Larry Lawrence | September 28, 2016
Photo by Larry Lawrence
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Harley-Davidson 883 Sportster racing produced some of the closest, and most hard-fought battles in both road racing and flat track, but almost none more closely contested than that of Scott Zampach and Tripp Nobles’ epic championship battle in what was then called the AMA Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Championship in 1991. The two went back and forth all season atop the standings, with the pair winning all but a single round of the 11-race series. It all came down to a winner-take-all finale on the streets of Miami.
Launched in 1990 in AMA Pro Road Racing, the spec Harley-Davidson 883 Series was at first scoffed at by many road racing purists, but it didn’t take long for fans and the rest of the road racing paddock to warm up to the class. The evenly matched street bikes naturally made for big pack racing and placed a premium on a rider’s late-race cunning, and sometimes bravado, to be able to come out on top. Never before had drafting, even on tracks not traditionally known for the technique, become so important.
Over the years the 883 series, with its relative low cost and abundant factory and dealer support, produced some great road racers, riders like Mike Hale, the Bostrom and Wait brothers, Aaron Yates and Jake Zemke.
The 1991 series kicked off at Daytona International Speedway. In that race Nigel Gale held off Bartel’s Harley-Davidson teammate Nobles by a half-second to win. Gale was champ of the series in 1989. Milwaukee’s own Zampach took third on his Don Tilley-tuned 883 after a rough and tumble battle with another first year Harley rider Kevin Rentzell of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
On the cool down lap Gale stood up on his seat as he went by 5000 screaming hog fans at Harley Heaven near the chicane who were giving him a standing ovation. “That was quite a feeling,” Gale said. “It was like a big football game; the crowd back there was really loud.”
Zampach won round two at Road Atlanta in on again, off again rain. In just one of their many episodes of clean and hard racing, Nobles tried to draft past Zampach coming out of gravity cavity on the last lap, but came up just short. The victory gave Zampach the series lead by a single point (35-34) over Nobles, Gale third with 33.
At the wide-open and draft-friendly Brainerd Intl. Raceway, the leading trio in the series put on a great show, swapping the lead back and forth numerous times per lap. This time it was Nobles, making a break on the final and then riding as hard as he could to eke out a four-bike length lead over Zampach and Gale coming into the final turn. Nobles’ last-lap effort gave him his first win of the season, while Gale came in hot into the final turn and ran wide taking Zampach with him. The two dragged raced from off the track back on with Zampach clipping warning cones and having the power of the Tilley-tuned bike to carry him to second. Interestingly, Yvon DuHamel came out of retirement to race and finished fourth at Brainerd.
Nobles built on his series lead with a command performance in the rain at Loudon over Zampach. Gale crashed, seriously hurting his chance of retaining the title.
It was Zampach coming back and taking his second victory of the season on his home track of Road America, closing to within two points of Nobles in the standings.
“I told those guys at Loudon that they might as well not think about winning at Elkhart,” said Zampach after his Elkhart Lake win. “This is my track and I really want to win this series so I can tell my grandkids about it someday.”
Nobles bounced back with victory number three on the high banks of Charlotte. It was a controversial race with Nobles drafting Zampach at the last second as the two crossed the finish line side by side. Half of those watching thought Nobles won, the other half said it was Zampach. A video was produced that showed Nobles crossing the line barely ahead, but then Zampach camp wasn’t convinced, claiming the angle of the camera to the finish line might have given an illusion. With such a closely fought championship, passions were high as even midway through the series it seemed the two teams understood that every point would count in the end.
Zampach bounced back in a big way, going on a three-race winning streak.
He narrowed Nobles’ lead to two points with a win at Mid-Ohio. “I’ve been carrying the emotion of the Charlotte controversy with me,” Zampach said after the race. “It feels great to get this win; it will help me get Charlotte of my chest.”
Nobles rode hurt at Topeka having crashed while chasing contingency money at a club race. Still he was strong enough to finish second.
A third straight victory for Zampach came at Texas World in another close one over his archrival.
The series came back to Daytona for the penultimate round. Nobles knew he needed a victory to have a real shot at the title and he did just that.
The Harley-Davidson Twin Sports Series came down to a final battle between Zampach and Nobles on the street course of Miami. Whoever won the Miami final would be crowned champion.
Both Zampach and Nobles were hungry for the title. Nobles had never won an AMA National Series and wanted to make his mark in the history books. Zampach, already a AMA 600 Supersport Champ, wanted to add to his legacy.
One of the thing that Zampach learned during his years of racing was that sometimes it’s the little things that can make the difference between winning or losing. Since Zampach was entered in only two races for the weekend, he decided to go out with his dad and study the circuit. “Rather than sit in the pits and stare at my bike, I went out to watch the other races,” Zampach explained. “I learned about every inch of the track.”
With that knowledge in hand Zampach enter the Pro Twins race to warm up for the 883 final; it was a good thing he did. In the Pro Twins race a plug wire broke on his Don Tilley tuned Harley. “If that would have happened during the Twin Sports final that would have been the season, Tripp would have had the title,” explained a fortunate Zampach.
Nobles led the season finale in the opening laps. The Z-Man then got around Nobles and went on to a six second win. “There were certain sections of the track where I knew I was faster,” said the newly-crowned champ after the victory. “Once I got past him I figured the race was mine.”
While Harley-Davidson 883 racing almost always produced close racing, the head-to-head battle between Zampach and Nobles will always be remembered as one of the high-water marks of the series.