Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127786
DRAG RACE" AMAIProstar Drag R acing Series Round 4: VirginiaM torsp o ortsPark II ~""f' (Abo ve) Tony Lang (far lane) defeated Elmer Trell (near lane) fo r the Top Fuel title at the AMAIProstar Dix ie Nationals In Richmond, Virgin ia. Lang won when Trell went up In smoke off the starting li ne. (Left ) Gary Clark (shown) overcame Keith Lynn to win t he Orient Express Funnyblke final. and securing his first number-one pla te. He was the picture of consistency combined with s tout performances that earned him number-one qualifying honors at five events. But the roles of Trett and Lang seemed to swap during the AMAI Prostar Dixie ationals at the Virginia Motorsports Complex, the fourth event of the 10-race season. That is 'u ntil the final round, when a tuning error caused Trett to lose traction, giving Lang his second win of the season. Unseasonably hot weathe r made the track a particularly tricky one, especially for th e 1000 hp kings of the sport - the Top Fuel class. Trett, however looked to have a handle on the situation, qualifying in th e number-one position with a 6.34-second elapsed time at 220 mph on his first pass down the race track. Lang. struggling with th e clu tch tune-u p all w ee k en d , m a n a ge d to s tep up to a 6.45/ 212 to secure the number-two spot as qualifying concluded . Whil e Lang usu ally im p ro ves as an eve n t p r ogre s se s, h e co uldn ' t quite m atch Tre tt's p er fo rm an ce s on race d ay. In every round, Trett would simpl y put down a better run than Lang, pu tti ng Lan g in the unfamiliar position of having to play catch-up. That is until the final ro und, w h en Trett overpowered th e race track and smoked the tire , forcing him to thro ttle back to regain traction . Once th e Goodyear h ooked u p, Trett powered through with a 222mph charge but ra n out of race track as Lang's 6.64 estimated time go t him to the fi nish line ahea d of T re tt ' s 6.99 time. "We were just happy to get out of this one alive," said Lang. whose racing program has suffered since he took over MTC Engin ee ring ea rlier th is year. "We had clu tch problems all weekend . I just have not had th e tim e to focus on the bike like I feel we should this year." Gary Clark looks to be a major force in th e Orient Express Funnybike showd own this season. After scoring a win u pon th e debut of his injec ted -alcohol Kawasak i, Clark m ade it tw o in victory at Richmond with a final-round victory over n umb er-tw o p late h old e r Ke ith Lynn ". By Matt Polito RICHMOND, VA,MAY 18-19 lm er Trett has not bee n his domi nating self lately. After m aking a radical departure in th e setu p of his "Moun tain Magi c" Top Fuel bike a yea r ago, the legen dary Trett was noticeably off his game. All but gone we re th e 6.30-second time slips, let alo ne any 6.20 numbe rs. Tony Lang. on the other hand, seeme d to have the whole thing figured ou t. In 1995 the Schnit z rider br ou ght his supercharged Suzuki to the final round five times in the six AMAI Prostar Top Fuel events contested, taking four titles f (Left ) Pro Stock winner Patric k Wise heats up the rear lire prior to stag ing . (Above) Ricky Gadson (th ird from left) was a doub le winner over o the weekend , claiming both the Metzeler 600cc Sup ersport and Pro Supe rblke laurels. W h il e th e im por ts m a d e it to th e m oney round in Fu nnyb ike, th e nit ro fu el ed H arl eys rule d qualifyin g. Sam Wills made a spectacular ridin g debut on th e supercharged S&S Harley, qualifying number one wi th a 6.94/198. The bi ke, former ly ridden by Andy Gotsis, became th e firs t Harley to surpass 200 " mph at the 1995 Dixie Nationals with Gotsis aboard. Rei gn in g Fu n nybike cham pion Jim McClu re q u a li fied his injected-nitro Harl ey in the second spot wi th a last-session 6.98/182. Clark , w ho q ualified third at 7.15,