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(A bo ve) Terry Vance during hi s best pa ss of the weekend - in t he semi aga inst John Mafaro where he turned a
8.248 /160.54 to Mafaro's 8.736 /145.44. (Below) M ike Keyte was second t o V ance in the final round .
NMRA/NHRA National Drag Racing
Champ-ionship- Series: Round 7
\
Indy Pro Stock blasted
by Vance
By George Hoffman
CLERMONT. IN . AUG. 3 I-SEPT. 2
Terry Va nce, in front o f a record crowd on
h and for the NHRA U .S. Nationals at In d ia napolis Raceway P ark, down ed Mike Keyte
in the Pro Stock final. Vance's winning 8.292econ d ela psed time at l 60 mph
S
m arked h is fourth -straight pass
in the 8.20 range. Runner-u p
. .
.
Kevt e, d espit e los ing, was co n -
10
so led wi th th e fact tha t he had j ust
com p leted the q u ickes t and fa stest
weeken d of h is ca reer in d rag raci ng.
T he leg endary tracti on o f the track
proved to be everyth ing it was crac ked
up to be as th e fans sa w th e fastest a nd
most close ly g rouped J 6-bike fiel d
ever.
Indy used to p la y ho st to th e fastest
of th e fast, the blow n nitro-burnin g
T op Fuel moto rcycles. But as a spok esman for th e NHRA put it. " It becam e
harder and hard er to field a tru ly ,
competi tive fiel.d of eig h t To p Fue lers. You co m bi ne that WIth a lo w
rel ia bil it y factor and you have a show
th a t·s. not in tun ~ wit h what NH RA
I S doi ng . W e sti li felt th ere was a
p lace for mo torcycles in o ur program
so we co n ta cted Suzu ki, a lo n g-ti m e
sup port er of NHRA, and Ka wasak i
to see w ha t they th ought we could do .
~ ot h co mpan ies were ver): in tereste d
In P ro.Stock b ec~ use the bi kes would
be eas ily recogni za ble. Th en we co n tac red Terry Vance wh o ha d p lac ed
him self a t o ur d isposa l to hel p ma ke
the transition ."
T he field went fro m an 8.408/ 157. 17
la id down by Superb ike Mik e Kevte
to grab th e number oru -spo t in ro u nd
o neofq uai if)lj.n~totHe {GUT th'!l lila li£)'- .,. ,
in g rou nd o n Su nday aftern oo n w ith
Terry V ance on top with a n 8.315/
160.82 and Char lie Gressman in th e
. number-16 spot with an 8.560/154.16.
Keyt e sa t in th e number four spot
with a persona l best of 8.4071159 .85.
Monday broke blue and beau tiful
with a tai lwind that had been around
a ll weekend deciding to spend its
Labor day at In dy. The first round of
qualifying saw Vance agai ns t Ra nd y
Mason . Mason, a board h is R MR
Kawasaki , had qua li fied ninth with
a n 8.48 /1 58.56. In the three previ o us
NH RA races thi s year.a n 8.48 wo u ld
have put him no less th a n sixth and
as high as th ird, but such were th e
. times at Indy. Mason got out early on
Vance. but co u ld n ' t overcome th e
whisps of white smoke tha t were
co m ing fro m his exha ust and Van ce's
8.28/160.08 to Mason's 8.431155.81.
T he 'seco n d pairing of the rou nd
wa s Star R acin g 's Steve Tracey a nd
Russ Nyb erg, a board h is C&W Cycleworks of Ft. Myers, Flo rida, Kawa saki. Tracey gave away a full 10th a t
the tre e which he could n ever overco me a nd went down to Ny berg's
8.556/156.19 wit h an 8.635 /152 .90.
U p nex t was Paul Gast and his
1981. Kawasaki to take o n J o h n
Mafaro , th e Gatornat ional . win ner,
o n his WebCam/Law /VHR Suzuki.
Tru e to form , Mafaro was out firs t
with a .497 reac tion time to Cast's
.546 an d trai lered Gast with an 8.500 /
156.068 to Cast's 8.536/ 153.84.
Ri ck Stetson ran Da ve Shultz and
h is Dave's Carburetor/VH R Ka wasaki . Stetso n is a relative new comer to
P ro Stoc k. Stetson was NMRA 's Pro
Camp Na tion a l ti tle holder three
yea rs running . As R ick put it , " Whe n
th ey decided to let us run th e big tim e
I decided I co u ld put so me we ig ht o n
Illy Pro Cam p bike a nd ra ce. T he
la rge rear tire is very im porta nt to my
styl e o f ridi ng."
Anti cipa ting a ver y hard race wi th
Schultz, Stetso n cu t the light too
close a n d red -l igh ted to en d h is da y.
whil e Sch ultz cu t a . bea u tifu l 8.454/
157.39 for the win .
Benn y Mens met Lo u Cuv iello
next. Mens q ua lified seco nd o n th e
ladder wi th a n 8.3471 157.45 a boa rd
his C&\V Cvcleworks Kaw asak i. Cuviell a 's Il'ik e ;lllo ws h im to run a sma ll
sli ck or swi tch o ver to a larger slick
when tractio n is down . Mens got ou t
first wh ile tire sp in slowed Cuviello
down . Mens took it with an 8.471 1
"•.15.4.!j,7" \: ~ " I' " If-'"" ,,,, 1,. ' ''I I' ~ . ,). ,. :It"- ., .\~ " 'J . ,
j'
Earl Timmons met Joe Folgore
and his Suzuki in a close ra ce that
adv an ced Timmons to the next rou nd
with an 8.477 /152 .90 to Fo lgorc's
8.552 /155 .65.
A broken transmiss ion sent Steve
Mil es' M&M Ra cing/VHR Ka wasa ki
back to Louisv ill e while n umber 16
qualifier Charlie Gressman advan ced
to round two a fter posting an 8.5741
152.33.
Last out in ro und one was Ed Do hrma n to face Keyte. Keyte's Superbike
Mi ke Engineering Suzu ki j umped
o ut first, as Keyte rolled o ut the
power the rear tire broke loose for a
moment then bit for a n 8.48 1/ 157. 17
to Dohrman' s 8.60 1/ 153.47:
Quarter-fin al ac tion open ed wit h
V ance ag ainst Nyberg. R uss cut a
good lig ht a nd got ou t firs t on Vance,
but V an ce n egated the a d va ntage
almost immedi at ely and rolled by
Nyberg wi th a strong 8.256/159 .85.
Th e next pa iring had a ll eyes on
th e sta rt i ng line as Dave Schultz lined
up aga inst Ma faro . As th e lig h ts
ca me down , Schultz was' off th e lin e
fir st , but hi s Kawasaki wa s in secon d
gear a nd qu it a moment lat er leaving
Mafaro to run an 8.498/155.33.
Mens and T immons met next. Tim mons,anticipating a real battl e, red lighted. Mens rolled to th e 8.518 /
154.26 win .
Th e last pairi ng saw Gressman
ru n n in g Keyte. Out a lmost even with
Gressman, Keyte quickly took a slight
lead and never loo ked ba ck . Keyte' s
8.524 / 156.73 was good eno ug h to
send Gressman and his 8.632 /150 .'40
back to Ca llahan, Florida.
The first of two semi rounds
brought togeth er Vance and Mafaro,
frien ds off the track and sta unch
co m petito rs on . Mafaro, knowing
Vance 's strength, needed to get off the
li ne first a nd did. T he n , at a bo ut
three-q ua rter track, he appeared to
slow and Va nce mo tored around him
wit h his best pass of th e wee ken d an 8.248 / 160.54 to Mafaro 's 8.7361
. 145.44. After the pass, Mafaro expla ined h is problem: "I blew a headgas ket a nd the oi l spewed around the
ca rb bodies and started goi ng in the
m o to r. "
Keyte faced Men s in the o ther semi
a nd it was where Me ns' big weekend
wo ul d en d as h is d rive chai n broke on
th e line. Keyte made a solo pass to see
. what hi s Suzu ki was capa ble of doi ng
befor e fa cing Va nce in th e fina l. H e
rolled out smooth as si lk to his seco nd
bes t pass of the wee kend at 8.42 11
158.50. After th e pass Keyte exp la in ed
h is stea dy p ro g ress through the season saying, " I' ve been refining a set
of fla t-sl ide Mi kunis that have been
m ade to work li ke smoothbores. The
on ly th ing stock abou t thecarbs is the
outside body."
T h e final would be Vance an d Keyte
. as in th e Cajun Na tionals. Keyte
wo ul d ha ve li ked to have th e right
lan e where he had just run his 8.42
pas s, bu t Vance ch os e it for himself.
In th e th ree ro u nds before Indy Keyt e
had never been a ble to run faster in
el imi nat io ns tha n ' h e had qua lifi ed ,
so th e 8.40 he q ua li fied a t wa s hanging over hi s head , especia lly with
Van ce ma ki ng a ll th ose 8.20 passes.
As the two staged. the ten sion
mount ed. T o bea t Va nce yo u have to
do every th ing rig h t. A h olesh ot is
ni ce, bu t Vance alwa ys see ms to sa ve
h is best run fo r th e fina l. T hi s fina l
would be n o di fferent,th ough Keyte's
.494 rea ctio n ti me was good. Van ce
cu t a .496, a nd w hen yo u 'r e a lrea dy
spott ing th e g uy a . 10, then .002
doesn ' t hel p mu ch. At m idtra ck
Vance sta rte d pullin g aw ay when
Keyre 's tra nsmi ssion ju mped o u t of
fourth and Mik e had to push it back
in gear with h is foot whi le wa tching
Van ce leav e him with vet anoth er
run ner-up finish in th eir long rival ry.
.\l'~ai
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