Scott Gray won a couple of the early rounds of the WERA Formula USA races in 1990 on a Yoshimura GSXR1100-based monstrosity dubbed Big Papa, but Gray missed the Pocono round, effectively putting him out of championship contention. Without a championship on the line Yoshimura didn’t want to spend the money to bring Big Papa across the country to the Memphis F-USA race, so Gray rented a GSXR1100 racebike from Suzuki of Corpus Christi and entered the race. Even with a mildly-tuned Gixxer that was suffering a sticking throttle, Gray still managed to score a sixth, just behind Moto-Liberty Yamaha rider Tatsuro Arata.
Scott Gray leads Rick Kirk and Tommy Sloan in a WERA Formula USA National at Memphis Motorsports Park in 1990. Kirk, who was riding a Human Race Team Yamaha, crashed big at turn eight, the bike blasting through the hay bales, hitting a concrete barrier wall and careening back into the racing line. Kirk was not seriously injured and blamed oil leaking from Gray’s bike for the crash. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
Gray was very fast, especially for a big guy. That’s a cool photo, too, Larry. Kirk’s 47 and Sloan’s 47x in the same photo. They don’t do that anymore. You know Rick (and his son, Cameron) is back in the swing of things with the CMRA these days. Rick won a championship in 2010 in one of the Classic classes. Still fast.
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Good to hear Rick is still in the sport.
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Regarding the F-USA race at Pocono. Was this the race where Kurt Lenz brought a TZ-750 out from mothballs and finished in the top 3?
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Not sure. I wasn’t at Pocono that year for some reason.
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Larry;
Any possibility that you have pictures of Yosh’s Big Papa? With Scott riding? That was one monstrous motorsickle.
Thanks!
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Mark
I probably do have shots of Big Papa. I’ll have to see if I can dig them up someday.
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This reminds me… I believe there is video from the WERA FUSA race at Willow showing Gray smoking the FRONT tire in a slide through T9 on Big Papa! Awesome stuff.
Ed
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