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,.--- N _RA_wins _H _ _toD_C_ha_rnpionship Drag Race Series: Round 7 DRAG RACE G ~ - - -- olin Myers (near la ne) beat J im Bern ard (far lane) by turning a 7.78-second, 172.08 mph run to win the Topeka, Kansas, round of the NHRA Championship. ' Myers clinches title in Kansas By Todd Veney TOPEKA, KS, SEPT. 28-30 month befor e th e end of th e eightrace National Hot Rod Association season , John Myers ha s ma thematica lly clinched the championship his fellow racers kn ew he'd win all along. Myers and hi s Star Ra cing teammate, en gi ne wh iz George Bry ce, pu lled through th e pi t ga tes a t sprawlin g Heartland Park Topeka in the Kansa s flatland s knowing th at by, winning a single round a t the Heartland Nationals, they cou ld officia lly ice it. "Even if I lose in th e second round here, I'll still win the cha m p io nsh ip," Myers said, not relis hi n g th e pro spect of spe nding the off-seaso n wondering whe ther hi s vanq u ished o p po ne nts were wh ispering behind hi s ba ck th at he'd backed into it a t th e end. O f co urse, no o ne cou ld have. Myers, like former NHRA Champions " Pizza John" Mafaro (1989), David Schul tz (1987-88), and Terry Vance (1985-86) before him , ha sn 't " merely" scra tched ou t a razor-thin po ints win at th e end of the year. H e has dominated right from the outset, winn ing mor e NHRA A National events in 1990 than all o ther riders com bined, advanci ng to at least th e fin al four at a ll seven, and racki ng up an aggrega te 23-3 won-lost record along th e wa y. "This was my most satisfying victor y," Myers said j us t after hi s lopsided final-r ound win over ro oki e J im Bernard, who has now reached the fina l at three of th e four NHRA races he has attended. " T his is the way I wanted to win th e cha mp io ns hip ." This o ne co u ld n' t have been mor e co nvinc ing: En ro ute to his sixth NH RA victo ry in the last 13 mo nths, Myers destroyed the HPT track record and wo n a ll fo ur rou n ds by th e unheard of margin of two-tenths of a second. About th e o n ly thing he didn 't ' do was qua lify on the pole. That hon or went for the second race in a row to Sch ultz, wh o too k h is Vance & H ines-powered ZX-IO to a 7.79second, 175.88 m ph ru n. The th reetime U.S. Nationals Ch am p ion was foll owed o n the 16-bik e qualifying gr id by Myers, who logged a 7.82/ 171.85, and Steve Meit erm an, wh o was th rown off his GSXR just after cross- ing the fin ish li ne at th e end of a 7.87/ 170.71 ru n. Miracu lously, Meiterman suffered just a broken ankle a nd some cuts and bruises in the h igh -speed spi ll, and hi s bik e emerged wi th even less dam age. As Meiterman scrubbed off speed, bou nci ng throug h the -shu tdo wn area a t mor e than 100 mph, h is Suzuki remained upright and ro lled a lo ng besid e hi m, event uall y comi ng to rest a long the guardwa ll with o nly minor bod ywork scra pes. The rem aining rid ers in the fast half of th e field were Bernard (No. 4, 7.89/ 170.48), Paul Gast (No .5, 7.92/1 65.07), No rm DeVin e (No .6, 7.95/171.03), Steve J ohnso n (No. 7, 7.97/ 169.01), and Lance Boyer (No. 8, 7.98/169.20). Fi tt i ngly, Myers' cham pio ns hi pclinching fir st-round win came on th e quickest run in the two- year hi stor y of America 's newest supertrack, a 7.74/ 172.74. Un heralded ' Minneso ta racer Pau l Zahalan crossed th e finish line in the o ther lane more than ha lf a second later at 8.29/ 158.84. Only o ne ot her racer - Bernard 'r an quicker th an 7.90 in th e o peni ng round. T he rookie cha rged to a 7.8 1/ 168.76 to turn back Ron Ayers' compet itive 7.94/ 167.56. When Bernard slipped to a 7.88/1 69.97 in 'a secondround defeat of Sp ringnationals winner Paul Gast, and Schu ltz was upset by La nce Boyer, the handwritin g was o n th e wall : No o ne would be stopping Myers o n th is da y. That was made painfull y clear moments lat er wh en Myers buried S upernatio na ls runner- up Ke it h Gray 's 7.98/1 68.50 wit h a run nea rly as quick as his back-breaking 7.74 a 7.75/172.91. Myers' o n ly bru sh with defeat came a round later, in th e semi finals, whe n Norman DeVine reac ted q uicker to the "Chr istmas Tree" lights that start each mat ch by a full 10th of a second. Myers, a fte r taking h is tim e a t the li ne (beca use he knew he had a power reserve worth a q uarter-second, since DeVine hadn 't cracked into the sevens o n race day ) blew by DeVine a few hundred feet before the finish line and won by j us t a bike length. The lightn ing-quick Bernard also left Myers sitting at the lin e in th e nerve-racking final , but because he left three-hundredths of a second before the gree n , he was au toma tica lly d isq ualified. Myers, whose ow n .04-second reac tio n time was so q ui ck tha t he didn 't even noti ce Bernard's red-lig ht glo wing as they sped past th e " T ree," to the fini sh line firs t anyway, 7.78/ 172.08 to 7.98/167.97. . T he co nvi nci ng vic to ry pa dded Myers' already overwhe lmi ng po ints lead and further cement ed Star Racing's rep u tation as the team to beat. Now, all that's left for them to do at the season-endi ng Win ston Fin als in Pom ona, California, later th is month is break th e track records th ey esta blished in winning it last year. 21