A talented group of novice riders throttle up at the start of a WERA D Superbike at Grattan Raceway in July of 1985. Dave Barnard (No. 511) wheelies his Yamaha alongside Chris Horn (No. 102). Barnard and Horn finished first and second in this race, just ahead of third-place rider Bob Meurer (No. 743). Also in the photo are John Gotts (No. 277), Larry Cohee (No. 413), future AMA Superbike and Supersport star Tom Kipp (No. 868), Randy Gaddey (No. 408), John Michael (No. 947) and Jerry Weber (No. 888).
A talented group of novice riders throttle up at the start of a WERA D Superbike at Grattan Raceway in July of 1985. Dave Barnard (No. 511) wheelies his Yamaha alongside Chris Horn (No. 102). Barnard and Horn finished first and second in this race, just ahead of third-place rider Bob Meurer (No. 743). That’s future Superbike star Tom Kipp on the No. 868 Yamaha. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
Wow…I remember all of those guys. Looks like Dave and I went to the same school of starting line procedures. You took a shot of me doing the same thing at Blackhawk in ’84, except I had the RZ pretty vertical.
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WOW D-superbike, That was an awesome season, so much fun.I remember Bob Meurer was from Milwaukee and friends with Scott Zampach who I didnt meet until 87 Suzuki Cup Series and became good friends. Chris Horn and I battled all season long along with his brother John in C-superbike on his RZ500. The Horn brothers asked me to ride with their endurance team in the 24hrs of Nelson Ledges in 1985 along with Kurt Hall and Robby Braunshidel. I lost the front end coming into the last turn in one of my daytime stints and ripped the right side light off making racing at night a bit scarry. Despite my mistake we Won the middleweight production class covering some 1900 plus miles. what a bunch of awesome memories this photo stirs up! I always wondered whatever became of the Horn brothers,Barb n mitzy there girlfreinds and their mother who was always so nice to us all, she would feed us n let us sleep in her van when it was cold out. They where good people as are all the WERA competitors I grew to know. How bout that Tom Kipp, I never knew he was out there with us, wasnt he team mates with Jamie James on the Vance n Hines Team then Yosh Suzuki? Thanks for the memories Larry.
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In July or Aug of 1985 AMACCS did a weekend at Mid-Ohio. I knew nothing of the track, never heard of it. Had friends who were car racing guys who motivated us to make the trip from Wash DC area out to Mid-Ohio. In 1985 I was a first year novice on a stock RZ350. And I remember Tom Kipp, who at the time was a teenager. I think I finished somewhere around 5th novice, Tom was 1st or 2nd and way farther ahead. A month or two later he showed up at Summit Point and did well against the regular Summit novices even though he’d never seen the track before. In ’86 I think he was an expert and just rose on up from there.
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Dave, I don’t remember Tom racing against us back then either. Didn’t really meet up with him until he was on his OW. I never knew you ran the 24hrs of Nelson. Just goes to show how differently we thought of things back then. I’d never consider racing a track like that in later life.
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Larry, I raced against Tom in 86 and his #450.He was novice in 86.
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Tim, That’s Kipper for sure. I’ve got shots of him from ’86, like you said as No. 450, still wearing the same Simpson helmet. He must have raced novice a couple of years.
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