever thought I could do it for money or to become famous and do any of the things that I ever ultimately did, it probably would’ve sabotaged everything.”CN
Click here to read the Archives Column in the Cycle News Digital Edition Magazine.
Subscribe to six decades of Cycle News Archive issues
Click here for all the latest Supercross and Motocross news on Cycle News.
