Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

1 1 NHRA WinstonDrag Racing Series: Round 7 DRAG RACE e ~ David Sch uliz (near lane) defeated seri es po ints leader Joh n Myers in the Pro Stock final when Myers triggered the red light, c utz wins Brainer s ow own By Todd Veney BRAINERD, MN, AUG. 20-22 f he hadn't taken him self out of the season's opening race by coming off his bike at 167 mph, Dave Schultz mi gh t a lre a d y be le ad in g w ha t h as evolved into another two-man charge for th e NHRA Pro Stock title between himself and John Myers. He may yet. " As 1 was sli d in g to a st o p a t Houston, 1 w as th in king, 'W ell, there goes the championship . I'm alr eady out of it.?" said Schultz. "Then 1 beat John (Myers) in the semifinals in Gainesville and in the fina l a t Atl anta . I was still way out of th e points, but 1 sta rted thinking, ' H m m m . This could hap- I pen.'" Four months later, Schultz is wi thin 462 points of Myers , who just a few races ago seemed destined to win another Winston title. With two victories and three second place finishes in the five NHRA tour da tes since April, Myers has hardly choked , but he has to be feeling the pressure as Schultz dra ws near. And he has to do som ething about Schultz. All three of Myers' second-p lace finishes have come at Schultz' hand - and all because Myers red -lighted. At t he Champ ion Au to Stores Nationals in Brainerd, for th e se cond tim e in tw o r aces , Myer s foul-started . against Schultz in a final round he prob- ably wo uld have lost anyway: Schultz, who holds the Nati onal record for speed at 178.35 m ph, mad e the quickest and fastest run of the event, 7.76 seconds at 176.92 mph for his third NHRA victory of 1993. Myers' time was 8.05/161 . Schultz' only problem currently is that he picked up only 252 points on the consistent Mye rs, who has lost four of five head -to-head meetin gs to Schult z this year but is handling everyone else with eas e. "I kee p waiting for John to have a bad race so 1 can make up som e ground, and he's no t doing it," Schultz said. "He's right ther e every time." Myers was just two-h undredths of a second behind Schul tz' 7.77/ 171 in qualifyin g . John Smith (7.794 / 173) a n d George Bryce, Myers' Star Racing teammate and the owner of Myers' 199 1 Suzuki GSXR, (7.797/ 168) also qualified w ithi n st riki n g di st an ce of Schultz' Sunoco Suzuki, but dr opp ed off his torrid pace on ce eliminations got under way. Myers slowed to a 7.92/167 in his first-round defeat of Greg Underdahl . Bry ce , w ho return ed to riding four weeks earlier at the Mile-Hig h Nationals in Denver, clocked a 7.93/166 opposite Steve Johnson. In the sam e round, Schultz made his slowes t r u n of the e ven t by fa r 7.85/169 - and still w on an in tri guing race. The op ponent - John Mafaro, wh o is the only active rider oth er than Myers an d Schultz to have won the champions hip. Mafaro, who qualified 16th and last wi th an 8.09, had the use of a Bryce/Star Raci ng e ng ine for the Schul tz r ace because Bryce wan te d Schultz out as so on as p ossib le a n d figured that Mafaro had a shot with one of his Star Racing engine s. It didn't help. Mafaro's time was an 8.14/159 that fell far short of Schul tz' 7.85/169. Schultz improved dramatically after that and was never seriously challenged in the rema ining three rounds of eliminati ons. His 7.77/ 171 pol ished off Sam Hurwitz' 8.01/1 62 in the second round and a 7.79/171 wa s more than enough aga ins t Bryce's 7.92/164 in the semifinals. . Myers p a ssed through the s am e ro u n ds w ith m id- 7.8s a gainst 1988 Brainerd runner -up Russ Nyberg and Smith. Smith, crow d favori te from nearby Champlin, ha d a perfect reaction tim e on Joh n Noar d's Anoka-Ramsey Speed Center Suzuki but lost by 1/167 of a second, 7.86/167 to 7.90/1 65. Again , Myers he ad ed into a fin al- round showd own wi th Schultz running slower, and again he fouled . But th is one was d iffer ent. "On the mountain (Denve r), I w as excited and I was going for it becau se he was outr unni ng us," My ers sai d . "He was running better here, too, 1 know, but this time the redlight came on because I wasn ' t staged d eep enough. 1 think the bike rolled back a little bit out of the stage beam when 1 dumped the clutch. We vid eotape each run, and that's what it looked like on the tape. " As long as Schultz isn't the winner each tim e, Myer s can " ru nne r-up" his way to what could be his third NHRA Championship. Schult z is content to be in second place in the serie s - at this point in the season. "I actu ally like to be a few hundred points back a t this point. Ther e' s less' hype about you; it takes a little of the pressure off. Plus 1 feel like we' re really getting it togeth er no w. I know I'm not i n firs t, but I' d rath er it be m e than John." (N Results NH RA WINSTON SER IES PRO STOCK POI NT .STANDINGS (Alter 7 of 11 rounds): 1. Joh n Myers (6464): 2. Dav id Schultz (6000): 3. John Smith (4606);4. Ron Aye rs (3624): S. Byron Hines (3622): 6. Michael Phill ip s (3420): 7. Lance Boyer (3196): 8. Paul Gasl (3106): 9. Kerry Larkin (3024): 10. Russ Nyberg (2804). 43

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