DRAG RACING FINALS AT POMONA : Schultz Comes to Bat, Trying for a Triple

David Schultz is the only motorcycle drag racer who has scored a double-double. Now he wants to become the first to score a triple.

In pro bike parlance, a “double” is winning both the National Hot Rod Assn. and the International Drag Bike Assn. championships in the same year. A “double double” means doing it two years in a row. Schultz did it in 1987 and 1988.

A “triple” is winning the NHRA, IDBA and the Prostar series titles in the same year. Schultz has already clinched two of them and will add his third NHRA title if he can win his first two rounds Sunday in the 27th annual Winston Finals at the Pomona Fairplex--even if defending champion John Myers sweeps the card.

“We had some big problems last year, but this year we had our act together when the season began,” Schultz said during qualifying Friday. “We won our first five Winston events and have won 15 of 21 events in the three sanctioning bodies.”

He also set an NHRA national record of 176.78 m.p.h. in the Chief Nationals two weeks ago, and Friday set a Fairplex track record of 173.77.

Schultz, 42, was a Sunday school teacher for 20 years in Ft. Myers, Fla., and still conducts services for competitors before the races. He also was the first pro drag racer to land a corporate sponsor that was not a motorcycle entity.

“When I first became associated with my sponsor in 1987, it was a big step for pro stock bikes because it gave us the same type recognition that teams got in other motor sports,” Schultz said.

Schultz did not take up professional racing until 1985, when he already was married and had a family.

“I was a car enthusiast when I was young, but after I got married I took up motocross and won a regional championship,” he said. “One day I realized I was older than most of the riders and if I got hurt, my business and my family would suffer, so I did the adult thing and quit.

“Next, I built a super-stock Mustang and had it running perfectly when I decided it was silly to work on cars all day long at my job (in an auto repair shop) and have cars for a hobby, too. So I quit again.

“This one lasted about a year before a friend talked me into riding a little sportsman drag bike. It sounded harmless, so I rode, got to the semis and won $25. And I was hooked. That was 1976.”

After four years, he was voted sportsman rider of the year and decided to try pro stock seriously in 1985. He won his first of four consecutive IDBA titles in his second year and followed that with his double double.

“The secret, next to a hot engine, is keeping yourself hidden behind the windshield,” he said. “We peek around it, making ourselves as obscure as possible. The crew watches from behind, and if they see too much of our arms, or helmet, or back, they let us know. We try to flatten ourselves out on the bike.”

His wife, Meredith, is crew chief on his $65,000 Kawasaki Ninja racing bike.

Schultz won the first five Winston races this season, lost the next three before winning at the Chief Nationals when Myers fouled at the start.

“We dodged the bullet in the finals since (Myers) had dominated qualifying,” Schultz said.

Myers, on a Suzuki GSXR, set a national elapsed-time record of 7.610 seconds.

Going into Sunday’s eliminations, Schultz has a 664-point lead over Myers.

Funny car driver Jim White ran 291.82 m.p.h. Friday in his ’91 Dodge Daytona, the fastest funny car run in NHRA history. The Tulsa, Okla., driver became the first to exceed 290 when he ran 290.13 two weeks ago at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Tex.

Don Prudhomme, who first won at Pomona in the 1965 Winternationals with a speed of 201.34 m.p.h., set a top-fuel track record of 291.45 m.p.h. while running side-by-side with his old rival, Tom McEwen. McEwen ran 289.38, second fastest for the day.

“It was the first time all year we’ve paired up together,” Prudhomme said. “It brought back a lot of memories. He ran so good I didn’t know I’d won at the end. It was that close.”

Scott Geoffrion of Huntington Beach, looking for his first NHRA victory, set a pro stock track record of 191.73 m.p.h. and an event record of 7.233 seconds in his Olds Cutlass.

Qualifying will continue today. Also scheduled is the Budweiser Top Fuel Classic, matching the eight leading drivers in a $50,000 event.