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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127271
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __H_RAW _st on_C_ha_rnpionshipDrag Race Series: Round 5 N _ _in _ DRAGRACE e m John Myers (near lane) defeated ' Dave Sch ultz in the Pro Stock final and on ly has to win a single round in one of the next th ree even ts to clin ch th e title. Myers moves in on title with Summemationals victory ·ENGLISHTOW NJ, JULY 6·8 N, he Budwe iser Sum mernationaIs at Raceway Park was the polar . opposite of the last event.on the eight-race NHRA Pro Stock tour the Springnationals - where two firstti me final is ts met in a on ce-in -alifeti me championship run. This race had a much more predictable ou tcome: Qualifyin g, elim ina tions, and fina l round resu lts could have been mailed in befor e it got ' u nderway. A fina l-round sho wdo wn between Joh n Myers, th e 1990 NHR A Champion-elect, and Dave Schultz, who won the title in '87 and '88, seemed a forego ne concl usion. Only freak breakage (like Schu ltz's rev limiter trouble at the Springnationa ls) or an inexplicable riding error (like Myers' blatant red light at that same event) stood between those two and a fitting fin al. Both riders cruised th rough three rounds of prel iminaries to meet in a titanic final, where season-long points leader Myers beat his on ly rival for his T th ird victory in five races th is season. Only a fracti on of the 16-bike field was ' within striking distance of Myers and Schultz, though more than half of th em covered the quarter-mile strip in less th an eight seconds . Myers, of course, quali fied number one on George Bryce's year-old Star Racing Suzuki GSXR with a trackrecord 7.73-secon dl I73.47 mp h run. Schul tz was second, a few ticks of th e clock back a t 7.77/ 172.05. Beh ind those two in the fast half of the field were Springnation als Champion Pau l Gast (7.84/ 165.38), Steven Meiterman (7.85/ 171.07), defending event winner and '89 NHRA Champ ion " Pizza john" Mafaro (7.87/ 168.72), Lance Boyer (7.88/168.35 ), Keith Gray (7.89/ 170.22) and Steve johnson (7.89/ 166.38). From there, the quickest Pro Stock field in drag racin g hist ory stretched to Tom Digan's 16th-p lace 8.18/159.03. Digan slowed to an 8.23/1 57.38 in the first round of eliminations and was crushed by nearl y half a second by Myers' 7.74/1 73.01 blast. Schultz, as expec ted, wa s the n ex t qui ck est winner, but hi s effortless 7.81/168.22 victory over lack Kaczala's 8.12/1 63.78 still left hi m well behi nd Myers' 7.7second pace. T he on ly surprise of th e rou nd (or the whole race, for tha t matter!) came when Mafaro failed to beat anyone a t the event he'd do minated on his home track just a year ago. Mafaro, who won five of the eig h t races en route to the '89 NHRA titl e, won twice as many rounds in th e first event of '89 than he's won in the five so far this year. After Mafaro 's stu nn ing first-ro und loss to T imothy Goff, the race returned to normal and continued on toward its ine vi ta ble co ncl us ion . Myer s dropped johnson in the second round and Meiterm an in the sem i finals wi th identical 7.75/ 172.44 runs. Schultz did likewise, albeit at sligh tly slower runs of 7.78/171.10 an d 7.79/ 170.87. Sin ce Myers hadn't come close to spi nning the tires in taking .his effortless ear ly round win s, Bryce figur ed he had enough of a cushi on to toy with clutch static before the sem i fin als. (Naturally, he steadfastly refused to reveal whe ther he'd added or taken a way spring pressure. ) He wasn ' t exactly anxious about gett ing beat by Meiterm an, saying, "This run is a tune-up for Schultz in the fin al." After the second-straigh t 7.75, Bryce, whose Star Racin g shop built more than a quarter of th e com petit ive bike s in th e field, figured he'd need an ide ntical ru n in th e fina l to bea t Schultz. H is rider, Myers, rel ished the thought of bringin g down his .arch - rival with an even qu icker run: " Dave is th e closest one to us righ t now," Myers said. " He's the gu y I like to beat. All I need is to 'cu t a ligh t' (react well to the Christmas tree starting lights)." Sch ultz was as aware of the situati on as anyone. As he too k the bike to the startin g line for the final, he said, "To win , I' ll need a very good light and a perfect run. Myers has the edge righ t now, obvio usly, so I had to do something to mak e th e bike faster. I can get two- to th ree-hundredths out of it, bu t I ma y have shot myself in the foo t before getting up there. Of th e 50,000 people who watched Myers charge to an in surmountable earl y lead , Schultz was the first to know that he' d made the wrong move in th e pits. Three-hundredths of a second after the green light came on, Myers was a lrea dy gone. Wh en Schultz . moved four -hundredths lat er, Myers had hi m by the th roa t. Schultz made his slowest run of the event a 7.91, righ t when Myers .tied his own 7.73 track record in the other lane. Sch ultz was as prophetic abo ut his season -long sit ua tion as he had been abo ut th e final. Before q ua lifying began, he admitted, " If Myers has another runaway win , the champion ship will be just about clinched." Barring a minor mi racle in the last three races , it' s over. By winning just a single round at the next (and most prestigious) ra ce of th e season - th e U .S. Nati onal s Myers will ma th ematicall y clinch the cham p ionsh ip h is com petitors knew he'd win all along. CN 17