It’s redundant to point out that motorsport is a competitive business. As obvious as that is, the implication is that crushing the hopes and dreams of one’s opponents is pretty much baked into a Hall of Fame career by definition.

But crushing the hopes and dreams of future generations to come? Now that’s a bit extreme. Honestly, though, aspiring two-wheeled dirt track heroes and newly developed mounts might be better off aiming to become history’s second most decorated American Flat Track racer and racebike.

Such is the state of the AFT record books courtesy of 2009 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) inductee Scott Parker and Harley-Davidson’s iconic XR750 (which happens to be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year).

Michigan native Parker first threw a leg over an XR when he was just 15 years old. Looking back, he said, “The first time I got to ride one is one of my greatest memories. My buddy flew down and picked one up on an airplane and brought it back. I just couldn't wait to ride it. It had so much more horsepower than anything I had ever ridden. To get on that thing -- and just the way it delivered the horsepower... Wow!

“I was more of a cushion rider, and you just get it in a corner and you could just give it the gas. It would turn the rear wheel and start putting traction down to the ground and down the straightaway you'd go. The first time I got on it, I remember going, 'Oh my gosh, this thing is badass.'”

The event didn’t just change his life, it forever altered the landscape of the Grand National Championship. The unstoppable Parker would ultimately go on to rack up an astonishing nine GNC crowns and 94 Main Event victories -- 90 of them on the XR750.

That 94-win tally is 16 victories more than the number accumulated by the sport’s second most accomplished racer, Parker’s great rival Chris Carr, and 46 more than that of the third ranked rider, modern day American Flat Track ace Jared Mees.

The case of Mees, in particular, serves well to add some perspective.

Mees and his factory Indian Motorcycle FTR750 have proven to be an absolutely dominant force in the recent history of American Flat Track. Still, if Mees -- who’s earned 48 wins over the course of his stellar 17-year professional career -- somehow managed to win every available Main Event for a full two-and-a-half seasons, he’d still be second all-time.

And if he hoped to equal the 90-win single-bike mark of Parker and his XR, Mees would have to extend that nigh-impossible form on his FTR750 another full season beyond that.

And then Mees and any other combination of Indian-mounted riders would need to keep on winning every single Main Event for the next 22 years after that in order to close in on the combined 502-win total of the XR750.

As ridiculous as the numbers may be, the stats could have been even more dizzying. Parker officially retired following the ‘99 season. However, he mounted up again at the sport’s biggest race, the Springfield Mile, the following summer, just to prove a point.

The point was made. He walked away with the aforementioned win #94.

When asked if he had a favorite memory of riding the XR750, Parker immediately said, “All of them.”

Photo Credit: Dave Hoenig, Flat Track Fotos