NHRA Harley-Davidsons
Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines rode a Harley-Davidson V-Rod to the final round of Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations at the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
Hines lost in the final to Racers Edge Suzuki rider Michael Phillips. Eddie Krawiec won two rounds on a Screamin’ Eagle V-Rod making it to the semi-finals in Sunday eliminations.
Hines qualified fifth for the event with an elapsed time (ET) of 6.919 seconds. Krawiec put his Harley-Davidson V-Rod in the seventh qualifying position with a 6.928-second run. Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana was a top qualifier with a 6.876-second run, which set a new track ET record for the class.
Hines also locked in his berth for the six-race 2010 Full Throttle NHRA Countdown to1 playoffs. Only the top 10 points earners in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class will take part in the playoffs, which begin Sept. 1-6 at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil in Indianapolis.
Krawiec moved through the first two rounds of Sunday eliminations with wins over Conyer’s Auto Body Buell rider Larry Cook and Steve Johnson on the Lincoln Tech Suzuki. Krawiec lost to Phillips in round three, as Phillips set a new Pro Stock Motorcycle national top-speed record at 197.65 mph, breaking the 197.45 mark set by Hines in 2005 at Gainesville.
Eddie Krawiec says: “This was a good weekend for the Screamin’ Eagle team. I feel like we got back on track. We didn’t have the quickest bikes today, but we did our jobs as riders, and our crew chief, Matt Hines, gave us good, consistent bikes. I think you’ll win more rounds with a consistent bike than with the fastest bike.”
Hines defeated Rum Bum Buell rider Shawn Gann in round one, got a hole-shot win over VRoom Racing Buell rider David Hope in round two, and topped Arana, who faltered at the starting line, in round three.
The final-round race was a back-and-forth contest, with Hines getting a 0.005-second advantage off the line. Phillips took the lead at the 60-foot mark, only to be over-taken by Hines, who stayed out front until beyond the half-way point before Phillips passed again. Hines finished with an ET of 6.909 seconds to 6.886 seconds for Phillips, who had a margin of victory of 0.0188 seconds.
Andrew Hines says: “I won that second round on a hole shot over Hope, and we learned something and went back to the tune-up Eddie was using. We picked up two miles per hour in round three and I was able to bump off Hector. We still have two races left to fine-tune before the Countdown starts, and then I hope we can do some damage in the last five races of the season.”
Following nine rounds of the 17-race 2010 NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Arana leads in points with 804, followed by Al-Anabi Racing Buell rider Smith with 663 and Hines with 661 points. Phillips is fourth with 658 points, followed by Johnson with 564 points and Krawiec is in sixth place with 526 points.
The next Pro Stock Motorcycle event on the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule is the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals, July 23-25, at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.
