By Dean Adams
“Our first year here, in 1971, Dick was my main competition,” Carruthers said. “He was always the guy who gave me the most opposition. He was just a good guy to race against. He wasn’t dangerous and he knew what he was doing. He was always good to me and was a humble man. It wasn’t that long ago at a Trailblazers banquet when he told me that if the AMA had proper racetracks back then, I would have won all the races. That’s how he was… a modest man. I didn’t know anybody when I first came here to race. At Daytona, I had a problem with the bike, so I didn’t take much notice with what was going on. But at Road Atlanta I was able to beat everybody, but for the rest of the year Dick was the guy I was racing with all the time. He was a good guy, and it was sad that he was sick for so long at the end.”
