Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Dave Schultz (n ear lane) topped defending cha mp john Myers for the second ro u nd in a row at th e Gatornationals at Gainesville R aceway. Myers prepares fo r his 10th final in the last 12 NHRA races he ld since 1989. Schultz remains unbeaten By Todd Veney GAINESVILLE, FL, MAR. 22·24 passing glance at the drag racing rankin gs after the first two events of th e nin e-race NH RA season would convince the casua l fan that David Sch ultz has dominated the sport. After all, his season has been perfect, mathemat icall y spea king . Sch ultz, th e 1987 a nd 1988 NH RA Ch ampion no w riding for the Vance & H ines stable, earned every avai lable point by qual ifyin g on the po le at th e seaso n-open ing Supemationa ls and again at the Gatorn ation a ls, held at Florida 's Gainesvill e Raceway, and win ning both races. But had Schultz run just hundredths of a second slower in the final ro und A 22 of either race, j ohn Myers, the reig ni ng N H RA Ch ampion who won bo th events - and mo re races than all other riders combined - in 1990, would still be king. . Sch u ltz, wh o won the Supern ationals final three weeks earlier by just three-hundredths of a second, beat his arch ri val by the same margin again in the last round in Flor ida, covering the quarter-mile course in 7.77 seconds at 168.53 mph. Myers, whose 7.69 ru n in win ning last year's Catomationa ls final still stands as the quickest ru n in dra g racing history, crossed th e finis h line a few feet behind Schultz this year wi th a 7.80/1 11.69. Schultz q ual ified nu mber one aga in wit h a 7.70/ 174.14 cha rge, the secondquickest run in straig h t-line hi stor y beh ind on ly Myers' year-old NHRA Nat ional record. Myers, naturall y, was seeded number two in th e fast est field of all-t ime with a 7.76/173.87. T he record " bu mp " was set by number 16 q ua lifier Rich Gero at 7.941/1 69.68, eclipsing by a full 10th of a second th e old 8.04 mark establ ished just weeks earlier at the Supernationals. " Pizza john" Mafaro , th e 1989 NH RA Cha mpion , and Steve Meiterman ran faster tha n Mafaro's 176.47 mph record during qual ifying, but neither ran within one-percent of the speed again , as required by N H RA rules to offici ally back up the mark for a new record: As expec ted, Myers an d Schu l tz stormed through three prelimi nary ro unds o f elimi na tion s with litt le diffi culty. Both eclip sed 7.80 in three of four heat s, and neither reacted to the Christm as tree starting lights in more th an .092-second. Myers took trai n-length wins over one tim e finalist Lance Boyer (7.77/ 173.21 to 8.02/ 169.33), pere nnial semi fina list Ron Ayers (7.79/ 172.08 to 7.96/ 168.95), and Tom Wolbers, who broke (7.76/ 173.17). Schu ltz's win s, by contrast, did not come in ro uts. Each of his victims Gero (7.97/ 168.50), Keith Gray (7.99/ 169.07) and j im Bernard (7.87/ 171.00) - made seven-second runs. Schu ltz still won by comforta ble margins wit h respective runs of 7.76/172.11, 7.85/ 170.55, (slower than his other runs because he over-revved the Kawasak i engine and broke some valves springs) , and 7.79/ 171.91. Both Schultz and Myers responded to th e green at virtually the same insta nt in the hi ghly anticipated fin al: Myer s dum p ed th e clutch threethousandth s of a second before Schu ltz, .061 to .064 an d immedia tely tucked into his familiar crouch , leaning far to the rig ht to gu ide the speeding Suzuki GSX R back toward the center of hi s lane. " It sp un the tire hard in low gear and the bik e go t sideways," Myers exp lained. " When it hooked, the bike sho t over toward the cen terli ne and I had to lean it over. When you do that, yo u're mak in g it go wher e it doesn 't want to , and you' re just wasting horsepower. " When we got 100 feet out, I co uld see Schultz - and I just kept seeing him the whole wa y. He never went away: I cou ldn' t get aro und him." Though he was off to a smoo ther star t, Schu ltz, wh o sits in a mu ch more upright stance than any ' ot her racer, ap pea red to be losin g, a t least to his wife, Meredith, who ca lled o ut: " No way. H e's go t us," as the fin alists disappea red into the distance at nearly 170 mph. In a top-end duel mu ch too close for Mrs. Schultz or any of the other anxio us crew-persons standing riveted . to the farawa y starting line to call, Schultz inched ahead and crossed the finish line .026-second ahead of Myers by the aforementioned 7.77 to 7.80 count. Schultz, the second-wi nningest rider in drag h istory behind the legendary Terry Van ce, seemed more rel ieved than excit ed to finally win in fron t of his hornestat e Florida fans. " I' ve got to be truthful ," confessed Schultz, " I wasn't expecting to win. I' ve never had any luck at this race, ' and I wasn 't expec ting any this tim e. "Last year, I had a clutch disintegrate after the burnout - th at never hap pens. T he year before, the plates in th e battery co lla psed. T he year before that , I crep t through the staging beam s. But I cou ld get used to this kind of fortune." Myer's partner, Star Racin g founder and form er cha mpion rider George Bryce, wh o is resp onsibl e for the horsepower currently a t Myers' di sposal, was as philosophi ca l as cou ld be expected after losing th e race he so desperately wanted to win : "We've never tried harder to win than we did th is weekend, but if the worst you do all year is lose in a final , I gu ess you' re • (;II doin g all right."

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