Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

_ e DUG ucr ~~n~~~_~~g~R_~_eS_~_~_:R_~_d_5 ~ J ohn Myers (near lan e) looked to be headed for certain defeat at the English town N H R A Su mmern ationals, but he pulled off the win over Jim Bernard (Iar lane). Myers hangso tEnglishtown na By Todd Ven ey ENGUSHTOW NJ,JULY 4-7 N, f your name is not David Schultz or J ohn Myers, you drag race a ll year for the one event annually where both of the former NHRA Champions - who have won every race since 1989 except one - stumble at th e same time. No one bea ts Sch ultz or Myers regu larly, but second-year rider Jim Bern ard, who can ha ndle all other ride rs, always seemed most likely to win if they ever left themselves vu lner ab le. At the NH RA Summernatio nals in Engl isht own, just outside New York City - for once - both Schultz and Myers finally did. Bern ard , 21, had a perfect view of th e only winning run of the '90s by som eone other than the Big 2. When Paul Gast crossed the finish line first at the 1990 Springnationa ls, Bernard was right behind him in the ot her lan e - just as he ha s been in all five fina ls of h is skyrocketing lO-race, two -year career. As he crep t his Suzuki GSXR-based drag bik e toward the starting line in the SummernationaIs semi final s at Old Bridge Township Raceway, Bernard looked over to find that Schultz, who has a perfect 22-0 won-loss record and victories in all four 1991 NHRA even ts, was nowhere around. The young rider, who had already defeated lack Kaczala and Byron Hines I 16 (yes, the Byron H ines of Vance & Hines) spun around on his seat and saw Schultz and his Eagle-I cre w (reportedly crossed spark plug wires, which ca n 't be switched wi tho u t . remo ving the one-piece Kevlar body). Instead of rushi ng to the starting lin e and pressuring NH RA officials to wave him on to a free ride into the final round , Bernard waited unt il it was clear tha t Schultz and crew would not be rep airing their problem in a reasonab le amo unt of time. With hi s 1260cc engine growing hotter by the second, Bern ard finally staged, took the green, and charged down the dragstrip. When his airshifted transmission wouldn 't engage high (5th ) gear, he shut off and coasted into the David-vs.-Gol iath-type fina l with a 8.OO-second run at just 157 mph. As he wat ched the other semi final heat fro m th e finish line, Bernard could have been excu sed for rooting aga i n st Myer s, wh o h ad stu n ned everyone with a 7.7 1 (j us t two hundredths of a second from hi s own all -time record) in qualifying, and cheering for Norman Devin e, who, lik e he, had never won an NHRA race and figured to be an easier mark in the upcoming final round. A quarter-mile away at the start , Myers and Devine blasted off at the same in stant, but Myers' Star Racing Suzuki GSXR inched further ahea d with every shi ft of the gea rs. By th e time they arrived at Bernard 's fini shline vantage point, th e lead had grown to two bikes and Myers ha d it, 7.84/ 167.34 to 7.94/ 165.77. There was no getti ng around it: To win hi s first NH RA title, Bern ard would have to do the impossible bea t Schultz and Myers back to back. As he heated hi s rear tire in a prefina l burnout, Bernard saw something too be good to be true: Myers was sitting back in the water box wh ere Schultz ha d been 90 minutes earlier, his engine omi no usly silent. Myers' crewmen ha d inad vertently left the two-s tep rev-lim iter ign ition control unplugged, and, li ke Schu ltz's, it was a problem tha t cou ld be remedied only after th e time-consuming process of removi ng the ent ire bod y. Myers' teammat e, Star Racing team owner George Bryce, a form er champion rid er himself, loo ked on in h orror, knowing that Myers co u ldn ' t p os sibl y hold th e high-r evv i ng engi ne at exact ly 8200 rpm on th e startin g line and concen tra te on a quick start. Ove rco mpe n sa ting to keep -fro m over -revving the engi ne, Myers stalled it before he reached th e sta rti n g lin e a nd all appeared lost. Bernard was seconds away from hi s first of what should be many National event wins, but, not wanting to win hi s first big one chea p ly, he waited again. " When the motor died, I knew I was going to have to put it to the wood wh en I got to th e starting line - If I go t there," Myers said. The 'remote sta rter was plugged into Myers' machine, it came to life, he hurried to the sta rting line, twisted hi s wrist, and the engine revved to 12,000 rpm (ins tead of the ideal 8200 rpm figure that a rev-limi ter would have kept it pegged at) and remained th ere until he dumped the clutch . At a time when hi s concen tra tion understan dab ly co u ld h av e been thrown off by the ear-splitting pitch of h is high-winding engine, Myers still managed to leave the starting line within four-hundredths of a second of receiving the green . Bernard, the best reacting rider in drag racing from the da y he first swung a leg over th e seat, cut the slowest react ion time o f h is life - '17hundredths - and the race, for al l intents and p urposes, was over before it had begun. Bernard ac tua lly ran fast er th an Myers by seven-hu ndredths of a second - 7.92 to 7.99 - but because Myers had been gone for 13-hundredths by the tim e Bernard left the starting line, Bernard cam e sho rt at the end by six hundred th s. Myers, who cou ld have lost behind the starting line, a nd would have lost if he hadn 't strapped a " holeshot" head start on Bernard, also sho u ld have lost on the run when hi s air-button handshifter device fai led. But he had the presence of mind to knock it into third gear with hi s foot before the revs got too high and th e engi ne went over th e other side of its power curve. Even if Myers, who is as far behind Schultz in the current drag racing rankings as he is ahead of the rest of the pack, can' t defend his 1990 NHRA Championship, he sti ll knows how to win, how to snatch victory from the jaws of certain defeat . CN

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