In the late 1980s WERA races at Grattan Raceway hosted a special series called the Michigan Grand Prix. This photo shows some of the top riders of that series. Phil Pummell leads on his Honda VFR750 Superbike. He’s followed by Randy Gaddey, on what I think was a Suzuki GSXR1100, Kurt Hall, on a Dave Zupan-tuned Human Race Team Yamaha FZR1000 and Marty Miller on another Suzuki (sometimes Miller raced a RG500). During this period Pummell, Gaddey and Miller were Grattan regulars. Hall was racing nationally in the WERA Pro Formula USA Series and the WERA National Endurance Series. Hall moved through the field of regulars to win the race. Later in the day, during a Formula USA round, Hall set a new motorcycle track record at Grattan turning a 1:25.32 beating Scott Russell’s previous record was 1:26.83.
Phil Pummell leads a Michigan Grand Prix race at Grattan Raceway on his Honda VFR750 Superbike. He’s followed by Randy Gaddey, on what I think was a Suzuki GSXR1100, Kurt Hall, on a Dave Zupan-tuned Human Race Team Yamaha FZR1000 and Marty Miller on another Suzuki. (Larry Lawrence photo)
Rider Files 
I love the stuff from the North Central. Phil was a tenacious competitor, and a bit on the wild side. We had some great battles in D and C superbike. He rode that VFR like a bucking bronco around Grattan.
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Phil just passed away on 8/12/11, but he’d love to have seen this website and all the memories being shared
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Man, sorry to hear about Phil’s passing. I enjoyed getting to watch him race.
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Holy CRAP! That’s a shock. I guess we’re all getting older, but let’s face it, we could all go at anytime. Really sorry to hear that.
My favorite race with Phil, was at St. Louis in 1985. We were both running built RZ350’s in D-superbike, and exchanged the lead at least 3 or 4 times every lap. I kept pushing all of my reference points every corner, and everytime I upped my pace, he would match it. At one point, he pulled alongside of me on the straight, and he was slapping his tailsection like a bronco (I swear I saw him laughing in his helmet), as we were dead even going into turn 1. On the final lap, I threw my reference points out the window, and just went nuts trying to pull a gap, so he wouldn’t get me in the last corner. As we came into the back section (I think turn 9), which was a fast right hander, I went about 100 feet deeper than I ever had, and knew the moment I touched the brakes that I had just screwed myself. Something like 4th gear at redline, which ain’t slow, and I was down and sliding, as Phil narrowly missed me. I cartwheeled pretty good, and though I only had minor injuries, I still took an ambulance ride back to the pits. So, who was the first person to talk to me when I returned? Phil, of course, and he was PISSED! I figured he was mad because I almost took him out, but after asking how I was, he said “you just ruined one of the best races I ever had, you IDIOT!” Sure, it was about winning, but for Phil, it was as much about the battle.
Godspeed racer
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Hello Kevin,
What a great blow-by-blow of your race with Phil. Great to hear from you. Are you still in the Chicago area?
I am still in the Hilton Head/Bluffton, SC area.
You are right, we are all getting older. There is only one guarantee you’ll live forever and that is if you have a relationship with Jesus! And besides, it makes life much more fulfilling as well.
I am riding a bit. I have a 750 Ducati Monster that I street-ride a time or two a week. I even did a Ducati Desmo track day at Roebling Road on it back in April this year. Removed quite a bit of rust from my head that day. It was good to touch my knee down again! What fun and no pressure. The intermediate group was a great fit for me that day.
Again, great to hear from you guys from “back in our day”.
Kurt Hall
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Hillbilly Hall! Glad to hear that you’re doing well, and still find the time to be on 2 wheels. Should I tell everyone the story of the night you peed on my truck outside Road America? I’m living north of Chicago these days(almost in Wisconsin). I’ve been on and off with street bikes over the years (just got a mint ’77 XS750), and I do a fair amount of ice racing during the winter, coincidentally with quite a few guys from the North Central. Steve Tayler, Dan Salton, Mike Shilts, Jeff Wudi…even Andy Fenwick (though I haven’t run into him).
Steve Tayler turned me on to Larry’s site, and it’s awesome seeing pictures from back in the day, and the comments from a lot of guys we’ve raced against. Nice to hear what everyone is doing, though it’s sad when you hear about the passing of a competitor (like Phil). Ed Hessel has posted on here as well, in case you’re no longer in touch.
I always enjoyed racing against you, though it was more fun in the early years when I could keep up! I still have a picture on my office wall of me LEADING you at Grattan….a rare occurence indeed. I’ve got a bunch of old pictures that I was going to scan, and send to Larry, so he could post some here. One of these days I’ll get around to it.
Take care, and keep it on 2 wheels!
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Wow, A friend just directed me to the site, I feel like Ive been living in a cave for the last 20 years!
Larry, Great job bring this site to life. Its nice to relive those old memories with great photos and stories.
I really miss racing with all the “Grattan Regulars”. I had many fierce battles with my close friend Phil. It was very sad to see him go, ironically my other great friend and fierce competitor Fritz Kling passed with a similar ailment, if my memory serves me right. Fritz and Phil are two great Hall Of Famers of Grattan. I remember a particulary wild, and Wet!, FUSA event with Kurt, the Methanol Monsters, and some crazy Team Roberts TZ250’s running Nitrous! I had a good day in the rain, my memories too far gone to remember exactly how I finished, but it was good money and good fun. Lucky for me Robbie Peterson’s TZ250 “Petered” out with a fouled plug moving everyone up a spot in the money, try gettin around Grattan on a half dead backfiring TZ! I thought I was really doing good when I passed Kurt, but he started getting the hang of the rain and after several laps, to my surprise he passed me back and left me! Kurt, we had some good scraps in F-II also, remember Pocono? I had a good scrap with Kenny JR. and Mike Graves there too.
For the record I always rode My Gamma in the MGP except for maybe once, after FUSA launched and my R&D on my TZ250A Model got going I rode it almost exclusively, as I could get around a little faster on it. I first Raced the MGP as a novice on my Gamma and finished in the money, that really got me hooked on Roadracing.
Somebody should organize a class reunion of some sort for the Grattan Regulars, that would be a blast, sadly Fritz and Phil will always be missed if we ever did have one.
Those were the best memories of my life, I wouldn’t trade em’ for the world!
Any body out there have any more stories?
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