Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Famed engine builder Byron Hines (near lane) earned his first-ever National win • Hines scores first wIn By Todd Veney TOPEKA, KS, ocr. 1-4 s an indispensable member of drag racing's most prolific team, Byron Hipes R.new the klieg lights, camera flashes and champagne showers of the winner's circle, but this was the first time the trophy was handed to him. Previously known to behind-thescenes types as the mechanical genius behind the unprecedented success of 24-time HRA event winner Terry Vance, Hines, still in his first full season of riding, sped to his first career National victory at the Sears Craftsman Nationals. With Vance & Hines crewmen, other racers, and even Vance himself cheering him on, Hines took the first of what should be many major victories on the Vance & Hines-prepped Yamaha aWOl, Pro Stock's only Yamaha. Ironically, he won not by relying on his own home-brewed horsepower to carry him' around a quicker-leaving opponent, but because of his reflexes and riding skill. In a classic riders' race against the most intimidating possible opponent - NHRA Winston Champion-elect A John Myers, the undisputed top rider of the last three years and the only champion that the event (formerly known as the Heartland Nationals) had ever known - Hines covered the quarter-mile in 7.88 seconds, the same E.T. produced by Myers. Myers, who had red-lighted in the last round of the prestigious U.S. Nationals a month earlier, left with a better-than-average .045 reaction time, but Hines was already gone with a .033, having trimmed his reaction time from the previous round by more than half. It proved to be the difference. Myers, astride the Star Racing/Wax Shop '92 Suzuki Katana that moves so hard in the midrange, led briefly, but with a superior top-end charge (171 mph to 169), Hines reclaimed the lead and crossed the stripe first for a photofinish .013-second win. "It doesn't look that difficult," said Hines, that rare champion who wins with the open support of his fellow competitors. ''I'm sure all mechanics think that if they were riding the bike they'd do things differently. But it's a by besting David Schultz (far lane) in the Sears Craftsman Pro Stock final. lot harder than it looks; it's very intense." Former rider George Bryce, the team owner/crew chief who made Myers' name a household word by offering him the ride with his Star Racing team in' 1989, had this to say of Hines, his main engine-building rival: "I can live with Byron beating us. It's good for the category that someone new (not Myers or Schultz, in other words) won the race." As the season wore on and his reaction times improved, it became increasingly apparent that Hines, on the brink of a. breakthrough all season, was going to win an NHRA title. It was merely a matter of when and where, and he did nothing to hurt his chances of qualifying second at Heartland Park Topeka, with a strong 7.836 at 171.16 mph. Only Myers was ahead of him, and that was by mere thousandths of a second. Gunning for his fourth win in the four-year history of the race, Myers clocked a 7.833/169 for the pole. Dave Schultz was third (7.86/170) in what hardly could be considered a surprise, bl.\l the racer immediately behind him certainly was: Unheralded Michael Phillips, in his first outing on former rider Harry Laritigue's '92 GSXR after years of bracket racing at local Texas tracks, snared the number four position with a 7.90/168. Tim Loomis qualified nine positions behind Phillips in the 13th position, welcomed the 24-year-old rookie to the big time by leaving on Phillips for an 8.04 to 8.01 holeshot win in the first round of elminations. Loomis eventually lost in the semifinals to Myers, who seemed even more likely to handle Hines in the final when his 7.85/169 winning time appeared on the top-end scoreboards. Hines was four-hundredths of a second slower in winning the other semi-final heat over Schultz, who had been running better than anyone in eliminatins on Greg Ward's two-yearold National Car Rental-backed Suzuki GSXR. He set Low E.T. and Top Speed of the event at 7.79/172.18 in the first round. By Hines' admission, Schultz had him covered in the semi-finals until Schultz's engine came apart in a violent explosion about halfway down the strip. A connecting rod blew through the side of the block and lodged itself in the carbon-fiber bodywork that separates the 'engine compartment from Schultz's legs and feet. "I could feel something tickling my left foot," Schultz said, not specifying whether it was the rod or the end of the crankshaft. So Hines got a break, but as Myers CN said, he deserved it. Results NHRA WINSTON SERIES POINT STAND1NGs: I. John Myers (8976); 2. David Schultz (6944); 3. Byron Hines (5758); 4. John MaCaro (5470); 5. Jim Bernard (4712); 6. John Smith (4230); 7. Kerry Larkin (4038); 8. Norm DeVine (3814); 9. Ron Ayers (3442); 10. Steve Johnson (3384). 27

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