Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

J ohn Meyers (near lane) won this sem ifinal race over David Schultz. then overpowered John' Mafaro to take the victory in the final . NHRA Castrol GTX Championship Drag Race Series: Round 6 Unheralded Myers wins the big one By Todd Veney ' INDIANAPOLIS, IN, AUG, 31-SEPT. 4 T h e NHRA U .S. Na tio n als, as the most prestigious even t of any season, u su ally is preceded by more h yp e t han any other drag :ace. T h e '89 race yielded performances that lived up to pre-ra ce speculatio n, but th e record-breaking times everyone hoped for were , . not all run by the nder most 22 tra cks ide wags pi cked to win - J ohn Malaro, wh o has dominated th e '89 Castrol GTX Drag Race 'Series so tho rou ghl y that he cl inc he d th e season cha m pionshi p aller just si x of eig h t races, In stead, p re vio us ly unh eralded J ohn Myers, in h is firs t year o f P ro Stock racing, was th e star o f drag racing 's biggest show. Before a oneda y Indi an a p o li s Ra cew a y P ark record cro wd. esti mated a t 45,000; Myers crushed Mafar o in th e fin al with a ph e~o~ena l 7.74-second run , the fastest In hi story. . ' ' Th~ r~n mar ked rhe fourth orne . In e l im inat iori s a lo ne t ha t th e NHRA National reco rd was ecl ipsed. It a lso served as a fitting concl usio n to wh a t had been withou t q uestio n the best race of th e season. . Myers' a nd bik e ow ner George Bryce's heroi cs are even mor e impressive whe n one cons iders th a t th eir revolu tio na ry Star Racin g Su zuki GSXR - th e first ever see n i n Na tional- event competition - was sti l l unfinished wh en quali fyin g began on Sa turday. Myers tempor aril y established a new IRP track mark with a 7.909 on his opening qualifying shot. "That was the first pass on th e bike, period," Myers said immediately a fter the run . "We didn' t have time to test it before we brought it here." Myers sped to the po le position on the final starting grid with a 7.79, th e first sub-7.8-second lap in Pro Stock hi story and the beginning of a seemingly endless string of all -time bests esta blished at Indy. Mafaro was a heartbeat behi nd at 7.83, and Dave Schultz, who ruled Pro Sto ck racing in 1987 and '88, was third at 7.87. From th er e, the l6-bike fi e ld stretched from L ince Boyer's fourthbest 7.97 to Earl Timmons' bubbleriding 8.20. Timm ons was the onl y rider a mo ng the bottom qua lifiers to upset his qui ck er -qualified first-round op po ne n t. Timmons, who also qualified o n th e bump a t th e '88 U .S. Nationals, ran a n 8.16 to elimi na te eigh th-seeded Steve Drak e's distant 9.02. T he top seven qua lifi ers, including Maf aro , Schultz ' a n d Myers , adva nced .th ro ugh th e first round with ease. Mafaro moved ba ck to th e front of the pack , where he has been a ll year, with a record breaking 7.78; Sc h ultz m ethodically put awa y Andre Ca rter with a fin e 7.82. Myers al so survived the round, but with a m uch less impressive 7.87. "The bik e was accelerating so hard tha t m y helm et kept slipping down over my' eyes," he exp la ine d. " It forced me to be late on m y, gear cha nges, fro m seco nd to third a nd th ird to fourth. I had to keep taking ' m y hand away from the shift button (o n the left-side of th e handlebars ) to move my helmet back up over my eyes. " After uneventfu l 7.80 and 7.92 second-run wins over Keith Gray and Mike Wettstein, respectively, Myers and Sch ultz squared off in a semifinal showdown for th e record books. Myers left th e starting line just sixhundredths of a second after the green light flashed and dropped the NHRA National record to 7.77 . Schultz, the two-time defending U.S. Nationals winner and Castrol Champi on, lost with a personal-best 7.79 after an eq ua ll y fin e launch. Mafaro as su med the remaining final-round berth by beating Vance & Hines rider Phil Tannery in th e qu arter-fin als and numb er four qualifier Boyer in the semi-finals. " P izza J ohn's" 7.80 second-round ' tim e was punctuat ed by a n all -time best 176.47-mph top-end charge. Mafaro was then overpowered by Myers in th e final , the way he has dominated the two-wheeled contingent a ll season . Whi le Mafaro trai led a t 7.87, Myers earned drag racing's · most coveted . prize with th e landmark 7.74. Ma faro 's season-long dominance has already assured him th e '89 Castrol Championship , but it's obvio us now that he'll have someone o the r than just Schultz to co ntend with in '90. Those two a nd Myers will get a cha nce to test for next year a t th e fina l two even ts of this seaso n, th e in augural H eartland National s in Topeka, Kansas , Sep tem ber 29October I ; and th e seaso n-e nd ing Winston Final s in Pomona, Califor- " , ni a, October 26-29. •

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