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/127847
DRAG RACING AMAIPROSTAR DIXIE NATIONALS Virginia Motorsports Park By Matt Polilo DL'IWIDDIE. VA. JUNE 21-22 I may have bee n that ther e w as a (Above) Tony Lang (near lane) beal local lavorile Larry " Splderma n" McBride lor the Top Fuel lille al l he AMAIProslar Dixie Nallonals when McBride overpowered Ihe Irack In the Iina i. (Left) The learn 01 Gary Clark (sh own) and Rick Sletson are sl ill lhe team to beat in Funnybike , after runn ing 6.881208 in terrible conditions to take the ir second win of the yea r. (Above) Rickey Gadso n (shown ) gal several gl1ls fro m Pau l Gas t in Pro Stock co mpet itio n. Gast wa ited for Gadson to start for the final , started Gadson himself, and then broke a crank. giving Gadso n his I lrsl win In Pro SIOC k. (Lell) Buddy Forbus (Iar lane) l ook his l irst w in ollhe season in 750Cc Pro Superbike. gelling by lirstl ime I inail sl Ben Koc h (near lane). 52 fu ll moon during the su mme r solstice, or th a t the op p ressive heat a nd humidity sa p ped th e ene rgy o u t o f bi ke s and crews, bu t th e AMA /Prostar Dixie Na tionals was one of the strangest in memory . In a lmost every eli minatio n, th ere was some weird footnote, some strange occurrence, some odd coincide nce. It began in To p Fuel, w h ere Tony Lan g, who has been a t th e top of hi s game of lat e, suffered two oildowns in qu al ifying - strange no t only because La ng si m p ly never oils the tra ck , bu t also becau se it ha ppened whil e he was the su bject of an episode of a Discovery C han n el documentary se ries titl ed "Extreme Machines," being taped by a British film crew . Lang got his act together for the final qualifyin g session and took the numberone spo t wi th a run of 6.34 seco nds at 207 mph. For the second race in a row, Lan g met Larry McBride in the fina l, and for the second race in a row, Lang to ok th e win, posting a 6 .39 /211 a s McBrid e lost tra ction a nd smo ked the tire just off the line. The run of the event had to come in th e O ri enl Exp ress Funnybike Sh owdo wn, wh ere defending champion Gary Cla rk, riding his turbo alcoho l Koenig Kawasaki, hit a solid 6.88 /208 d u rin g the second round of eliminations in very o ppressive co nditions. Becau se of the qualifyin g orde r, Clark mel the bike that is provin g to be his main competition fo r th e number-one p late, th e MR E Suzuki of Tom Perry, in the semifinals. Clark took the win, 6.91 to 7.03. Clark went o n to take hi s second stra ig h t e v en t title as he got by th e in je cted -n itro Kawa saki of To m m y Smi th in the final. The clocks malfunctioned on the run , with inaccurate times being posted , bu t Clark clearly took the win light. The Fast by Gast Pro Mod series was a mat ter of su rv ival. as hu mid co nd itions and a gooey racing surface proved to be d ifficult to negoti ate. Mimmo Marciano looked to hav e the best handle on it, qu alifying number one a t 7.07 a nd recording the low e.t. of the first round o f elimi na tio ns w ith a 7.14 time slip. Marciano leI th e track ge t the best of him in the next round, however, as he go t ou t of shape and lo st to Rick Bunting. Ton y Sabino proved to be the most consistent on race day and even tually took his second straig ht Dixie Nationals title. Riding Joe Franco's Suzuki, Sabin o qualified fifth with a 7. 16 and sta yed in the 7.I-second ran ge throughou t eliminations . Sabin o g ot by th e H ootersbacked turbo Kawasaki of Rick Ball in the final, 7.13 to 7.31. Ball, who went to the final at the '96 Prostar World Final s, had luck on his sid e at Virg in ia as he q ual ified in the back of the field, a nd advanced in eliminations as Billv Vose, Micha el Ian torno a nd Keith De;'nis all failed to put up a good ru n against him. As has been the case all season, Pau l Gast ha d the field covered in the LeeIron "mo untain motor" Pro Stock Series .