Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/707505
CN III ARCHIVES BY LARRY LAWRENCE A s the crowd watched Sunday morn- ing practice of the WERA Formula USA National at Willow Spring Raceway in April of 1990, the space shuttle Dis- covery landed down the road at nearby Edwards Air Force Base. Yet no one was sure that the giant sonic boom that shook Willow Springs generated by the space shuttle because it just as easily could have been from "Big Papa" the 1340cc Suzuki GSX-R1100-based beast created by Yoshimura R&D ridden by Willow spe- cialist Scott Gray. There was a buzz in the air at Willow that day. Gray came out of semi-retire- ment and Daytona winner David Sadowski was on hand along with his Vance & Hines Yamaha teammate Thomas Stevens, for the opening round of the WERA Formula USA Series. Gray used the stunning power of his Yoshimura Suzuki they nicknamed Big Papa to completely dominate the weekend against an impressive field of riders. The story of the very first WERA Pro F-USA race was the diversity of equipment used; For- mula USA allowed unlimited modifications. Rich Oliver showed up riding a Marlboro TZ250 GP bike; Lee Shierts also elected to go with a 250; Vance & Hines didn't bother to build a special bike just for this race, opting instead to use their AMA Superbike-legal Yamaha OW01 750cc machines. Most of the other entries were big-bore Super- bikes with varying stages of modification. It quickly became obvious during Saturday's practice that the state of the art in Formula USA machinery was Gray's bike. The monster GSX-R had enough brute power to pull the 200-plus- pound Gray down the back straight with enough velocity to suck the paint off any bike that hap- pened to be in its path. Sunday morning practice was an indication of things to come, when Gray broke his own track record, turning a 1:25.98 lap. The feat was even more impressive when you consider that the new record was set in winds gusting up to 40 mph. A top race mechanic for a competing team said he witnessed the Yoshimura machine being dyno'd at an astounding 172 horsepower. By com- parison, the Team Hammer Formula USA Suzuki GSX-R1100s were estimated by builder Keith Perry to make 158 horsepower. With that kind of power, the Yoshimura Formula USA bike was likely the most powerful four-stroke motorcycle ever road raced in this country up to that point. But to credit Gray's win entirely to his machin- ery would be unfair. The racing veteran had to harness that power and put it to good use. To assist Gray in this task, the engine was refined with a race close-ratio, dry-clutch transmission, the standard 1100 frame featured with modified swingarm pivots, the bike fitted with the best Michelin slicks, along with Kayaba's top-of-the- line upside-down forks and rear shock. That combination made Gray's machine not only the most powerful, but also one of the best-handling machines on the track. Tire life was a major question for the beast. The previous year's Formula USA race saw at least one front-runner chunk tires, and in the THE INTRO OF BIG PAPA P104