Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ D RAGRACE NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series: Final round ~ Dave Schultz (far lane) beat John Myers in the finals with a 178.35 mph run, ending a five-year winless streak at Pomona and posting the fastest run in Pro Stock history. Schultz flies atPomona By Todd Veney POMONA; CA, ocr. 29-NOV. I t had been .five dry years at the Winston Finals, but Dave Schultz never goes long between major victories. No one can take that away from him, no matter where he finishes in the season-ending NHRA rankings. Jumping from bike to borrowed bike all year with remarkable success, Schultz, drag racing's winningest active rider, scored three Pro Stock wins in 1992, including the biggest, the NHRA U.S. Nationals, and now the season-ending Winston Finals at Pomona Raceway. In his first start in the green and white colors of 1993 sponsors National Car Rental/Continental Airlines, Schultz beat his rival, John Myers, in the finals and made the fastest run in Pro Stock history in the process 178.35 mph - in what may be a preview of the coming season. "I don't know what it is about Pomona, but something always happens to me here," Schultz said. Since winning in his first two appearances at Pomona Raceway in '86 and '87, he had gone winless on the seldom- I 22 used track, which finally is being upgraded to full-fledged drags trip status after existing as a parking loti police-driving instruction course 50 weeks a year before 1992. Terry Vance won the 1988 Winston Finals at Pomona on his final ride, and Myers won the race in his 1989 rookie season and every year since. Myers, who clinched the 1992 NHRA Winston Championship weeks earlier, red-lighted in the final and still arrived at the finish line behind Schultz, who hit the speed traps on Greg Underdahl's aging Suzuki GSXR at 178 mph - too fast to be backed up by any of his previous runs by the I % required for an official NHRA National record. Other than the final, Schultz never saw 174' mph in eliminations, but it didn't matter: Nobody else got over 172 mph in qualifying or in any round on race day. Schultz cracked 175 mph on his pole qualifying run, a 7.77, the only pass under 7.80 until eliminations. Myers was seeded second with a 7.80/l70, and Byron Hines was third at 7.82/172. John Mafaro, enjoying his best season since 1989, was fourth with a 7.88/171. 'Fifteen of the 16 qualifiers managed. seven-second passes. The only eightsecond qualifier in the field, Wilbert Johnese, ran another 8.0 in the first round against Schultz, which wasn't nearly enough. Though he was two-tenths ahead of bubble qualifier Johnese with a 7.85, Schultz's edge on the other contenders was gone after round one. Hines was ahead of Schultz in the 7.7s in the first and second rounds against Russ Olmstead and Swede Metin Basberger, the number six qualifier: the eventual winner was mired in the 7.8s, at best, until the final. After the 7.85 first-round win. over Johnese, Schultz hit just a 7.81 in the . quarter-finals against former E.T. bracket rider John Smith, who rose to fifth in the final 1992 NHRA Winston standings with his second-round finish, higher than any rookie has ever been ranked. In the semi finals, when he could afford to be, Schultz was even slower. Right off the starting line, the chain adjuster on Schultz's Suzuki broke, holding him to an elapsed time of nearly 20 seconds. He staggered across the finish line at just 26 mph, but in a stroke of luck, won the race by default before he ever let the clutch out. Schultz's opponent, Ron Ayers, lurched off the starting line as he brought the engine rpm up to the rev limiter while awaiting the green. As soon as his front tue crept out of the staging beam, the red-light on Ayers' side of the Christmas tree shone. brightly, signaling his automatic disqualification for a foul-start infraction. By the time Schultz, wife Meredith, and crew readied for the final, his number one qualifying time and eventbest speed were long forgotten; Myers was the obvious favorite to win. With lane choice and quicker times (7.82, 7.79, and 7.80) than Schultz in all three rounds leading up to the"final, Myers would have rated the edge even if he hadn't won everytime he ever left the starting line at Pomona Raceway. But after three consectuive victories .and 15 straight round wins at the Winston Finals, Myers found out what it felt like to lose there. Myers' 16th career leave was five-thousandths of a second premature, resulting in his instant disqualification and Schultz's first victory at Pomona in half a decade. tN Results FINAL NHRA WINSTON SERIES PRO STOCK POINTS STANDINGS: I. John'Myers (9906); 2. David Schultz (8126); 3. Byron Hines (6486); 4. John Mafaro (5996); 5. John Smith (4746); 6. James Bernard (4712); 7. Kerry Larkin (4352); 8. Ron Ayers (4152); 9. Norman DeVine (4122); 10. Lance Boyer (3498). .

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