Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ DRAGRACE NHRA Winston Championship_Se_ries_:_Ro_UD_d_4 _ ~ Dave Schultz (near lane) stopped the clocks at 7.76 seconds to beat Jim Bernard in the fourth round of the NHRA Winston Championship in Columbus, Ohio. Schultzremainsu a d ndefe te By Todd Veney COLUM BUS, OH,JUNE 6-9 bou t once a year, if at all, the over whelmi ng favorites to w.in NHRA's Pro Stock cha m p ionship dr op out of a dr ag race before th e fin al round. It 's the reason the o ther racers bother showing up at the rest of the even ts. Las t year, two-time cha m pio n David Sch u ltz and 1990 king J ohn Myers both were upset at th e Spri ngnatio na ls in Ohio - held just eas t of Coumbus at National T rail Raceway, the slickest trac k o n the n in e-race NHRA tour, and the o ne most likely to give longshot riders a chance at glory . With Myers gone again - thi s time in the first round - Sch ultz, the 198788 cha mp io n and undefeated in 20 hea ts in 1991, seemed vulnerabl e, too . As the No. I qualifier .with a 7.79second, 170.29-mph pass, Schultz dre w the slowest rider in the field , No. 16 q ua lifier Byron H ines (yes, that H in es, as in Van ce & Hines), who happens to be his crew ch ief. A 24 Needin g to cover the track in j us t .' 8.09 seconds to win the first-round match with Hines, who decided o n a lark a few days befor e the race to ride competitively for ju st the second tim e in four years on Greg U nd erdoll 's Suzu ki, Sch ultz barely did, ru nn in g an 8.08 to edge H ines by just a hundredth of a second. " I was thinking to myself, ' Hey, Byron , it's me wh o's supposed to win l,' " said Sch ultz, whose power this year ha s co me from h is newl y forge d a lliance with H ines, the masterm ind behind Terry Van ce's 24 Na tio na l event victories. " It was so close down a t the finish line that I tho ug ht Byro n had won, but he said that I won. " Byron didn't kn ow that my bik e wouldn 't go into 5th gear. I p ulled level with him at the top of 4th gear ' and looked o ver, and there he was." Sitting behind the line as Myers' bike, its cha in dan gl in g from th e sprocket, was dragged awa y from th e starti ng lin e apron, Sc h u ltz kept rem inding himself that even with hi s o nly th reat for the season po ints titl e o ut of competitio n, the poi nts race was not over. T here still are races to be won. " We' re trying to win everyone of th ese races," say Sch ultz and H ines. . Sch ultz raced th e remaining ro unds as if the en tire cha m pions h ip really did h in ge on hi s winn ing the Sp ring na tionals. Neither T om Wolb ers, the No. 8 q uali fier, nor Paul Gast , the 1990 winner, came close to beating Schul tz, wh o reset the Nati onal Tra il Raceway record on both winning runs. Sch ultz's 7.789 at 172.64 mph (a new track speed mark, too ) took care of Wolb ers in the second ro und; a slig h tly qu icker 7.788/170.32 was eno ug h to elim inat e Cast's 7.95/1 63.92 in the semifina ls. . Ji m Bernard, a 21-year-o ld roo kie competing in just his second National .race wh en he advanced to th e highpressure final at Columbus last year, is a seasoned vetera n in the same round in '9 1. A year and four fin al s later, Bern ard faced mu ch longer odds of winning than in '90, wh en Ga st, hi s co-finalist, also was winl ess. No o ne knew that bett er than he. "Sc h u l tz has m e co vere d b y 15hundreths," Bern ard said before climb- in g on hi s third-ranked Suzuki. " I can ' t go any faster. I've just go t to reac t first at the start and hope th at he break s, becau se real isticall y I don 't sta nd a cha nce." Just as in his four previous fin alro und appea rances, Bern ard left th e sta rt ing line first and crossed the finish lin e last. Four-th ou sandths of a second aft er taking the gree n, Bernard was gon e, but Schu ltz already had the lead for good befor e they hit 2nd gea r, abo ut 100 feet 0 [[ the start ing lin e or 1.1 seconds into the run . Sch ultz's Van ce & H in es-powered Eagle-I Kawasaki ZX-IO covered the quarter-mile in 7.76 seconds (ano ther new track record ) and crossed the stripe at 168.38 mph. Bern ard faded furth er back wit h each shift of the gea rs and lost by several bike lengths with a 7.99/ 168.89. Still, the young rider has a remarkabl e career record 2\-9 won-lost at drag racing's highest level of com pe tit ion , better than any rider o ther than , of course, Schu ltz and Myers. " For som eone so young, Bernard remains remarkabl y calm under pressure," Schultz said. " You kn ow exa ctly what he's going to do wh en he co mes to th e starting lin e; there's no messing around. He's far 'm or e level-headed than I was when I was his age. His day will come." O¥

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