Metzeler paid contingency bucks to riders who raced with their tires at the 1990 WERA Grand National Finals. Here are the money winners from that year’s A Production Novice class. Thomas Wilson (No. 691) was the big winner, scoring $250 for his victory in the class. Dale Baker (No. 812) was third and Gordon Miller (No. 138) fifth. Garry Gallagher, who administered the Metzeler program, can be seen slightly cut off on the far right. Wilson went on to become one of the top AMA road racers of the 1990s. He eventually became a factory Harley-Davidson rider and nearly won at a rainy Mid-Ohio.
Metzeler paid contingency bucks to riders who raced with their tires at the 1990 WERA Grand National Finals. Here are the money winners from that year’s A Production Novice class. Thomas Wilson (No. 691) was the big winner, scoring $250 for his victory in the class. Dale Baker (No. 812) was third and Gordon Miller (No. 138) fifth. Garry Gallagher, who administered the Metzeler program, can be seen slightly cut off on the far right. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
It’s worth noting that Wilson is riding an old school GSX-R here, a 1986-1987 model. Miller, by the way, went on to ride a few years for Ronnie Lunsford and the Northwest Honda endurance team based out of Houston, Texas in the middle 1990s, making a run at the WERA National Endurance series a couple of times while racking up many regional endurance championships with the team in the CMRA’s series.
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Linz,
Thanks for that info. Good stuff. Another thing is Wilson’s tires. He’s on the old style Metzeler’s while Miller and Baker were on the newest Metzeler design back then.
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Gordo!! Wow 50 bucks!
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Thanks for the memories guys. The Metzler program was a great deal for riders trying to break into the racing scene. Tires are a major expense and this program allowed me to defray some of the costs. They were very good tires at the time as I could heat and reheat them many times without losing consistency and control. I can remember only using 1 set for 4 classes over a weekend when funds were low.
Road Altlanta was always an intimidating track for me. I could never get totally confortable on the super fast sections with elevation changes. Although I went back many times, I still to this day can feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck as I dropped into the “gravity cavity”.
Maybe it was preminition becuase I had my worst wipe out there. During the 1995 season with Northwest Honda, we had just wrapped up 3rd place in the national endurance championship and my team mate (Greg Abbott) and I competed in the Formula USA series the next day. Nick Ienatsch was riding the Briton in the race and we ended up battling for position. Coming out of turn 1 I decided to commit up the inside just when Nick grabbed a big handful of throttle. All I remember was the Briton stepping out sideways, throwing Nick to the ground, landing on top of him, and me launching into a 100+ mph jump as I t-boned him and his bike. All of this happened in about 2 seconds.
Next thing I know my bike lands and starts heading off track into the haybales and massive dirt embankment wall. A broken back, jaw, and wrist later I got to spend some quality time in a North East Georgia hospital. At least I have the video from Moto World on ESPN with Bob Varsha stating “Wow…thats gotta hurt”. I consider it to be my finest hour.
I still can’t get my son to throw a leg over a racebike.
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