Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

NHRA Winston National Championship Drag Racing Series: Round 3 D RAGRACE ~ e David Schultz (far lane) scored his 16th career NHRA Winston T op Fuel victory by defeating longtime rival John Myers (n ear lane) at Atlanta Dragway, Schultz wins in "farewell" ride By T odd Veney ATLAN GA, APR. 23·26 TA, ith the grim prospect of bei ng fo rced off th e NHRA tour undoubtedly gnawing a t him , David Schultz downed archrival John My ers in th e final rou n d of th e Southern Nat ional s at Atlan ta Dragwa y for the third straight year. Finland's Veli Marlin, who bought the Kawas aki th at Schultz rode to th e 1991 NHRA Championship - th en loa ned it ba ck to th e sponsorles s American for th e fir st three ra ces of the 10-race 1992 NH RA Winston Drag Racing Seri es - wanted it back right after the Southern Nationals, in time for the start of his Europea n season. On what he knew would be his last ride on the Championship-winning ZX-IO, Schultz beat Myers by defau lt before he had launched off the line on Myers ' foul-start disqualification. Schultz, the winningest active rider with 16 National titles and three NHRA Championships, took over first place in the 1992 Winston ra nkings with his 16th victory in 21 career fina lround appearances. W Havin g seen the red light glari ng a t him as he rod e p ast the Christmas tree, Myers shut off and sat up ri gh t after the seco nd -gea r sh ift, watchi ng in disgust as Schultz disappeared into th e distance with a 7.77-second/l 73. 14mph cha rge, more than a fu ll 10th of a second faster than any other rider's best pass of eliminations. Even if Myers ha d left the sta rt ing line four-thousandths of a second lat er - the in stant the light turned gr een - he still would have needed his fastest run of th e event, 7.89, to stay in front of Schultz, who was " late" with a late .12·second reacting time. " My reaction time was off because I was distracted by the red lig ht on John 's side of the Christmas tree," claimed Schultz, wh o needed no excuses for his 7.7-second performances. Sch ultz's first victory si nce his memorable 1991 season came not with a cus tom -bu ilt, dyno -tested bullet, but with a hybrid 1428cc Kawasaki pieced together in an all-night thrash from .salvageable parts left over from two engines he had blown in qualifying. " We just sorted th rough wh at was left to see if we could save an ything," said Sch u ltz, wh o always sticks to h ims elf in the pits, away fro m the o ther racers. No o ne got near him o n th e track, eithe r, in qualifying or eliminati ons. At the concl us io n of the fourth and fina l qual ifyin g sessio n, Schul tz had a com fortable five-hundredths lead o n the entire field with a 7.79/170. " He rea lly h ad us covered, " ad m itted -G eo rge Bryce, owner of th e St ar Racing/Wax Sh op Su zuki ridden by Myers. Slick 50 Nati onal s finali sts Byron Hines (No.2, 7.85/173) and Myers (No. 3, 7.89/ 167), Nigel Patrick (No .4, 7.91/ 168), and Kerry Larkin (No. 5, 7.96/ 166) were th e only o ther rid ers in th e seven -second zone. Even Jim Bernard, who pa ced th e all-seven-second field a t the recent Gatornational s in Gainesville, Florida, wi th th e run of the year, 7.66, co u ld run no better than an 8-fIa\. The remaining 10 qualifiers , numbers 7 through 16, ranged fro m 8.00 to 8.05 the sam e fiv ehundredths margin Schultz alone had on No.2. After pulling the all-nighter, Schultz made his weakest run of the day , a stillstrong 7.87/169 that co vered first round opponent Steve Mei terman by two-tenths of a second and th e rest of the field for the rest of the da y by .05- seco nd. (O f the other 15 first-round com pe ti tors, on ly lack Kaczala hit a 7 - and he lost on a big hol esh ot to Bernard 's 8.05.) T omm y Bolton was sp ared the unplea santness of facing Schultz's 7.76/172 in th e second round wh en hi s transmission blew in th e pits. " Pizza John " Mafaro , basking in th e glo w of h is best season since 1989, wh en he won it all, lasted until the semis , befor e succu m bing to Schu ltz's intimidating 7.7s by leavi ng befor e the green. In the other lane, th e eventua l winner cru ised into th e lopsided final against Myers, wh o had lucked into the final with admittedly off-pace ti mes of 8.10/1 49,7.92/166, and 8.0 1/ 156. • After the grat ifyin g vic to ry over Myers, which came practicall y in th e backyard of Bryce's Star .Ra cing shop in Americus, Ceorgia, Schultz hinted that this may be th e last anyo ne sees of hi m for awhile. "We're going to hav e to give this bi ke up in ab out 10 days ," Schultz said. "We have no sponsorship program, so I may take some time off. I've go tten some offers , but they're not top-four of the caliber of (Sch u lt z, Myers, Bernard, and H ines) rides . I could stay up in the points that way , but I do n' t want to race unless I know I'll be in the top four, unless I know I have a chance to win." I:N 27

• Cover