Cycle News

..... < ...... ...... l-o o 0. ~ Consistency was "Pizza" John Mafaro's trademark all weekend. He won with a 8.456/155.87, (Above) Terry Vance ran strongly until he met and lost to Randy Mason in their semi, 8.501 /158.73 to Mason's 8.398/158.95. (Below) Mason bogged his engine off the line in the final to lose to Mafaro . sure what to expect. Larry Coo k of Cook's Accelerated Cycl e ofMa ri etta , Geo rgia, sen t me a head he had about a hundred hours in port ing on and it got broken. • had put it o n the bench and got great numbers from it and felt it would work beaut ifullv, so I called him and told him 10 do another one as quickly as possibl e. He did it, we bolted it on, and now we're number tw o qual ifier. " Number three qualifier wa s Bob Carpenter o n hi s whi te. gold and green Suzu ki with an 8.593/ 153.3i. T hen Mafaro grabbed th e fourth spot with an 8.64i and to p speed o fj he meet , a 159.iO. NHRA National Championship Drag Race Series: Round 1 Mafaro quickest inGatornationals By George Hoffman GAINESVILLE. FL, MAR. 16-l i -18 ... A record setting Monday crowd looked on as "Pizza" John Mafaro and his Vance&Hines/ LAW/High Performance/Web-Cam Suzuki beat out "Racin" Randy Mason's Kawasaki fo r th e top spot over one of th e fas test Pro Stock fields ever. The rain stretched three-day Catomationals saw three rid'- ers drop into th e 8,30s a total of five times,Mafaro's co nsistency and touch for th e track was th e key to h is suc- cess. Where some rider s times were up and down, Mafaro stayed in th e hi gh 8.40 and low 8.50s bracket a ll th e way from qualifying to th e final. Saturday broke grey and threat en- item on the list of th ings to talk abo ut were Dave Schultz's rumored 8.34 and 8.35 passes mad e at De'So to Speed- wa y in Bradenton, Florida, o n M on- day and Tuesday. He is running o ne ~ of Vance & Hines' Kawasaki mo to rs. When firs t ro und qual ifyin g fin a lly 30 ing for quali fying.There wa sn 't a lot to do in th e morning so everyone ta lked and looked over o ne another 's eq u ipment. T hese in cluded Vance & Hines' new GS 1150E-based Suzu ki as we l l a s Bob Ca r penter ' s n ew GS IIOOES-b ased Pro Stocker . bot h part of th eir support co nt racts they had.....signed .wiih, Suzuki Ano ther__ . ro lled around everyone was exci ted to see wha t Terr y Vance would turn on th e new bi ke. As usual , he let no o ne down, hi s fir st pass down th e track ga rn ered him an 8.384 seconds a t 156.52 miles per hour. T his pass set th e to ne, If yo u ra n slow it was yo u or yo ur eq uipmen t not dampness or poor traction.T he number two q ua l. ifi er was Randv Mason with 8.5 i5/ 154.49. After th e pass, Rand y ex- pl ained , "I have a new chass is, motor and head combination a nd we didn 't finish putting i t all together unt i l I;OQa.tn , Fr iday morning.W~ weJ~'! '! _ As Dave Schultz ca me to th e line to say a ll eyes were on him would be an underst at em ent. T hat was when h is bike sta rted to break up. Dave hung in th ere 10 a t least mak e a pass and when the lights came down. no th ing happen ed , the bike sta lled. As Dave sta ted lat er , "Something happened to the batter y, when I left the tra iler it had 12.i volts, when. got it back it was down to i volts." An easy problem for h im 10 rectify. The next problem proved tougher. Asqua lifying wound up it began to ra in. T he n the word came down th ere would no t be time to ru n another round of qua lifying, so th e field wo ul d run as q ua li fied on th e basis of the fir st pass. This meant Dave Sch u ltz wo ul d not make the field. Everyo ne stayed around a ll aftern oon in case th e NH RA co uld sq ueeze th em in somewhere fo r a second pass but, as th e rain co n- tinued it looked bad. T hen as th ings looked worse, th e wo rd came th ere wo uld be one qua lifying pass made: Sunday morning, weather permit- ting. Dave co uld fin all y take a breath. Sunday morn in g looked worse than Sa turday. T he morning turned 10 noon, As fa r as anyone kn ew, th e qua lifying pass was off. Some sp iri ts sun k, Finall y th e word came th ere would be a qualifyin g pass and th en th e eliminations would be held as th ey co uld. Dave Schultz j umped out 10 mak e hi s pas s. He li tera lly bla sted down th e tra ck a t 8.3ii/ 158.00 to become th e new number o ne qual i- fier. Vance took h is crack but a mis- a lig ned wheel ie ba r ca used him to rea lly coo k hi s rear tire but he still turned an 8.'10. "Supe rbike" Mike Kevre climbed on th e bandwagon and bl is tered an 8.48 / 154.75 10 rab . . - -... . -- ' the number three qual ifier. T hi s pass meant th e to p si x qualifiers were all running under 8.60. Then the ra in ca me and th e temperature began droppin g. T he race was going to be run a t night but th e temperature was going to fa ll to th e hi gh 30s so NHRA said, "We' ll run Monday." When the track opened Monday it wa s 42 degrees and not a cloud in th e sky. Fi rst up on th e line would be number o ne q ualifier Dave Sch u ltz to go against Ba rry Kogut's Kawasaki . from Regency Kawasa ki of j ackson- vi ll e, Flo rida. Ba rry came o ut first and hard, th e ti re broke loose and off went Dav e. Even th ough Sch ultz did the o ne-q uar rer the long way by wav- ering side to side, he burned an 8.398/ 158.06 to Kogut's 8.548/ 156.i3. Nex t up wa s Mafa ro aga inst Steve Miles of M&M Cycle. Miles was rid- in g th e Kawa saki Terry Vance set th e Pro Stock record o n (8.31/161).M&M had p ur chased it la te la st yea r to run in Pro Comp but a t the urgin gs of Vance, wil l run it in th ese Nl-IRA Pro Stock races. Mi les had trash ed a trans- mission o n Sunday and was able to change th e mo tor in 24 min utes so now he was ac tua lly running the reco rd -ho ld ing mo tor. Miles had turned an 8.90 and a n 8.iO th e days p revi o us, wi th a broken tra llSmi ssi~n and was wa nting to show wha t he co u ld do. 0 he jumped out and staged quickl y. Mafaro took his time staging hop ing 10 break a us ua lly q ui ck Miles' co nren tra rio n. Tt worked, whe n th e lig hts carne down Ma fa ro wa s o u t fir st to an 8.4 i3 / 154.i9 to Nliles' 8.65i / 154.3i .Malaro's react io n time was ,56 to Miles' .613. Charlie Gressman was o ut next o n h is Butch Spencer-owned Vance & Hines Suzu ki to tak e o n j o hn Sachs jr. Sachs red lighted while Charlie turn ed h is fa stest pass of th e wee kend - 8,603/ 150.85. Keyte got a big holeshot o n Mosca in the fo urt h pa ir ing th at was nea rl y one-tenth of a second. Keyte's Suzuki strolled to an 8.602/ 155.22 10Mosca 's 8.6iO/ 150.i5. j oe Fol gore's Suzuki let him down next and Vance mad e a clean pass at 8.322/ 159.63, Bob Carpent er had been having problems with hi s new rear wheel and tire foldi ng and unloading a ll weekend. He kn ew he was going to have to leav e ha rd aga in st Russ Nyberg'sC&W Cycle Kawasak i which is always ca pable of a great pa ss de- sp i te Russ' qualifyin g l -Ith. which would compo und a ll hi s problems. When th e lights came down Carpen- ter 's react ion t ime was a .485 to Nyberg's .531. Bob's good reaction

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