Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ D RAGRACE NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series: Round 8 m Dave Schultz (far lane) put an end to John Myers' (2) perfect season and five-nee win streak when Myers suffered a rare poor start in the Pro-Stock final. Schultz wins, ends Myers' streakin Indy By Todd Veney INDIANAPOLIS, IN, SEPT. 3-7 ohn Myers, usually unflappable under pressure, couldn't have lost his concentration at a more critical moment. His five-race/I8-round winning streak ended at the last place he wanted it to happen, the last place anybody thought it would - right on the starting line at Indy in the Pro Stock final of drag racing's most prestigious race, the U.S. Nationals. For once, Myers, who has been flawless all year and was on the verge of clinching the NHRAChampionship as early in the season as anyone ever has, wilted in the clutch against arch-rival David Schultz. While Schultz sat upright awaiting the green light, Myers dumped the clutch and hunched down for the ride, knowing it was over the whole way downtrack. As he passed the Christmas tree, he turned his head away, toward the right guardwall, unable to stare at the red ligh~ that signaled his disqualilication. Even before Myers hit the finish line, Star Racing team owner George Bryce shrugged his shoulders, looked at everyone around him and said, "Hey, it happens." As a former rider and 1984 U.S. Nationals champion, he knows. Schultz proved himself a worthy winner with a 7.81-second/I75.91- J 30 mph charge, the quickest elapsed time of eliminations and fastest top-end speed of the entire five-day marathon. It was the fourth time since 1987 that Schultz, the soon-to-be dethroned NHRA Champion, had won the event. "This is the one we all want to win," Schultz said, moments after the anticlimactic final, after his completed weigh-in had made it official. "You never get tired of winning this race, and it gets better every time." He also won in 1987, 1988 and 1990. Schultz's clutch 7.81 in the last round was strong, but nothing compared to his number one qualifying run of 7.73 seconds that just missed Myers' 7.72-second Indianapolis Raceway Park record elapsed time from 1991. It's still only one-hundredth quicker than the all-time 7.74-second mark established by Myers in the torchpassing 1989 Indy final against eventual '89 NHRA Champion "Pizza John" Mafaro. It was Myers' first major victory, and he has yet to relinquish control of Pro Stock, coming within one round in 1991 of winning every championship in the '90s.. Of course, none of that helped in the crucial seconds after the finalists staged with Indy '92 on the line. Myers knew he couldn't afford to be late, as close as they had been running. His George Bryce-prepped Star Racing Katana and Schultz's borrowed, two-year-old Suzuki GSXR, sponsored for one race only by National Car Rental, ran with hundredths _of a second of one another throughout eliminations. Besides Schultz, who led the race, from wire to wire, and Myers, who began and finished it in second place, everyone in the late rounds started near the top. Number three and four qualifiers Jim Bernard and Byron Hines were the semi-finalists; six of the top seven riders made the second round. Bernard, the defending U.S. Nationals Champion, Hines, and Ron Ayers threatened Schultz and Myers on race day, but final-round showdown between the sport's two best-known Pro Stock riders never seemed in doubt. It was the outcome of that final that was so much in doubt, especially after the finalists" identical performances in the three preliminary rounds. Schultz pounded 16th and last qualifier Keith Gray in the first round with a 7.85/168; Myers was right with him in a 7.84/171 to 8.08/162 win over Hector Arana. The arch-riv~s both ran 7.82s on a their winning second-round runs, with Schultz eight-thousandths of a second quicker, 7.820/172 to 7.828/171. Myers earned lane choice for the final with a slightly quicker semi-final . time, 7.82/170, against Bernard's 7.86/ 170. Schultz was one-hundredth of a second back at 7.83/169, his defeat of Hines' 7.90/165. They made virtually the same run in the final - 7.81 to 7.83 favoring Schultz - and had Myers not fouled, they'd have been locked side by side the length of the strip. As it was, Myers' ill-gotten head start left him with a deceiving lead. It ruined what would have been the perfect ending to a perfect weekend, the highlight of Myers' nearly perfect season. After Friday's qualifying, Myers was honored in a downtown Indianapolis hotel as a member of Car Craft magazine's All-Star Drag Racing team. The. next day, he won the Wax Shop Pro Bike Dash, an invitation-only, all-star race held in conjunction with U.S. Nationals qualifying. It paid $7500, three times the NHRA prize money for winning the U.S. ationals title. But with all the trappings that go with winning Indy, Myers no doubt would have given up the award and the money for the overall win. tN

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