I was so happy to come across this photo. It’s Scott Russell and his buddy and teammate Paul Bray racing a WERA C Production Novice race at Little Talladega in June of 1986. Both were on nearly identical Kawasaki Ninja 600Rs. These two, along with Scott Zampach and Colin Edwards, were the fastest novice racers I ever saw. Seven years later Russell would become World Superbike Champion. Most people who saw them both race felt Bray was equally as talented at Russell. Unfortunately Bray’s racing career was cut short when he suffered a career-ending injury in a WERA F-USA event at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix.
Scott Russell and Paul Bray race in a WERA Novice event at Talladega Grand Prix Raceway in June of 1986. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
Thats one hell of a lean angle for a novice! Great pic Larry as always.:)
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Rick
Thanks. Yeah Scott and Paul pushed those little Ninjas to the limit. I think they battled for the WERA championship at Road Atlanta later that season. I can’t remember who won.
Larry
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I was in that C Superbike race with those guys at the 1986 GNF on a 600 Ninja that I had just slapped a set of poorly jetted flatslides. The bike was running bad.I will never forget the last lap under the Nissan bridge both made a daring pass lapping me. I remember looking at those guys in the pits and saying”who are those guys”
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Larry the guy back in third place inherited the win. Scott rode my Ninja and Paul rode Mark Lautzenburger’s FZ600 both were fully developed superbikes and very fast. The novice C Superbike race was run saturday on a drying track with a narrow dry line. Paul and Scott ran off from their competitors with consistent low 1:37’s and by the late laps they were disappearing over turn two way before the next racer appeared under the turn 11 bridge — 30 plus seconds ahead. We were timing from the pit row fence with Vic and Cindy, catching the comments of previously unimpressed experts who had doubted the hype about these two phenoms, when it all came unravelled. With a lap to go Paul tried a pass at the bridge and ran off line onto the still wet track and crashed. Scott was now free and clear for the win but ran out of gas exiting turn 7 on the last lap !!!! This denied Scott’s best chance to win a novice championship but he never got one. Paul won several of them. The following day — Sunday was dry and sunny and the expert C Superbike race was run in consistent high 1:37’s.
Side note — Scott had run his novice year on a shoe string budget, frequently using take off tires and still winning races. He could not afford to crash and never did in 1986. His Ninja was worn out before the GNF so he got to ride mine.
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Doug
Thanks for filling in the actual story of Russell and Bray at the GNF in ’86. My memory is fading, but I did remember those guys just walking away from everyone else in the field. I’d seen both of them a few times earlier in the year and it was obvious they needed to be moved up to the expert class even after just a half-season of racing. That’s great that you were able to help Scott race the GNF. I would imagine his Ninja was ready for a complete rebuild after the way he flogged it around.
After looking more closely at this photo Paul may be on a Yamaha. The fairing doesn’t look quite the same as the one on Scott’s Kawasaki.
Larry
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Larry — did not mean to mislead you. Your photo shows the duo exiting the talladega infield CW onto the backstraight. Both were on nearly identical Ninja 600’s. My story was in response to the GNF race. By then they were well known in the SE region and more support and offers to ride were forthcoming.
Paul got his novice license in late ’85 and was the novice front runner in early ’86 competing with “Dust Bowl” Dee Hamilton, Bill Saint John and other very fast novices.
Scott got his novice license at talladega in May ’86 and on Sunday started four novice races from the orange shirt back row — about 17 rows from the front of Paul, Dee and Bill. Russell won two and finished second to Bray in the other two. His charge thru the pack in each race was shocking — passing several competitors at a time on the track and sometimes on the grass. I managed to convince a skeptical Vic “I don’t care to watch no stinkin novice race” Fasola to watch his last performance.
Scott caused Paul to raise his game and they often won combined expert and novice races overall. They emerged as future stars in a memorable 1986 season when the new GSXR’s revolutionized club racing with full race grids. Many experts were chasing contingency money — Doug Polen and Bart Peterson were big $ winners and the first Suzuki Cup finals were at the GNF. A very good year.
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Doug
I agree with you 100 percent about 1986 being a landmark season in club racing. Polen chasing Suzuki money, Russell and Bray emerging as fast young guns. That was the year that Scott Zampach (also a novice) lead major portions of the Honda 500 Interceptor race on a wet-to-drying track. Polen got him at the end, but what a coming out party for the Z-Man. The GNF was amazing that year. Thanks again for the details on Bray and Russell. Bray was smooth fast – Russell, raw and fearless.
Larry
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Bottom line… That’s a fantastic, iconic photo… You rawk Larry! Thanks for sharing all this good stuff. It takes me back to a very special time.
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George
Agreed. I hardly had two dimes to rub together back then, but those were the days.
Larry
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Just a note – that is a Yamaha that Paul is on behind Scott. I found a solo shot at the next race and he had switched to the FZ600 by then.
Larry
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None of us had a dime… Guys literally fought for contingency money. But yet, they were the greatest bunch of people I’ve ever been around. I don’t know what road racers are like today, but in the mid-80’s, it was family. When the chips were down, the shirt off their back was yours. Later, I spent time around the SCCA car guys… Nope (bites tongue)… Motorcycle road racers of that era were a special breed of people and I’m proud to say I was one and I still try to carry that mantra with other riders. You can’t go back home though. Everybody and his brother thinks they’re a hero nowadays…
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Wow, Larry. These photos bring up many memories. I have boxes of these old photos from 1979-1990, and if memory serves me correctly, you taught me a little about action photography.
Had Paul Bray not had the unfortunate accident and had a little finances behind him, he would have given Scott Russell a run for his money, as evidenced by the results when they were just starting and on equal bikes. Both had raw talent.
Nice job with the photos!
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Cindy!
Great to hear from you. Glad you found the site. For sure Paul had mega-talent. He was so smooth and precise on the bike. Scott came at things a little more ragged and flogging the bike for the fun of it, but he certainly knew the fast line when it was time to quit doing the power slides. I remember meeting you for the first time at IRP back in the day and you guys had those Solmax canopies where you could still get a tan under them. Fun stuff. You should get those old photos out and start sharing them. Send them to me. I’ll put them on the web.
Take care
Larry
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Larry
what exactly happened to Paul Bray , did he crash on the same weekend as Merkel or am I mixing up Arizona racedays? I recall Bray raced Hank Dows Yamahas for a while , was he on that ?
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Robert,
If my memory serves, Paul crashed and was paralyzed at Firebird, but it was during a WERA F-USA race, and he was on a Mad Dog (Hank Dow) machine.
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He is doing great riding with him today he is still riding
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Scotty, Paul crashed at a Formula USA race, so not the same weekend as Merkel. I heard he did well after his accident. I think I even saw him at the Springfield Mile one year. Glad to hear he’s doing well. He was one of the fastest road racers of his time.
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