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/128178
I AMAIProstar U.S. Drag Racing Championships Round 7: Montgomery Motorsports Park (Left) laITY "Spider-Man" McBride locked up his fourth Top Fuel Championship with his sixth straight win. (Above) Ryan Schnitz secured his second straight 600 SuperSport Championship by remaining undefeated in 2002. STORY AND PHOTOS BY MATT POLITO • MONTGOMERY, AI., OCT. 12-13 he AMA/Prostar U.S. Drag Racing Championships returned to Alabama, the home state of Prostar, for the first time since 1996 with the Schnitz Fall Nationals at Montgomery Motorsports Park. Typical of a lateseason race, championships were secured while some other points battles heated up. Larry "Spider-Man" McBride locked up his fourth Top Fuel Championship with his sixth win in seven final-round appearances. McBride, unquestionably the class of the field, qualified number one at 6.08 seconds, 224 mph, and ran a low e.t. of 6.05/229 in the first round of eliminations. McBride faced number-two qualifier Ron Webb in the final and, after identical reaction times, took the win in a tire-smoking duel, 6.69 to Webb's 7.67. Gary Clark grabbed the pole in the Orient Express Funnybike shootout with a 6.723/198 on the HMP turbo Kawasaki, easily outpacing Chip Ellis, Travis Davis and Mark Oliver, all of which had 6.97 timeslips. Eliminations saw Clark and Ellis on a collision course to the final almost literally. Ellis scored a big holeshot as Clark came around him at half track. At the big end, Ellis got some tire spin and got out of shape, crossing over into Clark's lane as Clark got the win light with a 6.76/198. The battle will continue at the World Finals, but the war is over as, with his qualifying effort, Ellis locked up the 2002 Funnybike Championship for Kawasaki and bike-owner Steve Rice. 50 OCTOBER 30, 2002' cue One of the classes with a championship still up in rile air is Pro Modified, where local hero Ashley Owens jumped around John Sachs to regain the points lead he held earlier in the year. Owens, debuting a new Koenig Low Boy nitrous Suzuki, took the pole with a 6.81 at 194 mph, distancing himself from number-two qualifier Charlie Farrar (6.92/189), who brought a two-race win streak to Alabama. Owens was easily the class of the field, scoring low e.t. of every round. The anticipated final with Farrar was thwarted in the semifinals when veteran Steve Drake got around him with a 6.93 to bring the McKinney Motorsports Hayabusa to the final for the second straight event. Drake ran a consistent 6.94 in the final, but Owens was just too strong, running 6.78 at 196 mph to take his third win of the season. The Lectron Pro Stock class is where things really started to get interesting. With veteran and multitime champion Paul Gast still recovering from illness, the championship I • n e vv s (Above) Ashley Owens brought his new HayabuN Pro Mod to the win and the points lead. chase is being fought out between current champ Todd Doege and Joe Koenig. Fred Co)Jjs, replacing Gast on the Fast by Gast Hayabusa for the second race in a row, qualified on the pole with a 7.14/185 followed by Geno Scali, who turned in a 7.16 on a Koenig-owned Suzuki conspicuously painted with Craftsman Tools livery. Scali hit low e.t. of the event, with a 7.13/184 in round one and, in a move that looked like "team orders," failed to show against Koenig in round two. That produced a semifinal match-up with Koenig and Doege. In a clash with huge championship implications, Doege took the win, 7.17 to 7.23. On the other side of the ladder, Collis lost on a holeshot in round two to Michael Phillips who had a bye into the final. Phillips hit a redlight foul by one thousandth of a second in the final, giving Doege his third win of the year and first since Atlanta. Things were just as interesting in the Schnitz Streetbike Shootout class where the Muzzy team put Ryan Schnitz on their old turbo ZRX- 11 00 to serve as a blocker for Rickey Gadson in his points battle against current champ and points leader Kent Stotz on the Hahn Racecraft turbo Honda. Schnitz was true to form, qualifying the bike on the pole at 7.92/178 followed by Gadson on the Muzzy turbo ZX-12R and Barry Henson with a 8.01 on the Velocity Racing turbo Hayabusa. Schnitz got his shot at Stotz in the semifinals and laid down the hot lap for the class with a 7.75/185 as Stotz had problems and shut off early. On the other side of the ladder Gadson squeaked out a holeshot win over past champ James "Duck" Lauer with an 8.03 to Lauer's 7.99. Gadson got the holes hot over Schnitz in the final and hit his best time of the event at 7.86/182 as Schnitz was inexplicably (right!) down on power. The bad news for Gadson is that Stotz brings over a two-elimination-round points advantage into the World Finals. In the Suzuki Formula Superbike class Team Kawasaki rider Jim Carroll kept his perfect season intact and clinched the championship with a number one qualifying effort and the win on the Adams/Ellis ZX-12R. Carroll cruised to the pole with a 8.12 at 164 followed by Del Flores, who fought off handling problems all weekend but still brought the Yoyodyne/Worldwide Bearings Hayabusa to the number two spot at 8.59/155. Ryan Schnitz, who has consistently been number two qualifier and runner-up to Carroll, struggled on the Muzzy ZX-12R, qualifying fourth and being eliminated in round one. The final came down to a match-up