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GDRAG RACE NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series: Round 3 , ' - - - - - - - - - , . - .- - - - - - - - - - - - - . , . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - e Dave Schultz (far lane) got the win at the Fram Southern Nationals when John Myers (near lane) red-lighted in front of a packed house at Atlanta Dragway. c utz owns • • ers In eor la By Todd Veney COMMERCE, GA, APR. 23-25 he odds against it are incalculable, but when the final-round fireup call rang out at the Fram Southern Nationals, there they were for the fourth straight year: David Schultz and John Myers. About the only thing less likely than the same two riders - even the sport's winningest active racers, the reigning NHRA Winston Champion (Myers) and the 1992 points runner-up (Schultz) having a final-round showdown four years in a row would be if the outcome of that fina I were the same each time. .That happened, too. Schultz, now undefeated in 19 rounds of NHRA competition at Atlanta Dragway in tiny Commerce, won again, this time because Myers red-lighted by 1/71 of a second with a heartbreaking .386 reaction time. (A .400 is perfect; anything quicker is a foul start and automatic disqualification.) Ironically, Schultz would have been disqualified for his too-quick .395 reaction time if Myers hadn't beaten him to it by fouling nine-thousandths of a second sooner. As the finalists rocketed down the quarter-mile track, only Myers was aware that the outcome already had been determined back at the starting T 18 line. "I don't know what it is about this place, but ~e never have any luck here," Myers said. "I mean, it's not like I just lost it up there. The clutch didn't slip at all so the vehicle reaction was great, and I personally reacted well to the light, too. I guess it was just too good. I saw the red when we went by the tree, so I knew it was over." To Myers' left, Schultz thought he was racing for his life. "I didn't know he red-lighted," Schultz said in a post-race interview, telecast live on The Nashville Network for the first time in Pro Stock history. Schultz admitted thinking he was behind made him lose his concentration, miss some shift points, and wander around the bumpy left lane instead of slipping through the lane's narrow groove. "He was so far out ahead of me that my heart was in my throat," Schultz said. "That was the ugliest run I made all weekend, but as long as it puts me in the winner's circle, I'm happy." Schultz ran just an off-pace 7.87 that still covered Myers' what-the-hell 7.90 by a few feet. "I already knew I'd.lost, but I pushed the (air-shift transmission) buttons and ran it through the gears anyway because you can't shut these off until you get into high, or you'll hurt the transmission," Myers explained. Schultz had been much quicker than his final-round time in the early rounds of eliminations and in qualifying, where he landed second with a 7.78-second run at 172.97 mph. The only rider seeded ahead of Schultz, the 1987, 1988 and 1991 NHRA Winston Champion, was fast-rising John Smith, the recent Gatornationals winner who still leads the Winston point standings with 2496 points. Smith sped to a 7.75/173 that fell short of the 7.72 Atlanta Dragway record Schultz set while winning the 1992 race. Paul Gast broke out of his slump to record a 7.792 for the third spot and Myers was fourth, thousandths of a second back at 7.797. From there, the field stretched to Keith Gray, who anchored one of the quickest races ever with a 7.92. Myers domiEted eliminations with a barrage of 7.7s. Of his three victims, only Byron Hines, who ran 7.86, 7.86 and 7.85, posed a'threat. Hines' Yamaha hit a consistent 7.87 in the semifinals that still fell far short of Myers' slowest run other than the final, a 7.79. "We have'a little more power this weekend, but it's really screwed up our combination," Hines said. Schultz, who won the 1991 title while riding for Hines and longtime partner Terry Vance, quickly found a workable combination on his Sunoco Suzuki GSXR, owned by Slick 50 Nationals finalist Lance Boyer. As always at Atlanta Dragway, he breezed through eliminations with a modicum of difficulty. John Mafaro, still looking for his first vctory since his 1989 championship season, fouled and fell in the first round, 7.84/169 to 7.96/167. In the second round, Kerry Larkin was no match for Schultz's second of three 7.78s, and Gast lost to Schultz's identical time in the semifinals. Schultz, who began the season with the first crash of his legendary career, a harrowing 167-mph tumble across the finish line at Houston, has rebounded to make the last two finals. With eight of 11 races still remaining on the NHRA tour, Schultz already has climbed to second place in the standings, but Myers issued a warning to his old rival: "Dave bette! know he was lucky this time.l'm goihg to be 'on kill' from now on," Myers promised. c::N Results NHRA WINSTON SERIES PRO STOCK POINT STANDINCS (Aft.r 3 of 11 rounds), I. John Smith (2496); 2. Dav;d Schultz (2380); 3. John My... (2236); 4Ron Ayers (1946); 5.1lyron Hines (1760); 6. Lance Soyer (1748); 7. K.rry Larkin (1356); 8. Paul Casl (1354); 9. Mkhaet Phillips (1338); 10. Russ NybeTg (1230).